Inertia at the Top – washingtonpost.com
The problem at first was that the problem was ignored: For almost two decades, young people in the United States got fatter and fatter — ate more, sat more — and nobody seemed to notice. Not parents or schools, not medical groups or the government. The sense of this as a national health priority just doesn’t come through,” said Jeffrey P. Koplan of Emory University, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chairman of the Institute of Medicine’s 2004 study of childhood obesity. The top recommendation of that seminal report was for the government to convene a high-level, interdepartmental task force to guide a coordinated response. No such body has been assembled.
Contrast that with the offensive mounted in European countries: France mandated health warnings on televised food ads. Spanish officials reached agreement with industry leaders on tighter product labeling and marketing as well as reducing fat, salt and sugar in processed foods. Britain has gone the farthest, restricting food ads on TV programs catering predominantly to children and pulling sweets and sweetened drinks from schools. Eighty-five percent of all grades have at least two hours of physical education a week. The 2011 goal is five hours. The first signs of trouble appeared in the late 1970s as rates of overweight that had been relatively stable for years started to rise. In retrospect, they were reflecting societal, technological and policy shifts that would turn the youngest generation into the heaviest to date.
Blaming this on the government is just a cop-out. At the same time, government is not really interested in anything that discourages consumerism either. So what has changed in the last 30 years? Fast food was certainly around when I was a kid; we just didn’t have the disposable income to eat it everyday. And what is with 2 hours of physical education a week? We had phys ed every day and when we got home from school, we couldn’t wait to go outside and play. Do I sound like a Cranky Geek yet?
Hopefully they die soon and relieve us of the lifelong burden of providing them government handouts.
That large fry and large soda has to be at least 2,000 calories. I’m assuming that there was a side of cheeseburger with the meal. Really, does anyone drink all that soda without going into insulin-shock; or, collapsing into an afternoon “pre-Oprah” nap.
The parents should be charged with child abuse.
It is the governments fault =FDA allowed this crap msg in the food as well as allowed other bi products in it also.
Just like Aspartame = its called rumsfeld’s disease, look that up..and another thing: The public school system is nothing but a dog and pont showing these kids nothing but tollerance for foolishness. Get a grip folks.
#4. And you trusted the government…why?
You mean how saccharin was a deadly poison? Now people are talking shit about splenda, now that its becoming popular.
Every Generation has its own artificial sweetner boogie man. Don’t be a shill of the sugar industry.
I take responsibility for my children. They are grown now, and were never overweight or unfit. My three grandchildren are all fit as well because my kids learned proper nutrition while growing up and they are passing that education on to the next generation.
I just can’t understand how parents can let their children develop into tubs of disgusting lard. It sure isn’t the government’s fault.
maybe dump subsidies and you get a better mix of food?
#1 I was hoping they were going to stick around long enough to pay my pension while I can use it.
Stop blaming food. It is activity, plain and simple. I grew up on a diet that would make typical modern child a balloon (how about bread with lard [and quite a bit of it] and jar of Nutella as a typical breakfast…). Yet, I was skinny. This was partly society setup (ex. walking to the school, store,…) and partly parenting [NOT school, we have had same 2×45 min per week physical education as USA].
When it comes to the solutions, typical “progressive” answer is to RESTRICT (diet, driving, thinking,…). And that never works as it is unnatural. Only answer is to let kids eat and make them spend the caloric load, which will leave them in the end stronger and better.
I have this next door to me. At first I thought it was an island thing since the guy bragged about being from Tonga, but now I see it’s their life style. He’s on disability, drinks beer, eats junk food and smokes pot all day. Wife is huge and has a baby every 10 months it seems. All the kids are at least 50 to 60 pounds over weight. The icecream truck stops and blows the horn for them and the whole family partakes throwing the warppers in the street (I’m thinking Tonga is a dirty littered island). Add to the eating, all the adults chain smoke. Oh, there are seven adults and twelve children in the one house.
Mmmmm. Soylent Green.
How many barrels of oil are those kids packin?
#7 framitz, and #11 wyth.
Amen, and Amen!
#14 – Ah_Yea #7 framitz, and #11 wyth.
Amen, and Amen!
Agreed. And I agree with JimR (#3) on that this is child abuse.
# 1 Sea Lawyer
“Hopefully they die soon and relieve us of the lifelong burden of providing them government handouts.”
What make you think they will be getting government handouts?
#11, Wyth, on some level I agree with you. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but somehow that kid would look better with an apple in his mouth.
Please Please tell me that pic was photoshop’ed.
if not his parents need to be hit with a common sense 2×4…
I wouldn’t say it is the government’s FAULT, but I do think that the govt should stop participating in it to the limited extent they do. In other words, no more soda machines or junk food in the public schools.
you wanna turn your kid into a tub of lard, you should have to do so without the government’s help (or the govt making a profit off of it).
and I would agree that inactivity is a big part of the problem. we ate all kinds of junk when I was growing up. not fast food, but a BLT and a chocolate shake at home for lunch isn’t any better, calorie wise. but we spent our days basically running and biking around our neighborhood.
a lot of parents today are too paranoid to let their kids out of their sight, which encourages a lot of sitting around snacking, watching TV, and playing video games. all that is fine, so long as you mix in significant exercise as well.
Blame Carbohydrates. Sugars, Starches, etc are the true culprits of the obesity epidemic in modern times. Any carbohydrate, whether in the form of sucrose in a soda, flour in bread, or starch in a potato ends up as glucose in the body.
Excess Glucose leads to excess Insulin hormone production in order get the glucose levels under control. Insulin is the reason glucose can be stored as fat in adipose tissue. Insulin is also very damaging to the body.
Which leads us to……the carbohydrate addiction we have in the US. What do all fat people have in common? High fat intake? NOPE
High carbohydrate/sugar intake? ABSOLUTELY.
Too bad the State promotes the “food pyramid” which is a travesty of science.
Don’t blame the food, it’s the lack of exercise.
As for “carbohydrates are to blame” just look to China or any other county where most of the calories come from grains. They don’t have this kind of problem. It’s because they aren’t lazy slobs (at least not yet haha).
You can blaim McDonalds and fast food all you want but I see more obese people in line at the store with a food stamp card then at the burger joint. I am waiting for one of them to sue the govment for making them fat. It will happen.
My wife and I have been having a sophisticated debate about this over the breakfast table.
We have both arrived at the same conclusion:
“Mmmmmm…..quarter pounders”
Don’t blame the government. You can just as easy take your kids to a healthier place to eat, cook at home (if you know how) or actually plan and play activities. Also don’t forget some people are naturally bigger then others. BUt of course not like the kid who still has baby fat. Did he grow up with french fries in his mouth?
While I wouldn’t say this is the government’s fault, they aren’t helping matters any. Yes, it is they who supply most school districts with food. And yes, too much of this food is very high in fat and simple carbohydrates. And yes, that does contribute to an unhealthy diet.
Not to mention our school cut back on gym time in order to teach the kids how to pass the tests. And out school district does not encourage outside sports groups (little league, soccer, and others) to use their facilities. Our county has more kids playing soccer than any other sport yet refuse to allow it to be played on the school grounds. They do allow a select group to play football.
Organized sports are great, but there are too few places even to play unorganized sports. Our local park only allows ball games to be played on the ball fields. But you need a key and reservation to get into one. Bike riding can be fun. If you don’t care about the cars whizzing past at 60 mph on the back roads. A little faster on the highways.
Didn’t someone write a song about Paving over Paradise?
Of course this is the governments “fault.” If you stick to the governments program of fat unhealthy food and no physical exercise==you get fat.
The ability to avoid the governments program is slim to non-existent. Yes, you can bring your own food to school, but how do you engage in your own physical activities beyond solitary push-ups? How do you bicycle to school if their are no safe bike lanes? And so on.
The government has a responsibility to facilitate a healthy/informed populace. They do neither.
>>The ability to avoid the governments program
>>is slim to non-existent.
Is the government program the only program there is? I grew up on public school mac & cheese, hamburgers, fries, mystery meat, fried fish sticks, jello (non-dietetic), etc., had 2 gym classes a week, and was never the least bit overweight.
I guess when one’s out-of-school activities consist of playing Halo 2 online, GTA, and texting your bff’s, the government program assumes a greater role in raising children.
bobbo- “Yes, you can bring your own food to school, but how do you engage in your own physical activities beyond solitary push-ups? How do you bicycle to school if their are no safe bike lanes? And so on.”
Are you serious? OK, I’m gonna sound old but my brother and I had a weightlifting set in the basement at 14. We went outside and played soccer, touch football, and whiffle ball,(remember that) or baseball in the street or anywhere we could. The rest of the time we took turns beating the shit out of each other. There are plenty of ways to get exercise. Some more dangerous than others, (and yes riding bikes on busy roads was part of it). Break a few eggs for that omelet. This is why your kids are all pussies.
#29-#30==so you both are saying the Government policies have no effect? That would be most unusual. Most things have an effect for good or bad depending on the subject whether purposefully or not.
The government “should” be encouraging a healthy start in life. If they are not actively engaged in encouraging this, then they are “at fault” for not doing so.
Obviously as you have both already admitted, guilt is established.
>>Obviously as you have both already
>>admitted, guilt is established.
Holy fuck! You have GOT to lay off the 8-balls and the Mad Dog, Bobb. Your pretzel logic is starting to go into a dimension where we Earthlings have never been.
#31. FTG, you know what that means. Quit depending on these idiots to change anything, take responsibility for your kids. Its foolish to think the government has any good intentions. Dont we cover this stuff on the blog, hell, I thought we did!!!!