Newsweek Cover

I see ignorance as the biggest culprit here.  I can't count the number or times I have seen parents put down a plate of 'home-cooked' food (10oz meat, half a pkge of rice a roni, and salad dripping in ceasar dressing) in portions appropriate to a farm worker in front of a 5 or six year old.  Sometimes they are upset with the child for not finishing.  If they eat most of it they are rewarded with pecan pie or ice cream - or both!.  These parents pride themselves in that they provide 'home-cooked meals' and their children rarely have a big mac.  When they get home from school, Mom makes them each a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches (on 60% WW bread) and the kids down a couple of pudding cups or munch on chips while they wait for their after-school snack.  These poor kids are already severely overweight!  In BC - Canada, I have heard talk of la belling junk food as PATHOGENS - I'm all for it - anything to help these people wake up.  They are killing their kids.

I have a friend like this, their son is already very overweight at 9, they claim it's b/c he is a "picky eater" so they feed him ramen noodles and chicken nuggets every night, never a fruit or vegtable (ever) and they can't understand why he is heavy. 

The rule in our house is I choose what you eat, you choose how much. We don't subscribe to the "clean plate club" here.

Courtney that rule is so cool!  You are teaching such great things to your kids.  You are making it  so unlikely that they will ever need wls.  Happy mother's day!

I'm a southern girl and I'm going to throw the southern spin on this. Y'all can look at it from your culture because it doesn't matter culture youre from, this is applicable.

My parents are from a very small town in rural North Carolina. They grew up in a hard working community that celebrated with events that center around food. When someone gets married, FOOD. When someone dies, FOOD. When someone has a baby, FOOD. when someone graduates from college, FOOD. I could go on but you get the theme. You can't blame this epidemic on food because this use of food (at least in my family) as been going on for 200 years in the same community. What has changed is the type of food served and the type of work people do/did.

Time has changed the labor force and time has also changed the quality of the food that's consumed. It's vital that people know what's in the food they consume and how to "work" those calories off because let's face it, who works on the farm anymore?

My daughter is half Hawaiian, it doesn't matter if she's with her Pop in NC or her Kane in HI, food is still the center of the celebration and calories are still the biggest challenge. This a universal challenge for all people in all nations of change and affluence. The CDC needs to spend more time and effort on this pandemic.

You are right again Frisco!  My sister-in-law is kind of obsessive about diet.  She started the southbeach diet while breastfeeding and my nephew was so malnourished the pediatrician told her to stop breastfeeding.  He is 4 now and very small for his age.  My entire family has weight issues and are really hard on sil for watching the kid's food so carefully. I think her family is fat phobic to an extreme.   Now I have become the one in the middle trying to sort it all out.  It is so hard to find the healthy medium.  I know my food as a reward and the Friday night ritual of fruit flavored soda and tv watching was not the best way to grow up, but my niece who is eight recently aid that she is the only normal eater of the 4 kids on my sil's side of the family. At 8 I would have never thought of that.  

I'm looking forward to the HBO docs, I think they are called the weight of the nation. 

I think the medical community awareness is getting better.  We just need the public  to catch up.  Better food for kids is sadly becoming a political issue about keeping big government out of our lives instead of a health promotion issue.  So sad that people want to vilify Mrs Obama for promoting good nutrition and exercise for kids instead of thanking her.

Yikes, its so my story too. I grew up with two super busy professional parents so we had mcdonalds and other convenience foods often. and now two of the three of us kids are sleeved. younger brother started getting fat as a child but managed to get it under control as a pre teen.

It makes you think. Many of us spend time on this forum educating the newbies on the ins and outs of weight loss surgery. Maybe we should educate parents and kids on how to not end up having to have most of your stomach removed in order to avoid premature death.

Diane

"Two super busy professional parents"-ugh-this is so my own personal struggle! We eat out way too much because we have something going on almost every night of the week! I so miss my days of being a stay at home mom when my family was my full-time job. We all ate so much healthier.

This is my big struggle and it has got to change.

Part of the problem, IMO, is we've reset the gauge of what constitutes 'fat' in America.  We have become so accustomed to people being overweight or even obese, I don't think it registers. By the same token, those who are 'normal' now seem skinny. 

The following is a true tale of an un-filtered discussion with my nearly 80 year old mother who has been on a diet for 40 years.  I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but here goes.

My husband and I took my mother on a boat tour the outer islands of Cedar Key (gulf coast, florida) yesterday.  Our trip was delayed by too much wind, so we sat at a shady spot at the public beach not far from the marina.  We people watched for an hour or so, drank water, etc.,  before our boat ride.   

When we got home last night, my mom noted she was surprised there weren't any 'fat' people out there. I was suprised and said to her that most of the people on the beach would clearly be categorized as overweight or even obese, and frankly I was astonished at the amount of skin many of the women were willing to show..  Her response was, well, they're not 'people of walmart fat' (yikes, unfiltered 78 year old, what can I say). At which point I looked at her astonished.  I said, you mean super-morbidly obese like I was before surgery? She said, I guess so. I reminded her that it was at her urging, partially, I had 85% of my stomach removed because that kind of weight is such a severe health risk. That's not fat, it's being 2x normal size.

In my mom's eyes, you're not fat anymore unless you're SMO.  That's a heck of a change from the woman who got on me all through high school for being 130lbs.  Just sayin'
 

 
I have been fortunate to have seen many Countries first hand.......

The Classic American food portion on average is about twice.......

and the other big difference is the food.

In most other Countries.....they have good food that is fast.......

And through the years I have seen McDs, KFC, Burger King and several other American chains pop up in foreign Countries as well as copies of "Western American" fast food concepts. And slowly were spreading obesity across the world !!!!

You can't tell me this was not inspired by America !!!!!

frisco

   

 Good post Frisco. I had not seen this yet.

When my son was born 38 years ago I lived on a farm in West Virginia. Grew all of our food organically etc.  Breastfed Zach for 18 months. He learned to eat crawling through the garden.  He's 5'10 and probably has never weighed over 155-160.

I remember taking him to the local clinic when he was a baby.  I looked around the waiting room and all the other kids were drinking baby bottles filled with soda pop.  Those kids never stood a chance of surviving our fast food nation. They were  bred to be sugar junkies from the time they were little babies.  Talk about unhealthy looking kids.  It really was frightening.  Ultimately was enough to drive me to California.