A Supersized World

T

toastythemosty

Cathlete
Heard on the news a few weeks ago about creating larger ambulances and stretchers to accommodate the rise in the morbidly obese population. Now I just heard last night about child seats being made in a larger size because children are getting heavier.

Why did "supersize" ever get started? Is there no end?
 
As long as the faceless corporate world can make a buck and mindless consumers keep throwing their money at them, there ain't no end to it. It really is sad and maddening at the same time.

My 16 y.o. DD works at a fast food restaurant and is doing a great job and acquiring some completely transferable skills that will put her in good stead for the future. I am very proud of the fact that despite pressure from her managers she refuses to 'up sell'.

Take Care
Laurie:)
 
I heard the piece about the child seats as well. They're saying that a huge percentage of 3 year olds are way too heavy for the maximum weight on most car seats currently made. I think that is sad.
 
Sad...it's dispicable. What is the matter with people anymore that they are transferring their poor eating habits onto their children? Course, I guess it's no different than the kids who are growing up in homes where the parents are drug addicts and the kids see them doing drugs all the time and have to live with the drug lifestyle; dirty living condition's, they get fed when mom and dad come down...which could be days, used needles and vials laying around.

The only difference is that for some reason it is 'easier' to get legal intervention for kids in drug homes, whereas there are no laws against feeding your kid a poor diet.

Well, there is a reason afterall...all the public school dietician's would have to be arrested for contributing to the obesity of the nation's children.

So, it's political.
 
>Well, there is a reason afterall...all the public school
>dietician's would have to be arrested for contributing to the
>obesity of the nation's children.
>
Just wanted to make a comment here, not ALL public schools have crappy food. The district where I work is awesome. The only pizza we have is on wheat crust w/part skim cheese, we only serve wheat bread (white is not an option), no hotdogs or chicken nuggets are served, no fries either. We serve FRESH veggies such as steamed broccoli; milk is reduced fat; no ice-cream; we've got salad bars, etc. Yhe school nurses try to educate parents when there is concern regarding a child's weight. One of the nurses told me that she was concerned about one of the children but the parent did not want to hear what she had to say. The parent was stopping at McDonald's every morning to buy the child breakfast AND the child was eating breakfast at school.

Sorry if I went off topic here. ;)

I too saw on the news this morning about the need for bigger carseats. So sad.
 
I hear ya! I can't believe the horrible foods that are being offered in the the school cafeteria! My teenagers have commented on how they can't believe the high school has taken out the soda machine but left the fatty, greasy hamburger and nitrate loaded lunch meats on the menu. The other choices are fried chicken patty, pizza, chips..oh boy! One of my kids always buys the baked potato, because she doesn't like the greasy stuff. I wish we could get a reform of the school lunches going. This is another critical area where kids are also learning about eating habits! JMO....

Thomasina
 
Not to be argumentative, but blaming other people like public school dieticians is part of the problem. If we don't like what's being served in our cafeterias, we should be sending lunches in with the kids, no matter how inconvenient that may be. It's the law of supply and demand; as long as we keep buying it, they'll keep selling it. Also, complain to the school board. Most of them are elected officials and so they have a tendency to listen for issues which make great commercials. ;-)

My kids are pretty good about turning down whatever's in the lunch line and buying off the ala carte menu, which tends to have more healthy fare like salads.

I agree the trend towards obesity is really sad.

Marie
 
I believe it comes down to personal responsibility. The world is not like it used to be in that very little movement is required to do anything any more. A child cannot safely have the run of the neighborhood all day long. We have to seek out methods of getting exercise and schedule it in to our day.

The principle of calories in versus calories out is not difficult to grasp and is taught in schools my children have attended.

I don't have a weight problem and it's not because I have been lucky enough to escape the grasp of big bad corporations. It's because I burn off the same amount of calories that I eat!
 
>Well, there is a reason afterall...all the public school
>dietician's would have to be arrested for contributing to the
>obesity of the nation's children.


I wouldn't be so quick to blame all dieticians.

My daughter is going to school to be a dietician and she works at an assisted living center. She aked the dietician there, why don't they feed the residents more fresh healthy food (almost everything is canned). The dietician said she wishes they could, but with the "very small" food budget, they cannot afford to have everything fresh. She tries her hardest to get as healthy of food as the budget allows. They wouldn't have enough food for everyone if she could buy what they really needed.

Also, schools get desperately needed money from the crappy food vendors and all the crappy food they offer. It terrible that the food industry is taking advantage of our kids and schools.
 
allowing your children to eat crap all of the time and feeding them into early obesity is a form a child abuse, plain and simple. it is sad and infuriating all at the same time to watch parents placating their children with food. i read an article in the last Oxygen written by Tosca Reno about her experience at an airport where she watched a large woman feed her children all kinds of crap to keep the kid quiet while waiting for the plane to load up. it was very insightful.
 
I have a different take on the public school situation...right or wrong.

Our kids happen to be in a school district that has plenty of money to spend so...you would think the school lunches would be of better nutritional quality because of the money that is available, right?

Wrong. Our school, like so many other's, is motivated by improving the athletic program first, technology in the classrooms second. Our schools pride themselves on the fact that they are known for having plentiful computer's and other technological apparatus (we have a working radio station that broadcasts from the high school, plus a studio set up for televison broadcasting). They hire college coaches to coach the high school sports teams...our coaches are not teacher's within the schools.

It is very political.

As parents we fought the school board to get a milk vending machine into the high school...right alongside of the FOUR pop machines. It took years to get this done, YEARS. And why...because our school owns those pop machines so all the profit goes to the school.

No, I fear the public school lunches will not improve until we get someone in higher government who gives a rats arse about what the nation's children are being fed...and changes the criteria/guidelines that the state dietician's have to work with.

It should have been incorporated into Bush's...'No Child Left Behind Act'.
 
And schools are cutting phy-ed classes too. It just doesn't make any sense!
I saw an article on the new "marketing to obese" in a magazine not too long ago. It's all about the money.
 
The food issue aside, I think it has more to do with how active (or rather, inactive) our children are. They don't play outside and run around the way we used to. This is the parent's fault, since most parents are perfectly happy feeding their kid cookies to keep him quiet, letting him play Xbox for hours, then popping a movie in, again, to keep him quiet. It's really quite terrible that we don't encourage our kids to move. The problem only snowballs as these young kids weight starts to climb, because then they feel self-conscious, so they find solace in food, so they get fatter, etc, etc. It's a vicious cycle, but one I think parents can prevent if they make it a priority.
~Renee
 
*knocks on thread door and shouts hellllooo*

can't get in. butt too wide :p






seriously though, toastmeister, I get what you're saying. For as many that are become fitter we have the same group plus more that are pushing the envelope on the health crisis in the country. Sad indeed.


"you miss 100% of the shots you never take"


Debbie
 
I wouldn't blame the need for bigger car seats on school lunches. The 3 and under crowd doesn't attend public school. It comes down to what parents are feeding their kids. It's really sad when a 1-year-old is overweight. They're not even eating solid food yet. What are the parents putting in those bottles? My kids eat school lunch every day and they're not fat. Of course it helps that they've established good habits at home and actually like vegetables. Another problem is that it's getting harder and harder for families to afford to live in safe neighborhoods. They can't let kids run around outside unsupervised anymore and don't have time to go out with them.

I've been noticing more and more when picking up my kids from school how many fourth and fifth graders are bigger than me and I'm 30 pounds overweight :eek:

http://www.GlitterMaker.com/created/42785490.gif

I solemnly swear that I am up to no good
 
Woah...didn't mean to insult anyone when I griped about MY kids' high school cafeteria. And believe me, most days my kids will take something from home because the food just isn't good at school. The only problem with taking a lunch though is that it sometimes gets smashed in the backpack containing the 400 pounds of books they have to carry around since lockers are not available at our high school. Also, on days our groceries run low at home, the kids usually end up taking some money to get a bite to eat. I wish our school had the lunch program Dana has posted she has. This sounds great! And I totally agree it is personal responsibility to choose the best foods, but I just felt that it would help to influence our young kids to acquire healthy eating habits if there was also an encouraging program in place at our school. Apologies again if I insulted someone with my post and I don't "blame" anyone for the fat epedemic in the US, because it's all about choices.

Thomasina
 
Well yeah, exactly Kristy. The fact that car seat makers are seeing a real NEED to cater to the increasingly fat kids in this country...should be a wake-up call to every parent in this country. I have four kids in school, elementary, middle school and high school and they all have obese kids in their grades.

And you mention how the fourth and fifth graders are big...in my sons high school you rarely see a thin girl anymore. And when you consider that alot of those girls are doing sports but yet they're still overweight...it has to be what they are eating (and not just at school but poor diets in general).

Kids today are growing up in this 'Super Size Me' world of fast food, parents who don't cook or care about proper nutrition enough to cook at home, and then the junk food they eat at school...including the pop in the pop machines.

McDonald's + pop + chips + pizza + PlayStation + umpteen videos + little exercise = overweight kids and health problems
 
I agree - it has alot to do with parents and guardians.....

I worked in a shelter for kids.....(from dysfunctional/unfit families for years)......I was probably one of the ONLY staff members who took the kids to the YMCA to play and get some physical activity. Most of the staff would rent a movie for them and make treats to keep them quiet......It was appalling!!! I watched as the kids gained weight through the course of the year from lack of activity and it was devestating for them!! It was brought up at team meetings but it never seemed to help......

I no longer work there. 80% of the kids that came to us had NO concept of healthy eating and NO concept of physical activity, but they LOVED going to the Y when we took them........goes to show that you can make a difference if you try, but ultimately - its up to the parents to enforce good social skills, eating habits, and physical activity.....

When I was young - I ran the neighborhood playing for hours and was NOT plugged into XBOX or TV - I am only 26 - goes to show how much culture has changed in the last 15 years..........where is this country headed?? I worry for the future of all children.......sad....
 
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