Obesity With Kids

im surprised that the weight of the US has not knocked the earth off its axis

Fat fat fat fat...this is a country of excess and gluttony. We have more food than we know what to do with and we don't want it to go to waste, so we pack it in and shovel it down by the truck load. Or wait, maybe we're just lazy and don't want to bother with actually cooking. Or we're just too busy and the only thing we have time for is a McDonalds value meal.

It's sad because I just hit my cut off for weight and I refuse to get any heavier. Just refuse. I don't understand how people can just let themselves go that way and not care! Yes, junk food tastes good. Yes, it's fast and easy. But seriously, would you rather save 15 minutes at home a few times a week or save 10 years of your life?

People need to quit being stupid and take responsibility. "I didn't know" doesn't work anymore.

I completely agree! Our country is LAZY -- people need to understand the harms of eating the foods that they are eating and the harms of not exercise. This applies to both heavy and skinny people -- it can take years off your life. Have yall watched the show at all? I think if more people watched this then maybe it would wake them up a bit...

I didnt see the show at all?

what is it?

Laziness and lack of effort counts as the major reason people are fat but I do believe that if portion-sizes, advertising and the government toting and pushing of so-called low-cal, diet and fake ingredients in todays foods had not taken over the marketplace then perhaps people would eat real food and less of it. All that low-cal, diet stuff is worse for you than full fat milk and foods that are rich and high in calories. It's portion-control that got out of control and so the government and food gurus came up with these fantastic products that were supposed to be healthier. They are not. They are just less tasty. So all this diet muck makes people long for rich tastes and they buy the crap food from MacDonalds and the like. If we could eat real pasta with real rich meat sauce, with nothing taken out, then wouldn't it make sense that the tastebuds would be satisfied, the richness of the food would be more filling and so the portions could be smaller? And then we could stop using our cars for getting to absolutely everywhere and actually walk to the local store and back and get a bit more exercise.

Yep it's our own fault for our obese society but the environment and marketplace sure aren't helping to change.

I reckon that food suppliers take all that fake healthy stuff off the shelves, that more specialised food-stores come into play - real butchers, real farmers selling real vegetables, home-made pastas, or how about having Home Economics classes in every school with real nutrition being taught? Oh and maybe we could slow-down a bit and life get a bit less stressful so we have time to browse a farmers market, pick up some nice fresh food, stroll home from the store, and have time to chop, saute, broil in the kitchen of an evening!

Makes me want to change things for myself. I think I'll go abrowsing in my local food-mart on the way home and throw out those frozen what-nots in the freezer! Time for a real home-cooked meal tonight, and I'm going to WALK the mile from the store home!

Wow, that's cool Heeven! Hope you have a fantastical meal:)

What's funny to me is that, although foods like McD's taste good in their own way,....real food truly does taste better.

So many kids nowadays are missing out. Not just bc they are becoming obese with the foods they are fed/eat.
That's bad enough.

But also; on the pleasures of good food. Sitting down to meals with the family. Learning to love and appreciate food as food for the body and soul. Seeing how you can grow a carrot, care about it, and then you gets to eat it!

Actually, it has.....I've been meaning to tell you about that.

Heeven speaks for me again, though I'll add that that she speaks for me more about products said to be healthy that just aren't. However, thyroid metabolism and other chemical pathways make eating more of this and that and metabolizing this and that problematic for many. Riding in cars for much of our time is another problem.

On so called health foods, it's a little odd, and I'll partly blame the press for this.. I knew transfats were not good for you, oh, let me guess, twenty or more years ago. A lot of folks are just hearing about it now.

Then there is the power of fear. Kids don't just run around and play in the neighborhood like we used to (back in 1902) because of fear of predators and some portion of moms not being home. Don't take that as meaning I want moms to not work ever - that's another bag of beans.

The society in which we live, two working parents, fast paced life lends itself to trip through McDonalds more often than we should. When I was growing up McDonalds was a treat, something we enjoyed once a month. My mother prepared food at home, we had dinner the same time every night and the after dinner we were outside, as a family playing softball. Our weekends were spent playing with the neighborhood kids or involved in group activities. Back then there were no video games and only 4 channels on the television.
Overweight kids probably have overweight parents. It's the fat dog fat owner syndrome. Video games and cable TV make handy baby sitters, chips, dips and cookies will quiet the kids. I don't think parent send their children outside the play anymore.

Two years ago a friend was ill and her two sons came to stay with me on our lttle farm for the summer. We have almost no TV, no computer games and I don't keep snack food around. The first few days the kids went through withdrawl literally begging for us to get cable and buy chips. I refused. By the second week they were helping out, eating what they were given and running around the woods building forts and stalking the local wildlife. By the end of the summer they had both lost 20 lbs and were normal weight for their ages and sizes. We started refering to our place as Green Witch's Fat Camp for Kids. Sorry to say, as soon as they got back to their suburban home out came the computer games, TV and chips - and thus the weight returned. This year my friend is going to send them to a real weight loss camp for kids and spend thousands of dollars to fix a problem that could be fixed at home with better choices.

Dramaqueen has a good point...I didn't sit around all evening watching tv either as a kid. I was out running, riding my bike, playing...McDonalds was a treat for us as well and we ate as a family EVERY night.

It's not just a problem in the US. Obesity in children (& adults!) has become a major health problem here in Oz, too. I don't know how effective this will be, but in my state (Victoria) soft drinks will be banned by the government in all public school canteens (tuck shops) from next year. And I understand there will be new regulations aimed at countering fast food advertising aimed specifically at children.

Not only did they get healthy but they fed their brains as well. It's sad that today's kids are allowed to lack the imagination that we all thrived on.

Like Bella, McDonalds was a special treat when I was a kid. We maybe had it, oh, 4 or 5 times a year. The McDonalds was what seemed back then quite a distance from us, maybe a half an hour. It wasn't someplace you "went" to on purpose, if my parents had other business in that area, and we were with them, we might stop and pick up bags of burgers. We were allowed to eat one in the car to tide us over, then had the rest at home.

This was before they had all these Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, kids meals, and I don't even know what else. There were also no drive throughs. You had to actually (gasp) Get Out of the Car and Walk into the place.
Let's see, this was in the mid to late 60's....the menu (at least what we got) was.....hamburgers, cheeseburgers, small packets of fries (only one size), soda, and the 3 flavors of shakes, again, I think one size, on the smallish side. I don't think they had anything else.

This kinda comes from something msolga said on another thread, but getting mcdonalds was such a simple thing, but we all took such delight in it. It was just so exciting. It was like "Oh My God, we're gonna get MCDONALDS! What can I get......ooooo.....can I have 2 hamburgers and an extra cheeseburger to eat later on tonight? and....and...a STRAWBERRY shake? I can? COOL!!!!"

I remember not ever wanting to even get fries....I'd have a couple of someone elses sometime.
In all...having mcdonalds was a Grand Event.

Huh, just remembered....once when my parents were out, they came home and had BAGS OF MCDONALDS with them! They had stopped and JUST PICKED SOME UP!!!!! The excitement generated from that produced enough energy to light up the Empire State Building.

Then..dum dum...in the 1970's, they opened a mcdonalds maybe 10 minutes away....as far as I was concerned, it was all downhill from there.

I remember getting one of those Quarter Pounders and thinking...."this thing is huge!!!! If I eat this all I'll be stuffed! Plus, it tastes kinda funny"
Big Macs didn't impress either. Too much goop.

Honestly, except for the little mcdonald hamburgers, I don't think fast food tastes all that great. I hear people say that, and it just is too salty and greasy and expensive.

I think many people's taste buds are just numbed, clogged with the fast food, so it all tastes the same.

Somehow Coke and Pepsi have created a climate in which soft drinks and empty calories are staples rather than treats.

Somehow we've let them do this.

I agree, it is a shame that families do not sit around the table for dinner as much anymore. Growing up we were forced to which was great -- it was a time to eat good home cooked food and chat about our days. It was family time. We were also forced to eat our food and if we ate it all then we would be able to get a treat.



It comes on TLC on Mondays nights. Looks like tonight is going to be really good -- the kids can't stop sneaking candy! LOL

Check out the website..



Honey, We're Killing the Kids

That's because it's called $$$!

It's because so many ignorant parents eat this way themselves, so naturally, that's what they feed their children.

Some fast food places don't even offer milk with kids' meals.

>shaking head<