Posted on 10/02/2004 2:30:18 AM PDT by endthematrix
A panel of U.S. public health experts says the country's epidemic of childhood obesity threatens to set back the medical advances that have decreased child mortality and extended life spans in the past century. The panel recommends that every sector of the nation work to reverse the rapid rise in youth obesity as ambitiously as anti-smoking efforts. The expert recommendations come in response to a request from Congress, which is seeking ways to reverse the overweight epidemic lest it become an unrelenting health burden to the country. Since the 1970s, the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled among U.S. pre-school children and teenagers and more than tripled for youth aged six to 11.
"These trends mirror a profound increase in obesity among adult Americans as well as a concurrent rise internationally in both developed and developing countries," said Jeffrey Koplan.
Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, vice president for health affairs at Emory University in Atlanta, is chairman of the expert panel appointed to study the problem by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Summarizing the panel's new report, Dr. Koplan says reversing the obesity epidemic will require a multifaceted approach by schools, families, communities, the food and entertainment industries, and governments at all levels.
"This report is calling for fundamental changes in our society," he said. "This is a collective responsibility and we as a nation need to move toward a healthier environment in which our children and youth can grow up."
The panel calls on schools to improve the nutrition of the food they serve and require at least 30 minutes of student physical activity a day. The report says parents should encourage physical activity by reducing their children's' television and computer time, and communities should provide more recreational facilities.
It says the food and entertainment industries, which spend more than $10 billion a year marketing high calorie foods to children, should adopt voluntary advertising guidelines limiting this exposure. It asks Congress to give the government authority to require compliance with such marketing guidelines.
The experts estimate the current annual U.S. health care costs of adult obesity are between $100 and $130 billion because of the heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases to which it contributes. One panel member, Dr. Thomas Robinson of the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, says these costs could soar if today's obese children become fat adults.
"Many of us are extremely scared about what is going to happen in the future to children's health because of this," said Thomas Robinson. "We're looking at the adult chronic diseases start to enter into the teen years and into childhood. As pediatricians and family health care physicians and other child health care providers, we're really not, in many ways, equipped to try and address this morbidity in the population as a whole."
The panel chairman, Dr. Koplan, says the cost of implementing its recommendations would be small compared to the immensity of the health costs if they are not put into effect.
High calorie ping.
Stay tuned for the Obesity Police -- coming SOON to a school near YOU!
What else do you expect when you force kids into a building for 7 hours out of the day?
What's sad is that in a lot of places it's not safe to let them out by themselves to play...
I remeber when I was a kid, I'd get on my bike and dissapear for most of the day.... going to the library, going to the museum, hanging out with friends...
When we were younger, and visited my grandmother who lived in the country, we'd go play "army " in the woods, or go wading in the creek.
Heck, I even used to get on the bus on Woodward and go downtown to Detroit. I'd roam Greektown and Eastern Market and occasionally cross the border into Canada for lunch or shopping with a friend.
I was 14 when I started that.
I'd have heart failure if my daughter did that these days.
The world's never been safe, but these days, too many kids just sit in front of the tube, and eat junk, because there are few good places for them to go.
Is it really more dangerous now than it was then? I'm only 20 I grew up in suburbia, so I'm not really experienced with city life.
If so, what changed?
Life got real cheap, real fast. And everybody's mom decided they had to have a "career" and people stopped keeping tabs on the kids, and we all went PC.
I'm 44.
I grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood two blocks off of Woodward Avenue, about 10 miles off of the Detroit River. ( Lots of families where the dad worked for Stroh's, or Vernors, or one of the big Three, or your dad was a cop) It was a tight place to live, and everybody sort of looked after the kids. If you clobbered yourself on your roller-skates, you could go to the lady on the corner and get band-aid.
If you mis-behaved, you could bet by the time you got home for supper, somebody on the block saw and called your mom.
Sure, things happened, but nothing like today.
uhhh, throw away the gameboy.
No devout OR contemplations allowed in US govt. schools.
Try substituting diet sodas for cokes sweetened with corn syrup--buy the juice with less sugar. And, weirdly enough, try potato chips instead of candy.
The only problem with the government regulating what we eat is that they came up with the infamous "Food Pyramid", recommending 8-11 servings of grain products a few years ago. While this made all the vegetarians and big grain companies happy, it should have been noted that this is about the same diet used to fatten cattle. Needless to say, the USA is now the fattest nation on the planet. Way to go, Dept. of Agriculture!
I have an idea. How about the parents unplugging the TV and the Playstation, and chucking their chubby butts outside to play like kids are supposed to?
They could always modernize it to the Food Superdome. Or maybe go with corporate sponsership - the Hormel Superdome of Food.
I have a solution.
Put the butterballs on a strict diet, make them run laps during P.E. and finally, put them to work on the weekend doing real work...
Case closed
and give em chores...
In other words, bureaucrats engaged in yet more social engineering.
The panel recommends that every sector of the nation work to reverse the rapid rise in youth obesity as ambitiously as anti-smoking efforts.
"every sector of the nation" = we're going to pry into every aspect of your life, no matter how big or small.
The expert recommendations come in response to a request from Congress
Congress has constitutionally delegated powers to regulate people's weight?
which is seeking ways to reverse the overweight epidemic lest it become an unrelenting health burden to the country.
Ah, now I see. Because medicine has been socialized (no constitutional enumeration of that power either), they're using that as justification to pry into everyone's life, so the taxpayers liability for unhealthy behavior is lessened. Try to think of any human activity that entails no risk. There are none, and because of this, no human activity will go unregulated, even what you eat. THAT is the true cost of socialized healthcare!
Dr. Koplan says reversing the obesity epidemic will require a multifaceted approach by schools, families, communities, the food and entertainment industries, and governments at all levels.
Why do I have a sneaky suspicion this will involve massive intrusions into what very little remains of personal liberty in this country?
"This report is calling for fundamental changes in our society,"
This report is calling for fundamental changes in your life, whether you're fat or not. Because we're you're momma dammit, and we know what's best for you. Now put down that pizza and drop and give me 20, slave. (edited for accuracy)
"This is a collective responsibility"
The hell it is.
we as a nation need to move toward a healthier environment in which our children and youth can grow up."
OUR children and youth????? Maybe Dr. Koplan thinks he gave birth to my child?
The report says parents should encourage physical activity by reducing their children's' television and computer time
Yes, that's a good idea. No, it's none of your damned business what parents do with their children. Does this guy think we're farm animals, and he's the farmer managing a herd?
It asks Congress to give the government authority to require compliance with such marketing guidelines.
Yet more unconstitutional power grabs.
The experts estimate the current annual U.S. health care costs of adult obesity are between $100 and $130 billion because of the heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases to which it contributes.
When they pay for your car accident injuries, they'll make you wear a seatbelt and helmet, and set up road blocks to ensure compliance.
When they pay for your heart disease and diabetes, they'll tell become the food police.
Anyone know what independence has to do with freedom? Because only independent people are free. When other people pay your bills, other people get to tell you how to live.
It's called the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rule. And therein lies the most insidious aspect of socialism: Every detail of your life becomes regulated by your 'comrades'.
New recruits to the Armed Forces are to be told how to eat healthily after nutrition experts claimed Britain was sending to war men and women who were not able to care for themselves properly.
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