GLENN COOK: The reason kids are getting fat

Las Vegas Review-Journal ^ | 04 july 10 | GLENN COOK

[tioga]

the Amish farmer eats whole foods and lots of it, which is ok because he works it all off in manual labor. the average American eats truckloads of useless calories with little if any nutritional value and sits on a couch all day. there is a happy medium somewhere.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Here’s another really good one;
“Women should be obscene and not heard.”
Groucho Marx

[9YearLurker]

We really don’t have many of those wisecracking Wilde-Fields-Marx-West types anymore, do we? As a people have we become less clever? Or, in a say—anything environment is there simply no premium for saying what can’t be said?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Hilarious skit! But,,, a grotesque exaggeration of my “growing up” post. I was born in ‘46, and growing up in the Fifties was so vastly different than growing up more recently, We even got exercise waiting for the school bus! Because five or six blocks worth of kids had to walk to the school bus stop. Today, it’s a curse getting caught behind a school bus, which stops at every few driveways!
Again, hilarious skit! Big Python fan here.

[momtothree]

I guess I am one of those “obsessive parents who fear the world” types. However, try going on the internet and searching how many registered sex offenders live in your neighborhood or near you. Ten years ago (prior to my oldest going to kindergarten) a van stopped by a first grader walking to school and attempted to get her into the vehicle. Other children and parents were spread out and he left only after an adult came running. No, they never caught the person but that incident coupled with the fact that about thirty sex offenders live within a five mile radius of us changed me forever. Am I “obsessive”? No, I am simply a Mom who doesn’t want one of her kids abducted, raped, tortured and found in a shallow grave. I will proudly wear the obsessive tag rather than the latter.

[Rutabega]

I let my two older kids (10 and 12) roam the neighborhood with their friends, too. They go around on bikes screaming and yelling like any other kids in the past sixty years, and they are super thin, though I admit they eat more junk than they ought. (They love veggies, too, though, and eat much more “real food” than junk, so that helps).

We lived in Sweden and I never saw fat kids. Not ever, and we lived in a city for most of the time. People ate candy by the bagful, as well as tons of bread and beer. I absoultely think it is the way we process our food and take out good stuff when we pasteurize things to mkae the shelf life impossibly long. (This is merely an idle thought of mine as I am a dairy addict and actually lost weight in Sweden eating tons of cheese, sour creme and yogurt.)

Having taught middle school here in NC, I was SHOCKED at the amount of overweight or otherwise INCREDIBLY adult figures of kids as young as 11. There was nothing like that even when I was in HS (and I graduated in 1991, so not all that long ago). I don’t think my graduating class had as many girls with curvy figures (quickly spreading into obesity post age 13) as some of the sixth and seventh grade classes I have taught.

This entire article just screams out we are making the world “so safe” for our kids that we are just putting them at incredible risks. (As to the moms and dads worried about pedophiles; I am with you—my kids are trained to scream at the top of their lungs when a strange car comes their way and stops and run or ride bikes quickly towards other people. Sure they look goofy sometimes, but it beats them getting yanked into a car. We live in an area with few registered sex offenders, so I feel a little safer than some of you others may feel.)

[A_perfect_lady]

When I was a kid we had 3 TV channels in black and white, no video games and parents who couldn't get us out of the house enough.

Same here. I was the near-sighted bookworm type, and my Grandma would often say "Go outside!! You haven't been outside in days!"

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

"That's a problem, because soybean oil depresses the thyroid--which lowers your energy levels, makes you feel less like exercising, and generally makes you fatter."

One of the most effective forms of mind control and population control is that people are unaware of. The Soy kind in the food supply. Make them tired and fat with low thyroid and they will have no energy to resist the social engineering and globalist tyranny. Fat, tired, with slowed down thinking processes. Who owns the food companies that put partially hydrogenated soybean oil in the food?

[A_perfect_lady]

I don’t remember snacking when I was a child, we ate three meals and it was rare if we were offered a cookie etc. If I was hungry after school for some reason... my mother would offer me an apple.

That's true for me too. If I was hungry, Grandma would offer me either an apple or some cherry tomatoes from the garden. If I said "I'm not hungry for an apple," she'd say "Then you're not hungry."

[A_perfect_lady]

That Monty Python skit was a treat! Thanks for linking!

[Sister_T]

Limit food stamps to staples only. Meat, bread, rice, beans, vegetables, fruit etc.

I agree with you and there definitely should be some limits on what KIND of meat, bread, rice and other staples one can purchase under this program. I think overly processed foods should be prohibited from purchase when on the food stamp program. No prepackaged meals from the freezer, no "Lunchables", "Fruit by the Foot", and no junk food of ANY KIND should be allowed.

If the acceptance of "government" money allows the government to dictate what is done in folks' lives, then why not here? Why is it that the government will dictate, for example, to a school to allow certain things against that school's principles, all because that school accepts "government" money but they won't do the same for those on food stamps?

But, let's face it. The choice for those on food stamps to purchase healthier foods has ALWAYS been there; they choose not to exercise that option. I think it's time that option becomes "no option" and gets limited to just the staples, as you stated.

[A_perfect_lady]

When I was that age, I was regularly riding my bike to supermarkets, drug stores, etc. that were as distant as two miles from my home. I also knew every alley in West Whittier, Calif.

Yep. By 12 I could ride my bike four miles to the store in the tiny town near our farm. I'd go buy comic books and candy bars, but I must have peddled them off the four miles back because I was pretty thin.

[A_perfect_lady]

We even got exercise waiting for the school bus! Because five or six blocks worth of kids had to walk to the school bus stop.

When I was in third grade the bus drivers went on strike, or something. The buslines were drastically reduced. For several weeks, we had to walk 2 miles to the highway for the bus to pick us up. In the afternoon, we'd be dropped off 2 miles from home. If it was raining or my mom was in a mood, she'd pick us up, but most of the time she'd say "Ah. It won't kill ya. Why, when *I* was a kid..."

[GoldwaterChick]

“Ah. It won’t kill ya. Why, when *I* was a kid...”

...I had to trudge up a hill six miles both ways!...

[ichabod1]

Yup. I can still remember the relayed cry of “CARRRRR! CAAAARRRR COOOMMMING!” and every one would move to the side of the road to let it pass, and then move back out into the street.

[Tax-chick]

I like to keep my little boys in sight of the house, because if the oldest one gets a crazy idea and I’m not nearby, we could all end up in jail. If they’re close to the house, one of the others will turn up saying, “Pat said we could yadda yadda yadda,” and I can stop them!

My girls (10 and 12) can go anywhere they can walk, as long as they’re together or with a brother, and they tell me where they’re going. The older boys (13 and 16) just have to let me know when they’ll be home.

I think part of the reason that middle-schoolers are bigger than we were in 6th grade (I graduated high school in 1984) is that they’re often older. It’s not unusual for me to meet 8th graders who are 15, while my son who just finished 8th grade is 13. (Quite tall and stout, though ... he’s the one who wants to sit inside, reading and snacking!)

[cripplecreek]

I used to go to the store and buy my parents cigarettes at 9 years old.

[dforest]

On trash day take a look at all the pizza boxes out there.

Add in the breadsticks, gooey cheese, and those icing covered thingys.

People do this on a regular basis.

If they don’t do this they are buying frozen prepared stuff and loads of bakery goods.

Things that used to be an occasional treat have become a steady diet.

[TASMANIANRED]

Kids got fat when mom’s started working.

Kid will always sit on their fannies and eat junk if they can get away with it.

[ETL]

>That Monty Python skit was a treat! Thanks for linking!

You’re welcome. Just about everything they’ve ever done is on YouTube, even their films “Holy Grail” and “The Life of Brian” are there in their entirety.

“Life of Brian” (in 9 parts, posted by “BrianofNazareth4u “).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzcD6jB2Pc&feature=related

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (11 parts, posted by “burpboy”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfoXlDVBq24&feature=related

BTW: if you have RealPlayer, even the free version, you can download YouTube to your computer. Just make sure you stick with the same poster (same series of clips) when downloading multiple-clips of a long video such as a movie or half-hour sitcom.