Posted on 07/17/2010 3:38:07 PM PDT by Pining_4_TX
So how can care providers determine when negligence or abuse is a cause of childhood obesity? The authors suggest that similar standards to other types of disease-related neglect be applied. That is, "parental failure to provide their children with adequate treatment for a chronic illness (asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, etc) is a well accepted reason for a child protection registration for neglect" and as such, failure to adhere to obesity treatment missing appointments, refusing to support children with treatment programs or actively undermining those programs should convey neglect, especially among children who are at high risk for obesity-related conditions such as type 2 diabetes, they argue. Yet, the authors stress, having adequate evidence of this negligence is key. "Clear objective evidence of this behaviour over a sustained period is required, and the treatment offered must have been adequate and evidence based."
(Excerpt) Read more at wellness.blogs.time.com ...
Bingo.
School breakfasts and school lunches = carbohydrate bombs, industrial oils, processed "meats", and other manufactured products. People are not only letting the schools fill their kids' heads with toxic waste, but their stomachs too. Both mind and body have been sacrificed to the beast system. Then the children come home to... wholesome, home-cooked meals? Not consistently or at all, if the parents work all day long, or if unemployment means subsistence on ramen. More processed food down the hatch. "Convenience foods" are convenient alright, in a Church Lady kind of way.
FYI:
BMI not a health measure. BMI was never meant to be a diagnostic tool, and children with BMIs over these arbitrary cut-offs on growth curves do not necessarily have clinical complications or health risks, according to CDC health scientists. After its comprehensive review of the evidence, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that there is no quality evidence to support that childhood overweight or obesity is related to health outcomes. The evidence shows that BMI fails to predict fitness, blood pressure, body composition or health risk. Even a recent 50-year prospective study found no association between childrens BMI and heart disease later in life, and other research has found weight to be unrelated to childrens risks for insulin resistance.
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/2008/03/school-childhood-obesity-and-bmi.html
The obesity problem in this country is all too real. Sadly, there has been way too much political bluster. When all the bluster is removed, the hard truth is that the parents of a child have the responsibility to teach that child to make prudent choices regarding what they eat and how they spend their time. If the parents are not diligent, no intervention by the government or the schools will work.
Never in history has more information been readily available to parents regarding concerning the specifics of those choices. Yes, big agribusiness has complicated those choices regarding food - as demonstrated by the documentary film, Food Inc (highly recommended.) That said, good nutrition choices are available - even to families with limited incomes. Beans, nuts, whole grain rice, oatmeal, raisins, frozen vegetables, and other nutritious foods can be purchased in bulk at reasonable cost. Fresh fruit and veggies are available in season at reasonable costs at farmers’ markets. These are much better choices than highly processed fast foods. Parents just need to determine to make good choices and teach these to their children. I would note that one can buy a lot of nutritious food for the cost of the diabetes medication typically required by the consequences of obesity produced by a steady diet of fast food combined with a sedentary life style.
Most communities have parks and places where one can walk safely. Walking is a great inexpensive exercise. Running, swimming, and cycling are also great exercise but cost more. Again, I would note that the cost of any of these is much lower than the cost of treating obesity related illness.
My comments are not just theoretical. I have fought the battle with obesity my entire life. In May 2009 I was 334 lbs and totally unfit. My wife and I made some major changes in our diet and exercise and today I am 200 lbs and training for a fall marathon. I am planning and working to lose an additional 30 lbs. The key is making prudent personal choices daily regarding diet/nutrition, exercise, and time management. Always remember that nobody will care more about your well being than you will. Also note that there are great communities of recreational athletes who typically welcome and assist new comers. It all starts with a personal decision to get up off that couch and turn off that TV or computer.
Yes, well that’s what happens when politicians start diagnosing medical conditions.
Uggh! I want my country back!
Yeah, that's what it is! Nom, nom, nom...
Hey Mom...got any more noms?
As a nation we tend to be grossly overweight and unfit. The rise in the rates of type-II diabetes in children at increasingly younger ages is appalling. You might be interested in the recent report, "Too fat to fight," that shows an alarming number of young people are unsuitable for military service even with what my son (an Army captain) affectionately refers to as 'fat kid boot camp.'
You are entirely right, but you are likely to hear from a contingent on FR that will sob into their computers that “you just don’t understand - my thyroid makes me weight 400 lbs (or perhaps its a food allegy or “low” metabolism” or corn syrup or space aliens).
I have to manage my weight, too, by exercise and watching what I eat. Those who don’t do this eventually tend to become obese. There is nothing magical or special about one’s circumstances.
Very good of you to mention making the right choices. One of the reasons we have so many fat “poor people” is that our economy produces food in such abundance that prices are low, and people who tend to make bad decisions in other parts of their lives tend to make them with respect to eating and exercise.
You are entirely right, but you are likely to hear from a contingent on FR that will sob into their computers that “you just don’t understand - my thyroid makes me weight 400 lbs (or perhaps its a food allegy or “low” metabolism” or corn syrup or space aliens).
I have to manage my weight, too, by exercise and watching what I eat. Those who don’t do this eventually tend to become obese. There is nothing magical or special about one’s circumstances.
Very good of you to mention making the right choices. One of the reasons we have so many fat “poor people” is that our economy produces food in such abundance that prices are low, and people who tend to make bad decisions in other parts of their lives tend to make them with respect to eating and exercise.
I remember when PE was mandatory in schools. To bad PARENTS stopped it. Little Johnny or Janey might get sweaty.
You are right. My wife is a teacher and she would love to see her students get regular PE. They need to get some exercise, blow off some steam, and get some oxygen to their brains so they can concentrate in class. By the way, she says her students (mainly juniors and seniors) are the most over-indulged youth she has ever seen. She wonders how they will survive in college or a job.
Let’s see: dodgeball is forbidden, tag is forbidden, all really fun playground equipment has been torn out of schoolyards and public parks as “dangerous”, and most parents (in many neighborhoods of cities with good reason, but even in small towns and suburbs out of exaggerated fear of kidnappers and paedophiles) won’t let their kids just go out and run around the neighborhood with their friends.
Top that up with not only replacing sugar with high fructose corn syrup (hfcs) but putting it into products that never had sweeteners before, and is there any wonder kids are tubbier than in previous generations. (And yes, there really is reason to think hfcs is baleful stuff—studies with rats comparing rats given unlimited access to a solution of hfcs and rats given unlimited access to a solution of sucrose with the same caloric content per unit volume found the rats getting corn syrup would drink themselves into obesity, while the ones getting table sugar didn’t. Worse, large abouts of hfcs cause liver scarring of the sort normally associated with alcoholism. There’s a reason the corn industry pulled those ads with the “you know what they say about it” “what? it’s sweet?” claiming the stuff is interchangable with sugar: the studies I just referred to got published.)
Thank you for the very useful link!
Here in New York City many inner city kids are obese. They dont go out and play because their neighborhoods are gang infested. Random bullets shooting people isnt uncommon. The schools should have more phys ed classes.
The schools shouldn’t have more phys ed classes. The city government should empty the neighborhoods of the feral animals who are holding the communities hostage so the kids can have a life.
Congratulations on the weight loss.
What was the Ben Franklin quote about the do-gooder?
It’s hard to argue when I’m walking through the urban areas of NJ and NY where you will see a few dozen kids who fall within the ‘morbidly obese’ clinical definition. Kids who have arms so fat they can’t reach the top of their head with their hands, kids with bellies so big they can’t see their feet.
There aren’t good free market solutions here do to the multidecade realization that market forces do not work, large swathes of adults with responsiblities to oversee childrens’ nutrition, the parents, in loci parenti guardians such as school cafeterias and subsidized daycares, the Madison Ave marketeers, and the food business have failed to provide for the most basic of common good on many many fronts.
This happened before in the United States, look up the history of “swill milk” in Colonial and post-Colonial America, I see it as an historical equivalent to the problems of today.
“...the freedom of scientists is abrogated, distorting biases are introduced into research, minds are closed, avenues of inquiry are blocked”
Same with education, art, religion. Yes, religion. The knowledge of God is infinite, yes?
That line reminded me of the GW/CC Fraud.
They definitly have closed minds, they certainly introduced bias (hockey stick trick), and they stopped ANY discussion of scientific research that proved their claims were false.
“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it.” ~ H.L. Mencken
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.