and how parents affect what a child eats...
Last night we went to Gabriel's final school concert; it's the first time I've ever gotten a good look at the school population and I've got to say, I'm disgusted. A good 75% of the children that I saw were overweight or obese; there was a boy in front of us who was still in elementary school who had broader shoulders than me and was sweating the whole time he sat in front of us. I could hear him wheezing, it was awful. There were a lot of children in the program who were SO big I had a hard time believing they were only 7 or 8.
I'm not one to point fingers and place blame BUT where the hell are the parents while these kids are getting so fat? I'm a fat adult; I've made my own choices and have no one to be upset with except myself. *I* am responsible for my own body, no one else. I'm not fat because of advertising from fast food places, I'm not fat from food additives, HFCS didn't make me fat; I did it to myself by making poor food choices and not being as active as I should have been.
I recently read a stat somewhere (here, actually) that said 40% of McDonald's sales are from Happy Meals. FORTY PERCENT.
Now, just for a second, think about that. People are blaming McDonald s for making their children fat...most children don't have jobs and I don't know of any child being allowed to go to McDonald's by themselves, so who is buying the happy meals? To be sure, you can get "healthier" options when you get a happy meal; a plain hamburger, apples, and skim milk aren't THAT bad...but really, who wants that when you can have nuggets, fries, and chocolate milk??
Going even further back, let's talk about a mothers' responsibility for her childs' diet (no offense men, but you can't feed a fetus...haha) even while in utero. Numerous studies are coming out pointing more and more to children being predisposed to obesity and poor food choices because of how they were "nourished" in the womb.
Rather than keep going on and on and beating this dead horse, I'd like to urge parents to be more conscientious of how they are affecting their children when it comes to food. Here are some more links to articles and helpful hints when it comes to helping your child become the best they can be:
Great Article on mom's and grandma's(!!) affecting a childs' diet
Healthy eating tips for kiddos
Health benefits of a healthy diet for children
Helping an overweight child stay healthy
Easy ways to keep your kiddos active this summer
Showing posts with label childhood obesity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label childhood obesity. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Monday, April 5, 2010
One Last Blog About Food Revolution
(for now, ha ha)
It's no secret the obesity rate in this country is growing; some sources say that one in three children is obese. Not overweight, but OBESE. This is a scary statistic, we're raising a generation of children who are being set UP for failure.
The other day while out shopping with my mother in law and the kiddos, they wanted to look at the bikes. Even though they HAVE bikes, they cannot resist looking at them. There were only a few bikes, most of the space was taken up by battery operated cars, jeeps, and "ATV" vehicles. I then looked at scooters-one model was a "foot" operated scooter, the others were battery powered.
Pardon me for a minute while I cuss a bit, but what in the bloody hell are parents thinking when they buy this crap? NO wonder so many kids are overweight and under active; they don't even pedal their bikes or push their scooters anymore-a battery and motor does it for them! Where's the fun in that? I can remember as a kid, groups of us getting on our bikes and riding all over the place. The combo of fresh air and exercise ensured our parents we were going to sleep well that night.
Good news! There's now a video game system that requires you move around to play it. Bad news! It's STILL a video game.
Why aren't children going outside anymore? Why aren't people taking their children to the parks? Why don't children know what hopscotch or four square are?
Our family is a walking-hiking kind of family; one it's good for ALL of us, two it's particularly good for Gabriel; walking/hiking on uneven terrain strengthens his weak leg. We live in an area with many many places to walk or hike; heck we can walk a half a mile one way on our acreage to the creek if we don't feel like hopping in the car to go to a park.
We hit up the local parks with friends at LEAST once a week, if not more. One park we go to all of the time is a fairly new park with trails and all sorts of fun stuff that no one is EVER at. I can count the times we've been there when there were other kids there on one hand. WHY? WHY? WHY?!
What a disservice we do for our children-especially in this day and age of recess being cut short, p.e. being cut short or completely out of the budgets, and school lunches being what they are.
Go outside and play, shut off the boob tube, make a picnic and take a hike...jeez oh pete people, just get moving will ya? If not for yourself than for your children!
It's no secret the obesity rate in this country is growing; some sources say that one in three children is obese. Not overweight, but OBESE. This is a scary statistic, we're raising a generation of children who are being set UP for failure.
The other day while out shopping with my mother in law and the kiddos, they wanted to look at the bikes. Even though they HAVE bikes, they cannot resist looking at them. There were only a few bikes, most of the space was taken up by battery operated cars, jeeps, and "ATV" vehicles. I then looked at scooters-one model was a "foot" operated scooter, the others were battery powered.
Pardon me for a minute while I cuss a bit, but what in the bloody hell are parents thinking when they buy this crap? NO wonder so many kids are overweight and under active; they don't even pedal their bikes or push their scooters anymore-a battery and motor does it for them! Where's the fun in that? I can remember as a kid, groups of us getting on our bikes and riding all over the place. The combo of fresh air and exercise ensured our parents we were going to sleep well that night.
Good news! There's now a video game system that requires you move around to play it. Bad news! It's STILL a video game.
Why aren't children going outside anymore? Why aren't people taking their children to the parks? Why don't children know what hopscotch or four square are?
Our family is a walking-hiking kind of family; one it's good for ALL of us, two it's particularly good for Gabriel; walking/hiking on uneven terrain strengthens his weak leg. We live in an area with many many places to walk or hike; heck we can walk a half a mile one way on our acreage to the creek if we don't feel like hopping in the car to go to a park.
We hit up the local parks with friends at LEAST once a week, if not more. One park we go to all of the time is a fairly new park with trails and all sorts of fun stuff that no one is EVER at. I can count the times we've been there when there were other kids there on one hand. WHY? WHY? WHY?!
What a disservice we do for our children-especially in this day and age of recess being cut short, p.e. being cut short or completely out of the budgets, and school lunches being what they are.
Go outside and play, shut off the boob tube, make a picnic and take a hike...jeez oh pete people, just get moving will ya? If not for yourself than for your children!
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