Childhood Obesity and bad parenting

I'm at a "storytime" event with my infant at the public library, and lo and behold there's a kid acting out, screaming, defying his mom, etc.  He was older than the age group for the class, but that's a moot point.  The mom looking for some way to pacify her child, could have left the room, but no, she shoves about 24 ounces of apple juice down his throat to shut him up.  That's right, 360 calories and 72 grams of sugar.   I'm thinking to myself, good idea, reward the kid with a sweet sugary drink every time he acts out.  Heck, I'd throw a tantrum for that.   As much as I wanted to say something, it wasn't the time or place.  But it got me wondering....how many parents out there are either so lazy or have so little control over their kids that they're resorting to shoving sweets down their kids' throughts to keep them quiet.  An occasional miniscule sucker after a traumatic day at the doctor's office?  Fine.  But just because your kid is acting out as a result of you being a bad parent?  NO.

The future of obesity

Obesity isn't going away anytime soon.  The future of obesity unfortunately looks bleak.  The front runners including the United States and Australia keep getting worse, with no end in site.  Only one state in the United States (Colorado) had less than a 20% obesity rate, and barely.  Some states will be in the 40% range in the next year or so, many are well above 30% obesity rates now.  While obesity awareness is spreading, changes to food and education aren't coming fast enough, and government interference having to do with what foods people can and can't eat is being met with stiff resistance from people who feel their rights to eat whatever they want are being infringed upon. Without more government intervention and funding, I don't see how we're going to conquer the obesity problem.   What is out there right now is very decentralized and disorganized.  The government needs to form an organization that will ensure the right information on health is getting to those who need it most, starting with the kids.  Schools cutting back their recess time in exchange for more class time for higher test scores is a joke.  Budget cuts for programs that let kids get more exercise has to stop.  We're so fricking worried about test scores that we're robbing our kids of their health.  And while we're at it, let's stop feeding these kids garbage in the cafeteria.  I know what was available when I was a kid.  Soda, chocolate milk, and sweets galore.  Sure they might get it elsewhere, but why give them even more avenues.  Parents, you need to get your kids off their butts from playing video games and surfing facebook all day long.  Don't feed them garbage in the home.  Much of this is on you too.

The future of obesity in other countries is even more dire.  Up and coming countries like China that are finding new found wealth, and have westernized influenced like McDonalds popping up all over are very susceptible to an explosion in obesity rates.  We shouldn't be passing these bad habits to other countries, we need to figure out how prevent obesity in our own country, share our successes with others, so the future of obesity across the world isn't nearly as bad as what we're dealing with now. 

African Mango Scam

Every year there is a new "magic" diet pill that comes onto the market.  Two years ago it was Zylene, last year it was Acai Berry , and this year it's the African Mango Scam.  I call it the African Mango scam because the FDA and independent peer reviewed studies never get a chance to test these new pills before the hit the market and are portrayed as a great weight loss supplement.   All of these diet pills have their own studies that "assure us" people will lose weight on these pills, and these biased tests can be misleading.  Most diet pills in general are a scam

People buy them with the hopes all they do is pop the pills and the weight just flies off.  Any diet pill period needs to be consumed with a combination of healthy eating and exercise for maximum results, yet most people don't do this.  See a problem here? 

All it takes is a few doctors/health experts to make a diet pill like this famous.  This year it was Doctor Oz who helped get the African Mango Scam rolling by promoting it on his show and website, however there are a few other "health professionals" who backup his claims, and a number of people do validate some solid weight loss results from this product.

Even if these pills don't actually work, but give someone a mental edge and they try harder to eat healthy and exercise then it may not be such a bad thing.   I'm not saying people shouldn't try diet pills as a supplement to healthy eating and weight loss, I'm saying people should be just a little cautious taking things that aren't independently studied, and need to understand you're not just going to lose 10lbs a week by popping a pill while sitting on a couch eating 5000 calories a day.

The economic impact of obesity.

I wrote the following article for a column in the New York Times, where I focused solely on the economic impact of obesity.

The Freakonomics column on the New York Times I wrote for has since been moved to the Freakonomics website here:  Economic Impact of Obesity

Obesity is a multi-faceted disease fueled by Americans’ poor eating habits, complacency and sedentary lifestyles. While the physical and emotional impact of obesity on a growing number of Americans is glaring, what truly makes obesity an epidemic is the economic impact it has on all of us.
People underestimate the economic effect obesity has on our society. The Center for Disease Control has concluded that illnesses associated with obesity cost the United States $93 billion a year in health care costs. Eric Finkelstein, a health economist at the nonprofit RTI Institute, wrote, “about half of the total cost of obesity-related health care is paid by the government through its Medicare program. For every American citizen, the out-of-pocket tax cost is an average $180.” This dwarfs the $13 billion businesses lose each year from obesity-related medical fees, absenteeism, and decreased productivity (as reported by the National Business Group on Health). Many of these obesity-related business costs are passed down to consumers in the form of more expensive goods and services.
Obesity, like many diseases, has no simple cure that alleviates its negative consequences. The government’s increased involvement and spending on health education, research and obesity programs, combined with our desire as a society to lead a healthier lifestyle, are the driving factors towards finding a solution. The question is, do we invest a lot of time and money fighting obesity now, or pay an even higher price down the road?

Childhood Obesity programs in Arkansas going the wrong way.

For those that weren't aware, Arkansas became one of the first states to have a childhood obesity report card program, where school children were weighed once a year, their BMI calculated, and this information, along with any obesity related concerns, were sent to the kids' parents.

Unfortunately, Arkansas just took a BIG step backwards in the fight against childhood obesity. While they did not ditch the obesity report card program, what was once yearly mandatory weigh ins for students is now an OPTIONAL every other year program. So the kids get weighed half as often, and parents who claim that these report cards "are bad for their child's self esteem" can pull them out of the program all together.

Kids that get pulled from the program won't be factored into the state's childhood obesity rates, making those statistics worthless.

But I guess in the end, legislators and parents feel that removing a once a year ding to a child's self esteem is more important than their long-term health.

To me this type of behavior is what's contributing to the out of control spiral of what is known as childhood obesity.

Pet Obesity

Pet obesity is considered one of the most common nutritional problems in cats & dogs, two scientists from the University of California, Davis, reported last year at the Waltham International Nutritional Sciences Symposium in Washington. Studies in Western Europe & the United States show that more than 24% of dogs & about 25% of house cats suffer from pet obesity. Why is fighting pet obesity important? Pet obesity can shave 2 to 5 years off your pet’s life.

Surprise surprise! One study found a strong correlation between extra weight in pet owners & in their pets.

Dogs & cats are considered overweight when their body weight is 15 percent above what is optimal for their breed, & obese when they weigh 30 percent above ideal.

Like mothers are poor at assessing their children’s childhood obesity risks, pet owners are notoriously poor at assessing their animals’ pet obesity risks.

Causes:

Normally pet inactivity & overfeeding are the main causes of pet obesity, including the feeding of human food. Human food is much higher in calories than most animal food.

Hypothyroidism (under activity of the thyroid gl&) & hyperadrenocorticism (disorder of the adrenal gl&s, a.k.a. Cushing's disease) are also known causes of pet obesity. You can have lab tests done to see if these are issues.

Genetics may have a role in a pet's chances of suffering from pet obesity. Dog breeds at higher risk: labrador retriever, cairn terrier, cavalier king charles spaniel, scottish terrier, cocker spaniel.

Cat breeds at higher risk: the domestic shorthair. Being neutered is a big risk factor for obesity in dogs & cats. In a French study, neutered dogs were more than twice as likely to be overweight as dogs that were not neutered.
Female dogs are more likely to be overweight than male dogs.
Pet obesity risk rises with age. 2 & 3 year old dogs were nearly three times as likely to be overweight as 1 year-olds. Dogs over 12 years old are 12 times as likely as 1 year-olds to be overweight.

Solutions:

Ridding your pet’s diet of people food & feeding light versions of adult dog food, coupled with increased exercise, are usually all that is necessary to fight pet obesity. Take your dog on more walks or to the dog park. Exercising your dog can be good for you too!

If light food & exercise are not enough, prescription special diet food may be necessary (see your vet for the type of food & instructions for feeding) to fight pet obesity.

Keep tabs on your pet’s progress with weekly weigh-ins at the vet; it’s usually free at most clinics.

Burger King Trans Fat ban, finally!

Burger King FINALLY jumps on the trans fat ban bandwagon, albeit a year and a half too late.

Burger King's own testing of a new non-trans fat oil blend passed with flying colors and consumers reported equal or better taste with the non-trans fat food compared to the trans fat foods they were given to sample.

While other fast food restaurants such as McDonalds stopped using trans fat oils in mid 2006, Burger King announced that they won't make the switch until the end of 2008. I have no idea what is taking them so long but this is unacceptable to me, especially considering how long they have known of the health risks of trans fats. Their excuse is a lack of supply but you'd think this was something they could have figured out years ago.

I just hope Burger King doesn't go on a marketing spree at the end of 2008 bragging that their food no longer contains trans fats, giving the large mass of uneducated people (when it comes to nutrition) the impression that their fries are now healthy.