America has done it again. Not only are we in debt, breathing in unhealthy air, wasting an immense amount of resources to support our overzealous lifestyles, unhappy, underpaid, overworked, we are now also FAT. Well, we have been for about the last ten years or so but now obesity rates are tipping the scales, mainly in children. This has become such a global epidemic that parents in Great Britian are now being charged with child abuse if their children are over a certain body mass index. But in America it’s worse. Studies show that an average of 70% of the population is overweight and 30% obese. That means that healthy Americans are a huge minority. In fact, the amount of obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A third grade teacher recently reported that a number of her third grade students could barely fit in their desks. The line between a few Doritos and an entire package of twinkies has gotten very blurry. This is mainly due to a steady increase in consumption of fast food along with increasing size of food portions. In Houston you can get a free 72 oz. steak if you manage to eat the entire thing along with three sides. Similar food “contests” are all over America. Which begs the question, should America adopt a similar policy? Is allowing a three year old to reach a staggering weight of seventy pounds (the average weight of a twelve year old) abuse?
While physical abuse may have permeating mental effects, the physical and health effects of obesity are equally, if not more, dangerous. Not to mention the social effects of obesity in our overly image conscious society. We are encouraged to be a size zero in the media but then are bombarded with a plethora of commercials advertising overly processed food with huge amounts of calories and sodium. The result is fat, unhappy, self conscious and extremely unhealthy Americans. But are parents the only one to blame? I grew up going to an affluent school and our school cafeteria options consisted of “chicken rings”, tater tots, corn dogs, hamburgers and a number of unhealthy food options. On top of that, we were given free access to sodas, candy, chips and chocolate. There was also a small fruit bowl that was refilled weekly when the fruit went bad.
While regulations should be placed on what we eat since we clearly have lost the ability to know what to eat and how much of it, putting a child in state custody is not the answer. Changes are due everywhere, between the portions that restaurants serve, the meals that families eat and the food that schools serve. This is just another way for the government to deflect blame off of themselves for not limiting corporate advertising and blame the American people. We are encouraged to live an unhealthy lifestyle and in many cases not given a choice. Most of what a child consumes is at school. Some children reporting having up to three soft drinks a day and at least one candy bar. Changes are being made but on a very small scale. Recently, a school in Colorado adopted a food program which implemented salad bars, fresh vegetables and lean proteins. Vending machines were removed and soft drinks were also replaced with water, tea and fruit juice. The results were staggering. Test scores went up, students were more alert and focused, more active and overall much healthier.
While it may be easy to blame a parent, there is clearly no overt form of abuse or negligence. Americans are simply following the pattern which we have unfortunately fallen into due to a decrease in knowledge of healthy eating and in increase in food advertising, mainly for cheap, processed and high calorie foods. In 2005, the reported advertising budget for health food was two million dollars. The advertising budget for Pepsi was two billion. There needs to be a fundamental change in the way we live and eat. Surely this will not be accomplished by putting obese children in foster care facilities, it will only create a whole other set of problems.
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I think you have a valid argument Laura. Its sad to know that over two thirds of our country is overweight, and shocking to know that over 30% is considered obese. While I don't advocate using body-fat indexes to charge parents with child abuse, I think we do need to change the way we as a society eat.
ReplyDeleteI must admit, I love an A1 Thick N' Hearty burger from Whataburger every now and then, and I'm a sucker for buttery, cheesy mashed potatoes covered in bacon bits with a steak on the side, but one serious issue that I think could help your argument is lack of affordable, healthy food. The consumer demand for fast, often fried food is so large that it has cornered the market, causing the supply of healthy foods to dimish, sending the prices for good food through the roof. The truth(iness) is that most people cannot afford to eat right. This doesn't mean they have to gorge on bad food all day long, but it is the start of an unhealthy cycle, in my opinion.
Even in foods that are generally considered healthy, this is the case. For example, I can buy apples from Wal Mart for thrity-three cents a piece. But those apples suck. I don't want to eat them, so why would a kid? But if you want an awesome Honeycrisp apple that'll make the toes on your tastebuds curl, you have to find a local food market and pay $2+ for each apple. This isn't convenient, especially not for a mother shopping for her weeks groceries. Consequently, her kids are going to eat the Little Debbie's Nutter bars instead of the apple (the Nutter bars are much cheaper than even the shitty Wal Mart apples, too). For one more closing example, we can look at a recent KFC commercial. Yum brands food proposes a challenge to potential customers: Try to make a 7 piece chicken dinner with sides using store-bought ingredients, and try to do this for less money than it costs at KFC. KFC wins, b/c they already know that you can't do it. Why spend more money and take more time to make a healthier meal when you could just go to KFC? In our fast-paced world, people are choosing the quick and easy way over the healthy way. Soda tastes better than water, and mediocre chocolate is better than bad fruit.
Ultimately it is up to the individual to decide what is right for them. I grew up eating crappy food b/c my parents couldn't afford to feed all of their children organic nutritious foods. Fortunately I inherited a lightning fast metabolism, so I get to avoid weight concerns. Still, eating right tastes and feels so much better, that I now choose to drink water and pay retarded amounts of money for good apples. The news is out though, so as people become more informed, hopefully we'll one day be a less Booty-full (in a strictly obese sense) country.
Alex
Laura you sure do have a great argument, and so does Alex from his comment. No one can argue against the fact that America is the number one country on high obesity rate. But I don’t think that the government is the one to be blame. We, the people, brought it upon our selves. Growing up in Brazil a country that prides it self in appearance and body image, it was shocking to see the number of overweight people, especially among children and teenagers. Should we blame the government or the parents for what their kids look like? Time did change; I remember back in the day when we spent most of the day outside, running around, playing some type of sport. We now have computers and video games too, which is insane to see the number of not just kids but adults over the age of 21 that plays video games in a daily basis for over hours! Sure there are McDonalds on every corner and fast food sure is cheaper than going to the grocery store and buying food to make a healthy meal. I grew up eating every type of vegetable and fruit, because my parents wanted to eat right. Why save a little money now by eating like crap. My parents took the responsibility of keeping us healthy themselves so I think that other parents should be held responsible for their children! Not the Government.
ReplyDeleteTiago