1 in 10 6 year olds are obese

If you want your child to eat healthy, you provide them with food that is healthy. If they don't eat it, then they are hungry. This seems cruel (especially to non-parents or to parents-what-spoil-their-kids), but IT WORKS.

It's true (and frustrating) that children are very finicky eaters; my son is among the worst of them. You just have to keep experimenting with things; when your child wants a snack, instead of giving them access to a bag of chips/crisps, try giving them a bowl of grapes or some popcorn. Above all, don't worry about your child not eating, cuz they WILL EAT, they are very hungry.

But even more importantly STOP SHOVELING McCHUBBLIES INTO THEIR MOUTHS AND COOK THEM A MEAL ONCE IN AWHILE YOU LAZY SAD EXCUSES FOR PARENTS.

http://www.bertlynn.com/about_bert_lynn.htm

Maybe the USA would win again in the 'superobese' category.

I do find fat families a bit depressing.

The figures seem to be:

65% of Americans are overweight or obese (BMI > 25)

30% are obese (BMI>30>

50% of British are overweight or obese

19% are obese

Sources:
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/nutrit/pubs/statobes.htm
http://www.aso.org.uk/apps/oric/oric_frames.asp

But as I say - you don't have to be that fat to be classified as obese. If you were 5'8", you'd have to weigh 198lb (14st 2lb).

yes kids should be given an array of good foods to eat, and sent outside to play.

but a fat kid isn't sick or gross or sad.

(i meant to simply lurk, but this creepy attachment to...well..if not fat-phobia, completely fat-phobic language, by otherwise seemingly well educated people makes my skin crawl.)

but a fat kid isn't sick or gross or sad.

Myabe not gross or sad, but a child who has a high body fat ratio is sick. As in, unhealthy.

There's no room for sensitive PC arguing about labels when people are dying and/or leading unhappy lives because they are too fat.

Well, I don't think it's marketing that's to blame in this case. Kids will eat this stuff in huge quantities for the same reason adults do -- because it tastes good. Because humans are naturally attracted to food with a lot of fat and calories -- it's a leftover impulse from the days (not so long ago) when we all had good reason to believe that we might not be able to get another high-calorie meal for a long while, at least not until winter was over. Add that to the fact that there are huge factories that do nothing but churn out artificial flavors in order to make these things taste as good as possible... well, can you blame the kids for eating it? It's not marketing. It's far more effective than that.

...very unscientific things backed by shady studies and shadier funding...

Are you suggesting that there are rich powerful skinny people somewhere funding studies designed to sell people less food? Come on.

I'm just saying that suggesting there's some conspiracy against fat people is ridiculous, expecially in America. We're all kinda fat here. We'd all certainly like to be eating the kind of foods that make you fat. The movement toward not being fat is a movement toward restraint and conservation, not insidious evil. We're not against fat people, for Chrissakes! Hell, some of us are fat people!

I think there's more to it than that. It's not just that we eat too much food, but we eat too much of the wrong types of foods. Everyone is short on time and it's so much easier to get a Whopper than cook a healthy, well-rounded meal. We need better options; it's literally a chore trying to find and prepare tasty, healthy, fulfilling meals. (for me at least, as I have little practice in doing so).
My BIG MONEY IDEA that would probably be a total failure is to open a fast-food place that actually serves healthy, yet tasty foods. I think I've developed a sophisticated enough palette to be able to find healthy foods tasty. A spicy Thai veggie dish is just as yummy as a stuffed pizza.

Have you eaten from McDonald's salad menu lately? Now there
s a half-assed attempt at improving their image. There are more calories in one of those salads than in a Big Mac -- probably twice as many. It's a problem with fat contant, and sugar content, and portion sizes... it's a problem with giving people what they want, at base. People don't want to eat right. People are predisposed for a number of reasons toward eating things that are bad for them, and lots of it. And McDonald's is in the business of making money by giving people what they want.

This AP picture of a four and five year old was used (without the boners.com, obv.) to illustrate a story about research into anti-obesity drugs in yesterday's Herald. What's that in the window - Hebrew? I wonder if these kids know they are being used around the world as OMG illustration.

x-post Enrique : yeah, it's not the weight (I've got some 'fat' family members who lived past 90), it's the health.

Good god other parents put the hate in me something fierce sometimes.

Hahaha i have an insane relative who lived through austerity and rationing and now criticizes people who haven't read the 500pp Atkins book and then go on 'what they consider to be the diet'. Of course, when I asked what was in those 500pp that isn't included in the 'no carbs' dilly, she didn't have much to say. Of course, she drives everywhere.

In theory this is true, but there are a number of reasons why impoverished people tend to unhealthy nutritional sources. There is the obvious calorie/cost ratio. Or maybe mom is working two jobs and going to school and really doesn't have time to feed the kids. Also, low-wage earners tend to get weekly or daily paychecks, not monthly, and so may have the money on hand to go to McDonalds, but not to buy in bulk. This also of course results in some of the more unconventional housing arrangements (eg. motels) which are the practical, if not economical, solution and may lack adequate cooking/refrigeration facilities.

Still, I personaly have little tolerance of fat and am not inclined to ignore the impact of personal choice.

i don't really, either, but i still think it's a valid point.

fast food chains have gone after school lunch contracts, resulting in hi fat foods being offered (and elem age kids can't leave to go get something else)

also, because cheap is the bottom line, and what is cheap? fats and carbs and fake oily cheese, that is what elem school kids are fed.

if the kids are poor and on the free lunch program, they are doubly likely to have hi fat school food as their only regular calorie source, and if they don't get enough to eat at home, will probably eat more of it

AND last but not least, the effect of this is train the kids to *like* hi fat foods

and with fast food marketeers aiming at kids in their ads, it is no surprise.

as for what they eat at home, did you ever notice that it is far more expensive to eat healthy than to eat not? for example salad and piece of fish costs as much as 2 weeks worth of Top Ramen, starchy and fattening.

As for 'top ramen', I thought the natives lacked kettles and such in their hotel rooms. I'm so confused .....let them eat fish.

schools start early getting people hooked on hi fat food
advertisers pick up and reinforce the trend.

yeah! jesus christ. she's got a fucking nerve trying to point out that it can be very difficult to eat properly on a poverty level income!

But I really think that the exercise part is at *least* 50% of the problem. I know we're talking about different kinds of fats etc, but still: my parents and grandparents, growing up, lathered butter all over everything (lots of white bread), ate red meat about 6 nights a week (fish n chips the other night), drank a lot of beer...
Like the UK, this was (and often still is) the New Zealand diet.

BUT, their generations aren't as fat. I believe this is because they walked/rode bikes to school, played in parks/empty lots after school etc. Parents are now so paranoid about safety (and yes, the media is much to blame, cos statistically most cities aren't more dangerous now than 20 years ago)...they don't let their kids run around.
You can eat what you want, as long as you burn it off...

My mum has about ten dishes that she does really well, plus breakfast food. Our bread always came from the bakery (Wonder she called 'nuclear loaf'). Butter and whole milk, never ever margarine. Oranges, apples and bananas and hot buttered toast after school. Sugar cereals only happened as part of mini-boxes over the holidays, otherwise we had Cheerios, but eggy breakfasts on the weekends. Veg with dinner, lunch from the school cafeteria. My mom was partial to brownies, so we got those in from the bakers or had cinnamon rolls on Saturday, not eggs.

The important thing was that my mom had a shopping budget and she stuck to it. We all understood the food supply had to last for two weeks and we behaved accordingly. Any convenience food is bound to be expensive, so we'd have maybe a pack of hot dogs around and hamburger-based something once in that time, lots of eggs, pasta dishes, Chicken Kiev for treats (we'd split two between three people as two to a box). That kept stuff stable. Also we lived next to woods and a marsh and never came home anything other than covered in grass stains and mud.