Obesity: A generation at risk

[Fred Derf Veteran]

An hour of daily aerobic exercise in schools is being promoted by the Ontario Medical Association as one step toward curbing an alarming rise in childhood obesity and reducing the future health problems an increasingly overweight society is bound to experience.

Oct. 5, 2005. 01:00 AM

Obesity: A generation at risk

OMA wonders if kids will live as long as parents

Report pushes for an hour of daily exercise in schools

ELAINE CAREY

MEDICAL REPORTER

An epidemic of childhood obesity may lead to the first generation of children who will not live as long as their parents, Ontario's doctors warn.

Poor food choices, overeating and lack of physical activity doubled the rates of overweight and obese children in Canada in 15 years, to almost one-third of boys and one-quarter of girls, says a report by the Ontario Medical Association released yesterday.

It calls on the province to take immediate action, including mandating one hour per day of aerobic physical activity in both elementary and secondary schools and tougher restrictions on advertising junk food and sweets to kids younger than 13.

"We need to stop simply talking about it and move forward," OMA president Dr. Greg Flynn told a news conference.

"If we do nothing, we will watch our children succumb to avoidable illnesses," including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, which are now showing up in children for the first time.

"The problem we're looking at today is huge," said Dr. Alan Hudak, a pediatrician and member of the OMA child health committee. "I am seeing more and more obese children every day, and more and more complications."

The report, which makes 12 recommendations, "is meant as a call to arms to all levels of government, parents and physicians," he said.

The Liberal government has already banned junk food in vending machines and tomorrow will formally announce its healthy schools initiative program, including a mandatory 20 minutes a day of physical education in elementary schools.

Schools will be able to phase in the phys ed program over the year, a spokesperson said.

"Those are great initial first steps," Hudak said. "We're calling for an increase in those measures."

Britain last week banned junk food and candy from school cafeterias and vending machines and introduced cooking lessons and nutrition education for all children aged 11 to 14.

Flynn said increasing school activity to an hour a day was reasonable. "Is it reasonable to allow this to go on? If you make kids active and make it fun, it's very reasonable."

But Richard Ward, co-ordinator of health and physical education for the Toronto District School Board, said that would be a real challenge without totally restructuring the school day.

"With the new curriculum, it's very difficult to meet all the expectations in 300 minutes a day," he said.

The president of Concerned Children's Advertisers says advertising to children is already so regulated that every ad must be cleared by two separate committees of the Advertising Standards Council before it can air.

As a result of the restrictions, there hasn't been a single complaint about a children's ad in five years, said Cathy Loblaw.

The industry also pays for public service announcements promoting active living and good nutrition on all Canadian television networks.

"Certainly when they call for restrictions on advertising to children we absolutely agree," she said. "I think we have a strong system in place."

Obese children turn into obese adults, the report says, and the health consequences cost the Canadian economy more than $1.8 billion a year.

The report also calls on the province to extend OHIP benefits to cover obesity counselling for children, to create child obesity clinics and to issue an annual report card on the problem.

Health Minister George Smitherman told reporters yesterday that raising awareness of childhood obesity is important to "slow the tide of challenges to the health care system."

"Am I worried about it? Yeah, sure. We all have to be," said Smitherman, who added the government is taking steps to address the problem in schools.

Jim Watson, who heads the new ministry of health promotion, acknowledged there's "a tremendous amount of work to do" on the issue, but urged parents to take time to teach their kids better habits.

"It's a lot easier to stop and get a pizza on the way home from picking the kids up at soccer or picking them up after school than it is to cook a home-cooked meal, and I don't diminish the challenges that parents are facing," Watson told Canadian Press. "That's why I think there is a role for both government and parents to work side by side on this issue."

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...id=968332188492

[insanekiwi]

this has been discussed for quite some time by now, even in germany. computers, fast food, cellfones. todays generation has all they need and parents don't really care. i see alot of fat kids when i goto cities nearby.

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

Since public transportation is of little use in most US cities and personal vehicles are on the way out if gas prices continue to rise, I think we just might see lots of people walking and reverse the trend.

Personally I find there to be a slight conflict of interests while trying to be politicaly correct and respecting obese people's feelings and at the same time trying to curb the trend of obesity and wage war on a problem that many refuse to admit exists.

[insanekiwi]

did you read the newsarticle about some tourist boat that sunk becuase the people were overweight and the boat sunk and a dozen of people drowned? it was on tv news yesterday. the max. weight was like 70kilos per person, yet the weight was exceeded by like 30+ kilos per person.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Since public transportation is of little use in most US cities and personal vehicles are on the way out if gas prices continue to rise, I think we just might see lots of people walking and reverse the trend.

Personally I find there to be a slight conflict of interests while trying to be politicaly correct and respecting obese people's feelings and at the same time trying to curb the trend of obesity and wage war on a problem that many refuse to admit exists.

586626107[/snapback]

Well, you can respect the plight of an alcoholic while trying to curb their addiction.

[Zoneblitz61]

How hard is it to control your kids diet? They have no source of income except their parents to have money to buy snacks with, and they have no source of transportation but a bicycle and their parents to go anywhere to get food. So if you don't keep the junk in the house and don't give in to the kid everytime they throw a hissy fit, I don't see how they get so fat. Little kids are usually very active anyway so they should burn a good bit of calories. I guess this is a national emergency though cuz parents are too lazy to do the right thing.

Bottom line: If you don't have the time to take care of your kids yourself, DON'T HAVE KIDS! :angry:

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

Well, you can respect the plight of an alcoholic while trying to curb their addiction.

586626115[/snapback]

Somewhat, but not too effectively in my opinion. There's alcoholic interventions, but I've never heard of an intervention concerning eating. People will tell you you're an alcoholic but they're usually very careful to call a friend fat. There was a doctor who was sued by a patient because he told her she was obese and needed to lose weight and tried to pursuade her by saying she'd also look better and not just feel better. I think there's a very large majority of obese people who basically think nothing is wrong with them and if they can live happily like that then everyone should get of thier backs, which might actually be true.

With alcoholism people tell you the truth. They tell you you're not fun to be around, that you're wasting money, that you're a danger to yourself, basically that you're messed up and you need to fix it. With obesity that's not the case, you don't get that direct of a talking, everything is tiptoes around.

If you want to fight obesity you need to start acting like it is a disease just like alcoholism and lets face it the best way would be to go the opposite sex angle as no-one really cares about thier long term health. Bring back the social stigma, break down the political correctness.

[insanekiwi]

How hard is it to control your kids diet?  They have no source of income except their parents to have money to buy snacks with, and they have no source of transportation but a bicycle and their parents to go anywhere to get food.  So if you don't keep the junk in the house and don't give in to the kid everytime they throw a hissy fit, I don't see how they get so fat.  Little kids are usually very active anyway so they should burn a good bit of calories.  I guess this is a national emergency though cuz parents are too lazy to do the right thing.

Bottom line:  If you don't have the time to take care of your kids yourself, DON'T HAVE KIDS!    :angry:

586626134[/snapback]

true. it's like parents give in too easily and fill in every demand their kids have. also they just buy unheatlhy food or prefer the easy way of not cooking and buying more and more fast food.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

Somewhat, but not too effectively in my opinion.  There's alcoholic interventions, but I've never heard of an intervention concerning eating.  People will tell you you're an alcoholic but they're usually very careful to call a friend fat.  There was a doctor who was sued by a patient because he told her she was obese and needed to lose weight and tried to pursuade her by saying she'd also look better and not just feel better.  I think there's a very large majority of obese people who basically think nothing is wrong with them and if they can live happily like that then everyone should get of thier backs, which might actually be true.

586626156[/snapback]

However, we do know that there are health risks to being obese. Perhaps they have given up (or in denial) but I don't think there are many obese people who think there is nothing wrong with them. There would be even less that would want this to happen to their kids.

[mAcOdIn Veteran]

I don't think it's so much the food, it's the activities they do. When I was young I was never in the house, there wasn't **** to do in it. TV sucked, there were no game systems, no internet, we only had one phone line so it's not like I could yap it up all night. So if I wanted to do anything, anything besides stare at the ceiling, I had to go outside. Want to talk to a friend? I had to walk there.

I think there's two major problems here now. 1, school zones are fairly large now so the chance of you living in walking/bike distance with your friends is a lot smaller. 2, parents are now alot more careful about where thier kids go without supervision and probably not up to the idea of letting you do a 30 minute walk to a friends house now.

It's just a different society now, and it's weird but I think I wouldn't let my kids do what I did anymore either. There's times where I'd be gone from the end of school until sundown with no contact with my parents, out riding my bike, exploring, or whatever. With all the negative crap I hear concerning sex-offenders and the like I would definately think twice about letting my child disappear for 6-7 hours out of the day. I would like to thank the nice city of Berlin for a nice 4 years though, you guys have some fun stuff over there, and a killer zoo. It's funny though, I got candybars every once in a while, but if I wanted one I had to walk to the store, how many parents would let thier kids walk to the store to get a candy bar now?

I think if you're active enough you can eat crap, what you can't do is eat crap and do nothing.

[Bamsebjørn]

Daily sports is not any healthier than daily McDonalds! I've seen so many 'healthy' sportsmen and women die because of sporting one hour every day. If you start doing this to children, it won't have any effect other than getting kids that die young because of heart problems.

They shouldn't take on the problem, but the cause of the problem. Fat-tax doens't work, people will continue buying hamburgers and fries.

The only real solution is getting people to understand what's healthy and what's not. If people don't even get that, screw them! It's their own fault then! :wacko:

[Smit]

I don't get it though? I love Coke, Dr. Peper, Crisps, Sweets, McDonalds etc. I eat it all the time. I also sit at a computer for 6+ hours a day and play hours worth of games per day. I also go out skating for a couple of hours a day.

I can eat loads of unhealthy food and use a computer for hours and not get fat. I hate it when they blaim computers (even though it does cause it a bit) because all you need to do is exercise more.

Also it's normally the dumb parents who just feed their kid crap.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

I don't get it though? I love Coke, Dr. Peper, Crisps, Sweets, McDonalds etc. I eat it all the time. I also sit at a computer for 6+ hours a day and play hours worth of games per day. I also go out skating for a couple of hours a day.

I can eat loads of unhealthy food and use a computer for hours and not get fat. I hate it when they blaim computers (even though it does cause it a bit) because all you need to do is exercise more.

586626225[/snapback]

The weight will start piling on once you turn 25 or so unless you change your habits. That is when your metabolism natually slows down a notch.

[fascist]

Im laughing so damn hard right now.

[Fighter-X]

I don't think it's so much the food, it's the activities they do.  When I was young I was never in the house, there wasn't **** to do in it.  TV sucked, there were no game systems, no internet, we only had one phone line so it's not like I could yap it up all night.  So if I wanted to do anything, anything besides stare at the ceiling, I had to go outside.  Want to talk to a friend?  I had to walk there.

I think there's two major problems here now.  1, school zones are fairly large now so the chance of you living in walking/bike distance with your friends is a lot smaller.  2, parents are now alot more careful about where thier kids go without supervision and probably not up to the idea of letting you do a 30 minute walk to a friends house now.

It's just a different society now, and it's weird but I think I wouldn't let my kids do what I did anymore either.  There's times where I'd be gone from the end of school until sundown with no contact with my parents, out riding my bike, exploring, or whatever.  With all the negative crap I hear concerning sex-offenders and the like I would definately think twice about letting my child disappear for 6-7 hours out of the day.  I would like to thank the nice city of Berlin for a nice 4 years though, you guys have some fun stuff over there, and a killer zoo.  It's funny though, I got candybars every once in a while, but if I wanted one I had to walk to the store, how many parents would let thier kids walk to the store to get a candy bar now?

I think if you're active enough you can eat crap, what you can't do is eat crap and do nothing.

586626210[/snapback]

Yeah I agree. Technology has made everything easier, so you dont have to use much energy to go around with your legs. Im a high school student who is normal weight and has junk food sold at lunch. People think taking junk food from the school is really gonna solve problems, but its not. Its either dinner the parents provide or just giving them a $20 so they can buy whatever they want. I think the internet motivates me to like run and walk to my friends house or my own house to play some BF2 or CoD. The sex offender thing is not a trouble if you're older than 13 with a couple of friends to walk with. Cellphone is also a friend. :)

[Hitman2000]

A friend of mine mother works most of the time so he cant get home cookde meal so she gives him like $10-15 a day to buy lunch and dinner, all he eats is pies and drinks coke and he is really fat now.

[E t h a n]

The government seem to be trying here in the UK to make children's school meals more healthy. No more reclaimed meat and sub-dog-food standard fare. No fizzy drinks, sweets, crisps on sale. Much less fied food.

This will probably help a lot. But also, as others have said, physical education needs a boost. It's alarming how little time children in school get to exercise in organised sport.

I'm of the view that, while having the younger generation die earlier through obesity-related disease can help fix the pension crisis in the long run, it's immoral to encourage unhealthy lifestyles in children.