Childhood Obesity

I recently had a coffee conversation with someone about childhood obesity. I really didn’t think too much on the subject so it was interesting to have this conversation and work through my thoughts and actually form an opinion on the issue.

The topic was treating childhood obesity. Now I’m not actually sure what treating obesity in a child entails. But I am going to assume it sets out to make an already awkward and depressed kid feel more self-conscious. So I started digging around the First Lady’s “Let’s Move” website and they are recommending that the problem is that kids take the bus instead of walking, school lunches, lack of physical fitness in schools, the internet and video games, frequent snacking, too much fast food and uneducated parents and elected officials.

Typical suggestions were home cooked meals, getting elected officials to take an interest in changing school lunches and pt programs, limiting video games and the internet, and no snacks. So basically taking away this fat kids only enjoyment of video games and internet, and then starving them by taking away from their snacks – then to make things even better the local elected officials will decide their should be school pt and make them squeeze their fat ass into a school gym uniform and stand around a gym not able to participate because they are too fat – thus causing them to be more depressed. Uhhhh……What?

First and foremost I believe it is 100% the parents fault for enabling their child to become obese. I don’t want to hear about more snacking, buses transporting kids to school vice walking, video games, internet, lack of schools physical fitness programs or the junk food schools serve. When you got pregnant or decided to get pregnant (conscience decision or not) you have to have the intestinal fortitude to step up and be a parent. Now let me remind you that parenting is not for the weak of heart. So if you can’t say no, don’t know how to put yourself in super uncomfortable positions, cannot run on broken sleep (for years), or think that somehow having a baby will provide you the unconditional love you’ve been seeking you need not apply.

My daughters snack, they play video games, they have access (although extremely supervised) to the internet, they go to school and take gym and they take the bus to school. Neither of my daughters is overweight by even a pound. My youngest daughter is even more lazy than me – and I AM lazy. Lounging is my FAVORITE thing to do. I love to watch consecutive movies in a row, nap, cruise the internet or yack on my blog. I am not overweight either.

Fat kids are fat because their parents suck at parenting. Now this might piss some people off – especially parents of fat kids. I recognize the fact that there is such piss poor guidance on what is actually good for your body out there and that we have more doctors than we really need that are willing to prescribe a pill or diagnose some strange ailment that explains why a child is overweight or obese without putting any blame on the parent. I recognize these facts.

That is the reasons I have this blog. To share with people the Paleo lifestyle. Of course I am jaded and feel that Primal, Paleo, Carb-free, Atkins whatever you would like to call it is the best lifestyle. I have many, many reasons for these convictions. My husband’s cholesterol reduction, numerous people’s weight loss success, the disappearance of gout, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and the best one severe control over type II diabetes. These again are all facts.

Carbohydrates – ALL carbohydrates are turned into glucose in your body – your body can only tolerate 4 grams of glucose in the blood stream at once – insulin is released and the rest is locked into your fat cells for later use as fuel. However in the typical American diet the body never gets the chance to tap into the fat cells and use this energy because we are constantly dumping more carbohydrates into our body than it can digest. This my dear friend is what is making our children fat, and obese.

Just to give you an idea – a 20 oz bottle of orange Fanta has 74 grams of sugar – that’s 18.5 teaspoons of sugar that is converted to glucose.

Feeding them Fruity Pebbles for breakfast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and mac and cheese and chicken nuggets for dinner (I’ve actually had parents proudly tell me they give their kids chicken…you know chicken nuggets) – oh their poor little pancreases are working non-stop. And for snacks? Granola bars, fruit snacks, chips, capri suns, cheez-its and oreos – so carbs, carbs, carbs and more carbs – or glucose, glucose, glucose, glucose. And for the health conscience parent they serve granola bars, cliff bars, 100% juice boxes, fruit, 100 calorie snack packs….ah yeah, that’d be glucose, glucose and more glucose.

So even the “health” conscience parents are failing! 100 calorie snacks are all glucose – and they lack nutrients and your body needs nutrients for digestion – so feeding your kids these “treats” foods is actually stealing nutrients from your kids. But they are saving them from the “evil” fat….but the fat that is in these “treats” is evil. Don’t get me started on PUFA’s!!

Enough is enough! Feed your kids meat, veggies, nuts, eggs for eff-sake! If they don’t like it OH WELL!!! They will eat when they get hungry and they will eat what you serve – that is the joy of being the parent. What you say goes. YOU are in control – not them. If your kid doesn’t like it – too effing bad – trust me they won’t starve. Put your foot down, and if they throw a tantrum that is over the top – whoop their ass! Do us all a favor and let your kid know there are rules, boundaries and a hierarchy to society. Treating your kids like the world revolves around them and their $hit don’t stink only produces a worthless self-serving brat. That’s what the French are for – discipline your kids and they won’t get fat.

Parents need educated and the wrong information is too readily available – it pisses me off. People site “they” say – or better yet “Dr. Oz” had a show, or the First Lady says we need to change the school menus and add physical fitness back into the class. I am definitely not opposed to that – nothing is more stressful than getting to work and looking in the backseat to see one of my kid’s lunch boxes and wondering what they are going to get stuck eating at school. And I LOVE physical fitness – nothing like wearing your ass out in a game of kickball – not everyone is supposed to win – get the fuck over it – play harder next time and you won’t lose. Fuck Dr. Oz - he is NOT credible!!! And "they" - PLEASE learn that just because something is given to you by a doctor or a dietician DOESN'T mean it's factual.

Here is the basics parents – feed your kids meat, veggies, eggs and nuts – skimpy on the fruit – and have treats occasionally cause they are STILL kids. But that’s what they are TREATS! NOT rewards – if you reward your kid with food you are an ass. If you take your kids to get ice cream after they lose at T-Ball and YES you keep score – because everyone is a winner – you are using and TEACHING them that food is a comfort and reward system. And they will fall into this pattern for the rest of their life. I’m sad, I had a bad day at work, my friends don’t like me, I got a bad grade, I’m stuck in traffic, the air conditioner broke and is going to cost $1200 to fix…..I’m going to eat ice cream to feel better. Blaaaaaahhhh…

Too much carbohydrates = too much glucose = FAT BODIES. Simple shit if you ask me. Now grow a pair of balls and raise your kid’s right.