Our Overweight Kids

Probably everybody knows that there's an obesity epidemic in America. Something like a quarter of Americans are obese and, if you add in the percentage who are simply overweight, it comes to about a third.

It's also been widely mentioned that there is an obesity epidemic among America's kids. One reason for this is thought to be kids' lack of exercise: too much time spent with TV, computers, and video games. To lump all these together, public health officials urge parents to limit kids' "screen time."

But diet has to be a factor, too. Americans' consumption of soft drinks is enormous. Liquids in our diet—probably excluding soup—don't fill us up, so they just add calories.

If they are allowed to do so, kids will virtually live on hot dogs, hamburgers, and pizza. The very large component of our diet that fast food represents has to be one reason why we've gained a lot of weight.

When it comes to kids, the question is what responsibility the parents have for kids' poor diets. Certainly when they're big kids, and they go to the mall on their own or gather with friends after school (in my day it was the soda fountain, but who has even heard of a soda fountain in the last, what? 40 or 50 years?), they are outside of parents' control. But with younger kids, I think the parents are responsible. How many moms, when their husbands are working late and not coming home for dinner, take the kids to McDonald's or some place like that? I personally almost never eat in places like McDonald's or Burger King, but if I go to the mall and eat in the mall's food court, I see parents eating with their kids. There are healthier choices, but I see them feeding their kids pizza, hamburgers, tacos, and so on.

Again, with older kids, preaching to them probably will do no good; but where parents could have a positive influence on what their kids eat, they're not doing a good job.

The consequence is that these kids may develop Type II diabetes and other illnesses associated with overweight even while they are in their teens. It's tragic. And it's all preventable.

Copyright © 2009 by Richard Stein