Most kids dieting or calorie restricting

A survey of 500 teens in the UK revealed that 33 percent of girls between the ages of 13-18 years old are dieting however, 50 percent of the girls admitted to eating less than 1200 calories a day (under the excuse of "eating healthy"). The suggested calorie intake for a growing teen is at least 2000 calories and 3000 calories for boys (some of whom were eating 800 calories or less per day). (see www.mypyramid.gov )

Many adults are ignoring the need to look like a concentration camp victim but teens are taking these messages seriously and confusing being super slim with healthy. The same survey found that less than 25 percent of the teens were eating the proper amount of vegetables - most were eating less than 2 portions a day of veggies.

Other surveys have found that more teens are starting smoking today than in the 1960's before all the dangers of cigarette smoking were known. Most teens start smoking in an attempt to control their weight. But those same kids exercise very little when at least 60 minutes of cardio daily is recommended for children to stay healthy. One little boy on TV, a participant in one of those health - lose weight shows, told the nutritionist that he doesn't have to eat well and exercise because he's slim. This is the common misconception that TV is giving our kids.

All this dieting and calorie restriction may be one reason why autoimmune disorder is becoming that "epidemic" that obesity never was. Or why whole schools of vaccinated kids are coming down with whooping cough. Dieting is a known challenge to the immune system even in adults - imagine how it might devastate the immune system of a growing kid.

I took a 10 year old shopping for clothing this weekend and she was painfully aware of her size.... and wanted to squeeze into a smaller size which didn't fit her just to avoid the larger size. She has a large frame and is of endomorphic bodytype but her size in the 1950's when I was in elementary school would have been considered "normal". Today in our efforts to make our kids boney, her size is larger than average.

Worried parents, concerned at all the TV messages about "widespread obesity in children" are, it seems, ending up giving their children grief if they are even slightly larger than very slim. One young girl who is a bit chunky told me that her slim sister is allowed to eat candy but she is not allowed. That same young girl told me that she skips lunch most days in school because she "doesn't like the food".

But as one RN told me, only 1 in 5 children is overweight or obese. That's 20 percent of kids who are overweight or obese which means 80 percent of children are NOT overweight or obese (and many that I see in school are painfully slim) and that is even by the very narrow measuring of the BMI scale which does not take bone mass or muscle mass or gender into consideration. Since when is 20 percent an "epidemic"?

We know from the experience of the very obese adults that many of them GOT that way from ruining their metabolisms as kids dieting...

So when do we stop punishing our kids for being healthy?

Can fat hysteria be dumbing down our kids?

Most public schools these days, are very concerned with the fatness of the kids who attend there. In walking around the cafeteria of a public school at which I attended a concert recently, I noticed all kinds of diet posters and slogans. I noticed NO slogans about doing better in school or thinking more. Most children of 9 years and older, read the backs of food packages to find out "how many calories" are in the food they are thinking of eating, more often than they read books. Some of us educators are a bit concerned about that.

A study by Tufts researchers, (WELL FUNDED by the CDC as well as other companies with vested interests) put all the children in Somerville, a suburb of Boston, into a program called "SHAPE UP" which stressed "smaller portions" and lots of exercise. They reported in "Obesity Journal" (Obesity 15:1325-1336 (2007)) that the study was a success because during the year long study, Somerville kids gained 1 lb LESS than kids of their same ages in neighboring suburbs. That resulted in a BMI difference of 0.10.

Seemingly of no concern to anyone was the fact that the reading scores of kids in Somerville are 14 percent BELOW the national average and the math scores, 25 percent BELOW. This is especially odd as Somerville is a semi affluent community.

I am reminded of an article in "SHAPE MAGAZINE" around 1995, entitled "DOES DIETING MAKE YOU DUH?" which reported that people on a diet did not function as well, cognitively, as people eating normally.

Many people have noticed a general "dumbing down" of society in the last couple of decades. Could our affinity to partially starve ourselves to attain what we consider to be "the perfect body" be a factor? Studies by the Food Institute of the UK suggested that prolonged calorie restriction, caused PERMANENT brain damage.

Will we go back to emphasizing things like READING BETTER to children or continue to dumb down with things like the "shape up" campaign, which though considered successful by the researchers, really did not make much difference in the children's health status and certainly did NOT help their poor reading and math skills (on the contrary, I suspect). I would guess that it's in the interest of those who wish to sell us something that we continue to dumb down, because educated, aware buyers are much more difficult to manipulative through the media.

resource: blog by RN, BSN, has a detailed description of the study and an excellent analysis of the flaws etc.

Child obesity epidemic? Where IS IT?

A recent blog mentioned a campaign in which "childhood obesity" was targeted on billboards as a "public health issue". As understandable, many objected to this pointing out that it would traumatize fat children even more than they are being traumatized now. But the sponsors of the campaign, The MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation says they are NOT backing down.

Peggy Howell, spokesperson from NAAFA stated that:

“It’s just simply reinforcing the fact that the children who are already bullied and teased mercilessly by their own classmates now are being made the butt of even more (teasing),”

Which of course seems a no brainer.

But I am wondering something. Where IS this great "obesity epidemic" among kids? I teach in an elementary school and I also visit my grandkids' school often and I just haven't seen all these "dangerously fat" kids that the news media seems to want us to believe, exist. Seems the same percentage of genetically fat kids there were when I was in school (in saner times) in the 1950's - about 2-4 per 30 kids.

What I DO see a lot of is painfully slim kids. When I taught 20 years ago, there was maybe one or two very slim kids in the class and those were invariably the ones who were sick a lot and had a poor attention span. In fact, I remember wondering whether things would be better for them if they were more 'robust'.

Now those very slim kids form the majority of kids in elementary schools. And have the same high rate of illness (like vacinated kids getting whooping cough) and same poor attention span that super slim kids had 20 years ago. And they are all obsessive about food. Know the calories of every food and painfully aware of everything they eat.

Sounds like we may be raising a lot of kids with eating disorders and you know, being slim as a kid, if one has "fat genetics" does NOT stop fatness as an adult.

And fatness as an adult does not mean lack of health either. In several comments about the campaign targeting childhood obesity, people have pointed out that they are rather large and still very healthy and fit. I will add MY comment to that - I weigh 261 at 5'5" and haven't had a cold since Dec 2005. Also I can do yoga and ride a trikke cambering scooter, dance. Pretty good for a 62 year old - truthfully, I am a whole lot healthier and stronger than some of the slim folks around me.

So what IS this all about? Selling diets? Fear mongering on the news to get people to watch so they see the ads? I know one thing it is NOT about. It is NOT about health, and it's NOT about the welfare or well being of our children and that is FOR SURE.