'Merica: we're fat.

America is a country full of fat people. From sea to shining sea, we dine on fast food, pre-prepared foods from the grocery store and processed foods. We love sweet things, rich things, salty things, creamy things. (Or, preferably one giant obesity cake that includes all of those flavors, thank you very much.) But in what areas do the fattest people in our country live?

According to Prevention magazine, “These urban centers have the highest rates of heart disease and obesity in the country, perhaps because they seem to promote sedentary lifestyles and diets heavy on fast food but light on fresh produce.” Is your city on the list? You might be pleasantly (or unpleasantly) surprised … Continue reading »

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Lu Hao's diet is now restricted to one bowl of rice three time a day

When Lu Hao was born, he was considered underweight at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. Thankfully he started putting on weight at 3 months old. Unfortunately, however, he hasn’t stopped.

Three years later, he is now 132-pounds and his parents are limiting his meals to one bowl of rice each instead of three. And they’re hoping doctors in Hong Kong can help him lose weight.

He’s already been to several hospitals near his home in Guangdong Province, but no one has been able to figure out what’s caused him to become so severely obese.

Continue reading »

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If it's everywhere, we just don't see it.

I know this story all too well. “As (being) overweight and obesity have become more common, those who are carrying unhealthy extra pounds are increasingly likely to see their weight as normal, and are therefore unlikely to feel the need to shed some of those pounds.” That’s from a Health Magazine article about obesity in the US. Like many women, I jumped from being “normal sized” to being “plus-sized” after giving birth. (And I’ve stayed plus-size because that was the last time I ever jumped.) For most of my 20′s, I hovered near the top of the normal-sized ladder, wearing a 12 or 14. (The only exception being the summer I got married, when I was in a size 6. My wedding, apparently, was a low point.)

I didn’t gain tons of weight while I was pregnant, but since I was so close to the tipping point as it was, I didn’t have to pull a Kate Hudson and gain 75 pounds to wind up an 18. My life was quite full after my daughter was born, and when Americans run out of time, we often eliminate those activities that are best for us. I was too busy and tired to go to the gym or to workout. I was too stressed by work and my relationship to worry about trying to lose weight. (Of course working out relieves stress, but that argument wasn’t convenient at the time.) I did walk and carry my daughter’s stroller up and down the subway stairs, but I wasn’t getting enough physical activity to make a difference. I had become fat. It snuck up on me, like a cheesecake in the night.

According to Health, “Roughly two-thirds of adults and one-third of children in the U.S. are now overweight or obese.” But perhaps more importantly, we’re ignoring the fact that we’re out of shape. “The latest evidence for this trend was presented Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference in Atlanta, where Columbia University researchers reported the preliminary results of a study that found that overweight mothers and children tend to underestimate their own — and each other’s — weight.” Continue reading »

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Earlier this week, I wrote about a retail store in the UK that recently introduced a line of plus-sized clothing for kids as young as three.  In describing this larger toddler attire, I used various adjectives including  “expanded,” “husky” and “fat.”   While plenty of commenters took issue with my views in general, at least one took issue with my choice of words.  Isn’t it rude, she asked, to call people, especially children, fat?

For the record, I was calling the clothes fat, not the kids who wear them.  But I get her point and think her question is a good one.  Is fat really a bad word?  And if so, why should this be? Continue reading »

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I have no doubt that Michelle Obama started her Let’s Move initiative because wants nothing but the best for our nation’s children.  But Harriet Brown, author of Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia, brings up some poignant and critical points about the anti-obesity campaign in her latest column on The Huffington Post.  Her overall concern: trying to make kids thinner actually makes them fat.

Brown says she’s “conflicted about the report released in mid-May by Michelle Obama’s task force on childhood obesity,” because the “ideas are all presented in the service of a single goal: to make kids thinner.”  She feels it’s dangerous to suggest “that thin is synonymous with healthy, and that we can (and should) make kids thinner.”  This opinion is based, of course, on her daughter’s struggle with anorexia.  But take one look at where her daughter’s illness started – in her middle school “wellness” class – and you can see that her concerns are not entirely misplaced. Continue reading »

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Claudia Garza as a child. Photo via CNN.

We’ve already talked about how fat kids are more likely to get bullied at school just because they’re fat, but what about kids who get picked on by their parents? According to CNN, “A 2006 study published in Obesity found that 72 percent of nearly 2,500 overweight and obese women had been stigmatized by family members because of their weight.” What happens to children who are made fun of for their weight by the very same people feeding them?

Mandy Perryman, a counselor at Lynchburg College in VA, says, “If there’s criticizing among family members, emphasis on dieting, putting people down, kids internalize that.” Which leads to emotional eating, of course.

Claudia Garza, who shared her story with CNN, says her parents called her a “fat slob” and “gordita” and told her to “eat only half” at mealtime. How aggravating and confusing, to be told by your parents to eat only half the amount of food they laid in front of you. That’s like being given three assignments by your boss and then being told to complete only one and do the other half-heartedly. It just doesn’t make sense, and feels like a trick.

When I was little – in the 80′s – portion control was a far off notion, familiar only to leotard-clad ladies who liked to jazzercise and eat cottage cheese for lunch. I was always told as a kid to clean my plate, but then as a teen I was criticized for my fat thighs. By the time I got into college for musical theatre, my Dad would often say things like, “How are you gonna be a choreographer if you’re fat?” And then take me out for ice cream.  (I’m not sure why he thought I wanted to be a choreographer.  Maybe it was the way I danced every time we ordered pizza.)

The thing is, I wasn’t obese. I was chubby at best. But young women have distorted body images, and to be told by your father – the man who is supposed to see you as beautiful no matter what – that you’ll never do something because of the way you look is disheartening to say the least. The irony is, my father was fat. And my mother and grandmother. I come from a long line of fat women. (Well, more like a short, wide line, really.) And when a tendency to be overweight runs in the family, your parents just want to protect you from their fate. Unfortunately, misguided attempts at threatening kids into being thin don’t work when you’re wagging your finger with one hand and making five-cheese lasagna with the other. Continue reading »

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Photo by Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press, via the Washington Post.

First Lady Michelle Obama kicked her campaign against childhood obesity into high gear today by unveiling the White House Task Force’s 120-page report of recommendations on how to stop the epidemic, available on the government-run website Let’s Move. 

The 70 bullet points range from fairly simple and well-known ideas such as maintaining a healthy pregnancy weight and the importance of breastfeeding, to “the sure-to-be controversial, such as boosting the quantity of fruits and vegetables grown in the United States,” reports the Washington Post.

According to the Associated Press, “One in three American children is overweight or obese, putting them at higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other illnesses. Obesity is even more prevalent among black and Hispanic children,” so no doubt Mrs. Obama takes this issue personally.

The AP stresses that “the report and its recommendations are advisory,” but there is related legislation on the table.  The Obama administration has asked for $10 billion towards the initiative, but the “Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act… (only) allocates an extra $4.5 billion for childhood nutrition programs” and ”is the first time since 1973 that Congress has increased the federal reimbursement rate for public school meals,” per the Washington Post.

The AP notes the report includes, among other things, ”incentives to attract supermarkets to underserved areas; and an effort to get pediatricians to make a habit of calculating their patients’ body mass index, a height-weight comparison used to measure fat.”  This will certainly help residents in poor areas of New York City and similar metropolitan areas, where good produce can be hard to find – especially at an affordable price – and it’s not unusual to see toddlers in poor neighborhoods eating Cheetos and drinking a can of Coke for breakfast. Continue reading »

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