"The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s.1 Today, about one in five school-aged children (ages 6–19) has obesity." "Children with obesity are at higher risk for having other chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health, such as asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and risk factors for heart disease" "In the long term, childhood obesity also is associated with having obesity as an adult, which is linked to serious conditions and diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and several types of cancer" - the CDC In the United States there is a health epidemic that seems to get little attention. That epidemic is obesity. The U.S. is one of the most obese nations on the planet, and this causes an increase in health expenditure to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. More valuable than the monetary costs, however, is the cost to the self esteem, general well-being, and overall life experience of millions of Americans. Children have little to no control over their own diets, and it is almost entirely up to parents what they feed them. Letting your child grow up obese is as harmful to their long-term health and happiness as any many other forms of neglect or abuse. It has a high risk of tangible, very expensive medical issues for the rest of their lives. The obese are much more likely to be bullied in school and rejected in the sexual marketplace. It is much harder for someone who grows up fat to get rid of bad eating habits and to lose weight. It's bad enough that Americans do it to themselves, but they have no right to inflict their condition onto their progeny. I understand that for many families it's hard to find affordable healthy food, and that they are pushed into a corner by predatory fast food companies. Given this, parents who have the monetary means to give their children nutritious meals, but who instead choose feed them candy and fast food, should be considered to have performed a type of abuse or neglect. This kind of attitude would hopefully help reverse the scourge of obesity that has weighed down the spirit and welfare of our country.
I remember when Michele Obama tried to address this by educational programs, getting healthier alternatives into school lunches, and so on. But she was viciously attacked by the right as a tyrant because you know, freedom and liberty...LOL
...or we could stop subsidizing the cottage industry of single motherhood like we have been for 40 years. When I was in grade school there was -one- fat kid, and it was probably thyroid. Maybe 10% of the kids in my HS were even overweight 10 lbs, none obese. That was the 70-80s. Forty years later with an exploding illegitimacy rate, declining marriage rate, exploding single mother household rates... ... our public schools look like county fair freak shows, fat kids EVERYWHERE, wings full of "special needs" kids, 80 IQ anchor baby kids looking like they came straight out of a cave who can't even -speak- let alone read or write English, every kind of allergy and snowflake disorder imaginable, half personality disordered or ADD on Ritalin, ADHD on Adderall. BRAVO Democrats, Bravo. That "War on Poverty" and the subsidizing of the single motherhood industry attached to it together with the JOBS program that is our public schools was a SUPERB idea. We all pay for your gross incompetence, graft and greed. But yeah, if we just threw more money at it, I'm sure the problem would go away.
Aww, something hit a little close to home... Bobby? I should report you, but you already make such a fool of yourself here I'd rather see what dumbass trollery you will post next so everyone can laugh at it.
My son said the Michelle Obama school lunches were horrible, so the kids didn't eat them. They'd be really hungry when they got home in the afternoon and ate Twinkies.
The obesity problem in America has been studied at length. The causes are many, well known, and none of the right wing hate and ignorance you just spewed has anything to do with it. On the other hand, sexist, racist, bigoted hate-filled people are generally the result of being raised extremely poorly.
Its not surprising that a kid from a home that gives their kids twinkies after school would find healthy food repulsive.
Increase in single motherhood, illegitimacy, decline of marriage, increase of divorce, War on Poverty, and especially schools full of professional welfare case, NEA union label socialist snowflake indoctrination counselors are the major social factors that correlate heavily with the fact that an alarming portion of children and young people today are freakishly ugly, mentally ill and medicated, stupid, weakly allergic, privileged and precious, morbidly obese tubs of cheeto huffing goo. If you have a stronger, more likely correlation, let's hear it, but we won't be hearing anything of the sort from you, will we.
Lol, like, am I supposed to actually post links to credible scientific and sociological studies by experts in their fields who have studied this issue at length to counter this comical stew of ignorant nonsense? Kinda feel like it would be like handing my 3 year old my old calculus textbook.
probably a racial thing over-medication and over-diagnosis come hand in hand refer to first kids spent many more hours inside than they used to this is more of an affluent urbanite phenomena single-motherhood is definitely highly correlated with childhood obesity
I'm not convinced that affordable healthy food is the issue. Vegetables, especially canned and frozen, are very cheaply available. Raw meat, whether burger or chicken or whatever, is likewise affordable. Eggs are very affordable. And so on. No, it's children refusing to eat good foods and parents indulging their kids in their own unhealthy eating habits, and/or parents simply being neglectful.