Obesity in 4 year olds is shocking. It used to be the one kid in the class who was heavy (that was me) and now it’s the average-sized or skinny kid that is less common. Obviously if that is happening, it’s spreading and it’s not just to more kids, it’s worse with kids who are Hispanic, black and worst with American Indian children. Then, now it’s not just in high-schoolers, then middle-schoolers but now 4-year olds…

“Flores cited higher rates of diabetes in American Indians, and also Hispanics, which scientists believe may be due to genetic differences.

Also, other factors that can increase obesity risks tend to be more common among minorities, including poverty, less educated parents, and diets high in fat and calories”, Flores said.

Obviously these kids are at a disadvantage and their communities are doing the best they can to get them moving. That is good. But those heavier kids are often very self-conscious when it comes to exercise and they may be doing it at camp or in school but without the healthier food complementing that activity at home, its hard to get healthy.

A lot of these kids may have things in their lives that are making them eat, but some of them probably watch their parents numb themselves with food so they do the same. There are a few organizations that do work in disadvantaged communities that are helping this problem and we need more of them.

For the home, an organization called Share Our Strength has a program called Operation Frontline. They have partnered with ConAgra Foods and Kashi to educate families on nutrition on how to prepare healthy, tasty meals on a limited budget.

www.strength.org

For schools, there is another non-profit called Food Studies Institute. Led by Dr. Antonia Demas, they have a program called, “Food is Elementary” (FIE). It’s a very cool curriculum introducing schools and communities to teach children about food, nutrition, culture, and healthy living.

www.foodstudies.org

Doctors Say Kidney Stones in Kids are On the Rise

Let me see, we aren’t supposed to eat as much salt as we do, and now they are telling us that our kids are getting the problem too. In fact, they are now saying there is an increase in kidney stones with them. It reminds me of not too long ago when doctors were seeing Type 2 Diabetes in more children for a disease that was typically found in adults over 40. According to the CDC.

“Children and adolescents diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are generally between 10 and 19 years old, obese, have a strong family history for type 2 diabetes, and have insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents already appears to be a sizable and growing problem among U.S. children and adolescents. Better physician awareness and monitoring of the disease’s magnitude will be necessary.”

Do I need to say anything more? No. The problem is that we are having a snowball effect. We’ve got the adults (the parents of these children) who have got their own issues. I love this from the first article, “It’s unlikely that most adults will ever follow the government’s recommendations (for sodium consumption).” Of course not! Who follows the food pyramid anyway? Granted, I think they do great work on obesity. I worked at HHS on it, but I left precisely because they weren’t the answer alone! If they were, we’d all be skinny! I don’t think it should be up to them to educate. We have to empower ourselves to healthier lifestyles!

Ok, so we’ve got the parents who love to prepare processed meals for their kids to put everyone either in a food coma or a sugar high. Then if there isn’t time or money to prepare something at home, they go out to the golden arches of sodium, McDonalds or if Joey won his baseball game, why not go to The Cheesecake Factory? Is there a better way to reward oneself than with food? So the family waits for two hours for a table and when they finally sit, it’s a blended drink, an appetizer, full meal, and can’t forget the cheesecake the size of a small child. We wonder why we’ve got issues with sodium.

The poor children are just following in our footsteps! I have to say, given my own battle with obesity I know ONE thing. Parents – it is NOT about your child’s weight. I’ve been there and I know that there is a REASON they are eating like that. Did any of you see that Oprah episode a few months back with the obese kids and how sad they were? They did the exercise, “If you really knew me, then…” Every kid and parent was screaming and crying. It ALL came down to the REASON they were eating. Did anyone notice that much like an addict, they hate that they can’t stop and hate themselves for that?

They are going through something, and no diet or fitness program will help them unless you get to WHY they are eating, or not eating, which seems to be more of a trend with younger and younger kids these days. Until we stop focusing on their weight, and focusing on them as human beings with feelings, the epidemic will only continue to get worse. In order to GET to those feelings, we have to help them not to numb themselves (and I’m not just talking about the kids people!).

The ONLY way we can get them to see their feelings is if we feed them better, slowly take out the toxic stuff. The more processed foods they eat, the more sodium, sugar, calories and fat. The more unprocessed foods, the more aware they are of their feelings and the better they feel in their body.

We’ve got to focus on the real problem. It’s not an obesity epidemic. It’s an emotional one. These poor kids and many adults like them are addicted to processed foods. We work on that, we have a better chance at surviving as a population.

Cobwebs and Illusions

We compulsive over eaters react to refined sugar and starches as an alcoholic reacts to alcohol. When we were overeating, our thinking was foggy. The more we ate, the more confused we became. We often lived in a world of cobwebs and illusions and were unable to separate fact from fantasy.

This cloudy thinking caused all sorts of complications in our relationships with others and lowered our general level of efficiency. We found ourselves becoming very angry and irrational when events did not go our way. We often made life miserable for our families, taking out our anger on them. Sometimes we escaped into a world of fantasy where we would be omnipotent and where our every whim would be indulged…

I don’t think there is any better way to start my writing than on this excerpt from today’s “Food for Thought”.

When I was in a fog with sugar and starches, constantly feeding myself them, I couldn’t see through the clouds. No matter how hard I tried I was still stuffing down my feelings and going further into the fog with these toxic substances. I do have a problem with alcohol, of course I do! It’s loaded with carbohydrates and sugar!

Fantasy? I LIVED in my fantasies when it came to everything in life, because I didn’t want to face my feelings. Then I’d deal with real people and I would have the expectations of them from my fantasies. Hello! Not realistic…no wonder I was always frustrated with people, and with life. Thank God I can be abstinent, have a clear head and be living in reality, not fantasy!!!

Do you feel the same way like you are in a fog with sugar and starches? Or are you abstinent? Share if you like!