Some Days, the Urge To Move Is Stronger Than Others

[Voltair]

I would agree that putting our kids on diets seems stupid. However the other problem is we now have 4th graders with type 2 diabetes. I believe that we are at an over 40% obesity rate in the country and I think it is also getting worse.

If you have a child that is almost 80 pounds overweight some kind of intervention needs to take place. Ultimately though cleaning up the school lunches won't solve this problem because the problem starts at home. The government can't fix this problem, parents are going to have to.

So I predict we are going to have some young deaths in about ten years because I seriously doubt anything is going to change.

[thesummerqueen]

Yeah, but Voltair, kids (and I stress normal here) with a normal healthy metabolism who are fed a lunch like that during the day and healthy meals otherwise, who get and play and exercise (instead of sitting in front of the TV or Xbox with snacks, do not have this problem.

[Autumnlicious]

5th, it's a kid. If the kid has a normal metabolism and gets exercise, that lunch is perfectly fine.

Perish the day our kids have to go on low-carb diets. Jesus.

That is not an argument.

And the day has come and gone already for that. I await your banishment of the day itself. You're a few years too late, however.

REF: http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/303/3/242.full

Finicky eater? Bullshit. It is the parent who decides what their little nose miner(s) will eat. Won't eat X or Z? No probs; she may get pretty hungry,then she will eat what is put in front of her. (unless she is allergic and goes into anaphylaxis)

Many parents don't have the spine to tell their spawn 'no'.

As for US school nutritional standard; this is the authority which has declared pizza sauce to be a vegetable.

That was an act of congress, not an act of the USDA. And congress is proving to be quite the opposite of progress alright.

Recently an Australian child psychologist observed

about 20% of parents have the parenting skills of an avocado.

I have no reason to suspect things are any better in the US.

Increase that number to at least 40% and you got a model of the US.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

That was an act of congress, not an act of the USDA. And congress is proving to be quite the opposite of progress alright.

Oh,OK,I stand corrected.


However, did not the school give chicken nuggets to a child? Here a chicken nugget is a small piece of crumbed,deep fried, reconstituted chicken.The chicken equivalent of a fish finger,except arguably less nutritious. Is it different in the US?

We don't have school meals in Australia, yet have still managed to become the world's most obese nation,per capita.

[KichigaiNeko]

Something ELSE is the root cause of obesity??

[5thHorseman]

Parents, Kichi.

[KichigaiNeko]

Not really 5th...more a "sign of the times"

[thesummerqueen]

I didn't say kids weren't fat. My point was more fully explained when I responded to Voltair.

Someone might complain about that lunch for an adult, particularly one trying to lose weight. A child, on the other hand, particularly one described as petite, should have no problem with it. Substituting it for fried chicken nuggets was reprehensible.

[Bradjalicious]

I'm with 5th, Voltair and Moros. I'm not saying we need to put kids on diets, but we need to stop following the standard american high carb diet and the idea that bread is a health food (heart healthy whole grains).

[thesummerqueen]

Completely anecdotal, I know, but here's how my childhood went:

Cereal for breakfast. Sometimes oatmeal or pancakes/french toast instead. Similar lunch to what this girl had. Dinner was generally a meat of some sort - steak or chicken, lots of fish, vegetables, rice. Plenty of fruit was kept around the house to snack on. The packaged "kid snacks" were only allowed on long car trips, field trips, that sort of thing.

When I left high school, I only weighed 100lbs. We were always on target weight. We got plenty of exercise (if it wasn't nice outside, my parents found chores for us to do). I didn't gain weight until I started working in an office, where sweets were brought in regularly and sedentary computer habits kicked in.

We can argue whether the gov't should step in with an obesity epidemic, but my point is that the actions displayed by the inspector were ludicrous. There was nothing wrong with that lunch for that child. Also, if you don't remember your school lunches - our chicken nuggets were suspect at best, the pizza dripping with grease, and the burgers bounced on the plate. Turkey and cheese on bread is the least of your worries.