Why are American kids getting fatter and dumber?

Answer 1

Because we are protecting them too much...got this e-mail the other day and it really rings true:

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking .

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

Answer 2

As for dumber, I don't think that kids today are necessarily dumber. I grew up in the digital revolution, we have to change the mediums in which students are taught and learn. In addition to the paradigm shifts, there are also lazy teachers who are just as lazy as the students. Yes, very sad, but true. As for fatter we are a nation that is consistently on the move and with no real time to make a decent meal in which a family can sit down and eat, we have turned into a fast-food nation. There are also activities that children today are no longer interested in and are learning at ever younger ages what they are and are not good at, if I was forced to play baseball I would have been picking daisies out in left field.

Answer 3

Most of the food we eat is highly processed. It maybe cheap to buy, but the overall nutritional content is limited. Buying organic is one solution, also staying away from High Fructose Corn Syrup; it's a cheap substitute for sugar and is bad for the body.
However we are also lazy; many school systems throughout the US don't require PE classes. Therefore lack of exercise is learned from an early age. The bottom line is people have to excercise.
Dumber? Yes and no. As a nation we should consider longer school days and Saturday classes, other countries are doing this and as a result we are falling behind as a nation.
I'm sure more school isn't a popular answer with the kids, but it will help solve the problem...

Answer 4

same happened to cows,chickens,pigs ,sheep in fact everything that was bred for the kitchen

those in charge of the mind control programs know what the future has in store for us

and so do some of us ,who can see that the time will come when third world countries .cannot or will not produce enough food any more for the rich and fat ones.

agriculture is facing disastrous conditions ,with water shortage and desertification
and cannibalism may be the only way out to survive

when Europe comes under the power of the global mind control ,their kids may also start to get fatter and dumber

haha ha -i think??????

Answer 5

fatter-- because fast food is cheaper than healthier food; schools have sodas, pizza, and fries for lunch; and technology/ video games makes kids much more sedentary than previous generations. Parents who have bad nutrition will pass their bad habits onto their kids.
I don't know about dumber...I guess just because the public education system in America is going downhill. I believe education is one of the most important things that should be discussed in legislation.

Answer 6

Dumber: Becoming more and more lazy, and they are taking their education less seriously. I myself go to school, and am appalled at how students act in school!
Fatter: Video games and fat food.

Blame it on the parents for their lack of discipline. My parents get mad at me if I don't study for a test or do my homework, whereas other parents complain to the teachers for "making the homework too hard." I have seriously seen that happen! They also feed their children fast food all the time, instead of getting off their fat, lazy butt to feed their children healthy food.

Answer 7

Kids don't just go "play outside" anymore. Everything they do is structured: TV, Video Games, Sports Classes..... there's no longer the time or encouragement to just play. Whatever they want to pretend is on video or in a video game so they don't ever have to be creative. When I was a kid, all of the neighborhood children were outside from sun up to sun down. Look around now, you'll almost never see that now. They're in camps, at classes, or in front of the TV.

Answer 8

Come on! People feed kids junk. That's why they are getting fatter and consequently dumber. ( Mc Donalds isn't exactly brain food) For you to even ask this question just goes to show that you don't get it either. You really are what you eat. So eat right. Exercise. You'll be smarter and healthier.

Answer 9

You get what you vote for. I'm making thousands of $$$ selling Sheeple T-shirts. Baa-baa sheep with human faces using a free cell phone being tugged around by a man wearing a shepard's robe. A capitalist cashing in on the voting stupidity of others. Not bad for $15 each or 2 for $25. Can't keep them in stock. What a country.

Answer 10

Same reason Adults are getting fatter and dumber. TV and videogames. A healthy died means nothing without exercise.

Answer 11

They eat too much and don't exercise enough, which explains the fatter part.

Schools now teach self-esteem instead of anything useful or challenging which explains the dumber part.