Childhood Obesity?

Question

Ok i'm a 31 year old male 5' 9" 180 Pounds. Throughout my life i've always been slender due to my mom's healthly cooking. How come mother's today can't seem to feed thier kids right? Is it really hard to cook healthy? Who is really to blame for childhood obesity???

Answer 1

Actually, I think portion control and fast food are partly to blame for the obesity problem in America. Regarding the children, most of the time, the parents are not setting a good example on how to eat correctly. Normally when the child is obese, the parent is too. I think nutritional help for the entire family is the best solution. The tough part is, the entire family needs to buy into this lifestyle.

Answer 2

I think there are a lot of factors.

Not having been breastfed can contribute to obesity, cholesterol problems, etc.

Convience. So many families are so busy and fast food is so easy. So is packaged food. Most prepared food is stuffed w/ crap and refined sugar/flour. All of that can not only add up to a lot of calories but also slow the metabolism. And those foods are ADDICTIVE!

Malnutrition. A lot of obesity may be caused by subclinical malnutrtion. Even if somebody eats a lot, s/he may NOT be getting enough nutrients. The body may crave more and more food to try and satisfy the deficits. Just taking vitamin supplements while having a crappy diet is not enough.

Activity level. So many kids play video games and watch tv. Children should be very active. It's NOT healthy to sit around and couch potato it all day!

Children need to be offered a variety of healthy foods and allowed to select for themselves. If good, healthy food is always available, normal and healthy children self regulate.

Children also need to have pleanty of room to play and not be drowned w/ electronic entertainment starting in infancy. Normal children are SUPPOSED to want to run, jump, climb, roll, etc and not sit around numbing their minds.

Schools are partly to blame as many take money from snack food companies, have lunch programs including very unhealthy choices, vending machines full of soda and candy, and little in the way of PE that kids actually enjoy.

Yes, it IS a parental problem. It's also a societal problem. We all need to take stock of our health and the kind of message we are passing on to our children.

Answer 3

1.I've found that MANY women have NO IDEA how to cook, much less how to cook healthy foods.
2.Many women are too busy to worry about cooking correctly.
3.Sometimes the family focus is on surviving on less-than-enough money, so nutrition just is NOT a focus.
4.Many kids are eating free lunches at school - take a look in your local paper as to what your tax dollars are feeding them.
5.Kids are not exercising like they used to do after school; they have excessive homework plus have game boy type games to occupy them indoors.
6.Unhealthy food tastes better; with kids being spoiled in other ways, this is one more way to give them what they want instead of what they need.
7.In general parents are taking less responsibility for their children in EVERY area, and food is no exception.

Answer 4

Lots of mothers work these days, and they think they don't have time to cook for their children, so many of them just order fast food. Personally, I think parents are to blame.

Answer 5

I would say POP is the one to blame i stopped drinking pop and lost 23 LB it is just so easy and kids are getting hooked on it younger and younger

Answer 6

the parents dont even care about the kids, haha the truffle shuffle