Online Obesity Guide

Recently the Federal Trade Commission had asked the US Congress for an increase in their annual budget of 13 million. Although you would not expect the agency to be involved in the issue of Childhood Obesity, they are and even touted their efforts to Congress as priority of the agency and reason for additional funding. In fact below is their testimony to Congress as listed in their report;

Evaluating Self-Regulation Efforts and Childhood Obesity.

How do you view an obese person? With sympathy? With derision? I bet it is the latter in most cases since, they represent our own inability to keep our weights under control. In their reflections we see ourselves, what we could become in the future if we continue on the path we are on, unable to control our own weights.

However, we fail to change our food habits. We have become far too dependent on fast foods as, they are convenient, attractive and satiate our senses. We do not consider their inherent harmfulness.

Obese in simple terms means an excess of fat, usually in the absence of underlying disease, except in a few cases where hormonal disturbance can be held responsible for it. Life insurance companies have defined obesity in terms of risk to life from the available data of height and weight. There are various methods to assess the amount of fat in the body which ascertains the degree of obesity. Skin fold thickness measured by calipers, body mass index, waist/hip ratios, in fact there are standard tables available but body mass index and waist hip ratios are mostly considered. The ratio of weight in kilograms divided by square of height in meters is usually taken into consideration as a quick method of calculation and this ascertains the body mass index and thereby relative risk involved. A BMI of 25 is taken as the upper limit of normal, 25-30-low, 30-35 moderate, 35-40 high and above 40 is very high risk zone.

There is a huge with obesity in the United States of America and it is running rampant and these types of issues cause severe problems during hurricane evacuations in those areas most prone to hurricanes. Many leaving town are unable to take the people who are obese. This may sound rather unfair and unfortunate and whereas sometimes they can find a way to take them via specially transportation, we know this costs the taxpayer many dollars and generally prevents other regular people from the ride they need to get out of the area.

As the government becomes more aware of the problem of childhood obesity, schools in the UK are now planning to weigh and measure all children at the ages of 4-5, when they start primary school and again at 10-11, when they are about to leave for secondary education. This is something which is already being carried out in the US, but how effective is it?

As a people group, we Americans are over weight - plan and simple. As bad as that statistic is, even worse is that the rate of child obesity is on the increase. Look around and you will see it. This topic hit home for me when I took a look at my 10 year son at the pool this summer. The little guy has love handles. He is be no means fat or obese, but 10 is a little young for love handles and a belly pudge don’t you think? It is obvious that society is aware of this as they have successfully targeted the major soda companies to take soda out of schools and only offer water and fruit drinks. This seems to stop a short as they can still get snack cakes and greasy chips with ease. It is the school’s or the beverage industry’s responsibility to keep our kids healthy? No, but they need to support what we are teaching at home so I applaud the removal of soda and look for programs that teach the kids what is healthy so they make good choices, not limit what is available and not really tell them why. I also read something recently that suggested that the increases stress level of some children causes them to use food as an escape. Stress from school, sports, parents, and friends.