LJ Idol Season 8 Week 13 - Don't Get Your Pleasure from My Pain
o/` "I'm that kid on every playground
Who's always chosen last...
You don't have to be my friend
But is it too much to ask
"Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names"
-- Don't Laugh at Me" performed by Mark Wills
Our neighboring state, Georgia, ranks as the fattest state in the United states, second only to Mississippi. While the article in question admits no studies have been done to determine the root cause of the problem. The only suggested cause --- minorities living in rural areas who are too far from supermarkets to feed their children properly --- just doesn't sit well with me. In fact, it smacks of both ignorance and racism.
If this postulation were true, explain Colorado, then, which has the lowest obesity rate in the country right now. Except for the Denver metro area, which includes Colorado Springs and Boulder, most of that state's population can be calculated at less than one to five people per square mile. Many of those would qualify as minorities as the state supports two large Native reservations, has a high concentration of Hispanics, and has a thriving community of African Americans and Chinese.
But Georgia isn't finished yet. In an effort to combat the endemic problem of childhood obesity their health department designed and launched the Strong4Life campaign. The campaign features billboards and posters whose designs make the children featured look like criminals. The pictures of these uhappy looking children are in black and white with a glaring banner in black and red below reading "WARNING" and comments such as "chubby children may not outlive their parents". It's worth noting that I was unable to find examples of these billboards anywhere except for news outlets and bloggers who are calling attention to the campaign because of its misleading practices. That, in and of itself, seems rather dodgy for a public education campaign. A little research revealed that on a Today Show interview the initiator of this brain child admitted that the children portrayed are actors; they do not, in fact, feel that way about themselves nor do they have the diseases they talk about in the clips displayed on the Strong4Life web site.
Before we assign condemnation, however, let's take a look at the web site itself.
The front page features those videos shot by child actors and little else. It offers up a statistic that 75% of the parents in Georgia with obese children either don't know their children are obese or ignore the problem but it gives no source for this statistic. The prior article admits that no studies have been done for Georgia so I have to ask just where they're getting their information from and how it was collected. I want to see the raw data or at least a link to it before I acknowledge their statistics which, by the way, are also used as a criteria for neglect and child endangerment. There have been several cases recently in which an obese child was removed from the home...but if they had siblings who were not obese, they remained with those same parents the state of Georgia deemed unfit because they had a fat child!
The section of the site meant for education contains no information of value. It merely repeats ad nauseum the benefits of using BMI (body mass index) to calculate your child's health and offers up a small link, which I nearly missed, to the CDC and its recommendations for BMI for children. Incidentally, that section mentions that BMI should be determined by a professional and should NOT be used by parents to determine a child's health. The site does mention that, in small letters, in one sentence at the end of yet another paragraph tauting the usefulness of BMI.
BMI, for those who do not know, is a calculation based on height divided by weight. For growing children, it's extremely unreliable and even dangerous to attempt adjusting diet based upon it. You don't know what the child's final height will be and the formula for calculating BMI for a child gets rather complex. It's entirely possible for a child to be a perfectly healthy weight and have no health problems even though his or her BMI does not match that definition. Within reason, the fat will redistribute as the child grows and may even be lost. Better indicators for potential health problems are A1C (measures how glucose is handled by the body over a period of months), cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. These factors together can tell more about the child's health than a weight calculation. Considering that the rate for eating disorders in children under age twelve has increased nearly 119% in the last decade, I'm uncertain how healthful concentrating on weight percentages and diet adjustments would be.
The site offers no discussion of other factors in the diseases which may be exacerbated by obesity (I would hesitate to say they're caused by it simply because even the medical profession has not thoroughly decided what factor obesity plays in those diseases) but simply names them and concentrates on their horrible effects: early death due to stroke or heart attack; diabetes and amputation of limbs or loss of sight (one ad actually displays a man, shown only from the torso down, with a pair of crutches and a soda beside him; the man in question is yet another actor who does not have diabetes and who has both legs). Before you can discuss prevention, you have to give your audience some knowledge of what actually causes these diseases. The plain fact of the matter is that some of us have crappy genes which predispose us to certain illnesses. Knowing those predispositions can aid in the impetus and motivation needed for prevention.
But no, this campaign basically resorts to scare tactics: "Your kid looks like this one, he's going to die before you do!" "You drink too much soda so you're going to get diabetes and lose a limb or your eyesight!"
When constructing a health education campaign, you need to at least tell your audience WHY they should be concerned and do it in a factual manner.
Considering the original presumption that the obese of Georgia are rural minorities (with which comes the presumption that they are also working or lower class families), this campaign does nothing to educate. It does, however, instill fear. Remember those chubby kids who are actually healthy? Imagine what they'll have to put up with at school now. The state just gave anyone and everyone a license to bully them about their weight whether or not they're obese and unhealthy. It also has the potential to create fear about handicaps: people with missing limbs, even juvenile diabetics (an inherited disease having nothing to do with obesity).
So I hear you saying, "Okay, you smart lard ass, what are we supposed to do about the problem?"
Well, I don't deny there's a problem. People are getting fatter and it WILL facilitate the presence of life threatening diseases if care isn't taken. No, I'm not going to throw a candy bar at it, shrug, and walk away.
First off, real data is needed and real scientific study. How many children are we talking about? What are the demographics of those children? Where do they live? What are their living conditions? Parents' income? Home life? All of these are things which can and do affect how well a child eats and whether or not he or she exercises. After all, if your neighborhood isn't safe you're not going to play outside. If your parents work long hours, you're probably going to be spending a lot of time at home eating pre-prepared meals and watching television. Parents with food stamps or EBT cards may not think they can afford fresh foods and they may not know how to cook them either.
With the money they spent on this campaign to instill fear and ridicule people the state of Georgia could have really made a difference. They could have:
- set up Farm to Table programs. This not only helps the local economy by providing the rural farming communities with jobs but it encourages affordable eating fresh. The foods are grown regionally to locally, boxed up, and delivered to nutritionally at-risk individuals. Some schools also contract with programs like this to bring fresh fruits and vegetables into their meal offerings.
- offered basic cooking classes to at-risk families through social services or similar aid programs. I've found that my family said they wouldn't eat a lot of the fresh produce because they'd never had it prepared properly. Through proper food preparation and seasoning, I've been able to get even my godchildren to eat Brussels sprouts, leeks, cabbage, squash, and bok choy. These are healthy for them, low in calories, filing, and provide a multitude of necessary vitamins and minerals.
- encouraged community gardens. If people can grow their own food, they're more likely to eat it. Not only that, but it will provide a source of family time and exercise.
- created an educational campaign letting people know that they can use food stamps and EBT cards at farmer's markets. Their food dollars would go a lot farther and the food is fresh and healthy.
I'd really rather see states pushing the current philosophy I have adopted, based on the book by the same name: health at every size. Throw away the measurements, the scales, the calorie counters. Work toward healthier habits slowly, one at a time, and celebrate them. If you moved around for ten minutes...great, you moved! Even if it was only to get another cup of coffee or to get the mail. If you ate a fresh fruit or vegetable, hooray for you! Try adding one new food item at a time in place of something less healthy and see where it gets you.
It IS perfectly possible to be healthy without being the 'right' weight. I'd like to see parents relying more on self esteem, blood work, and their child's efforts than on a random number created by a mathematic formula.
Who's always chosen last...
You don't have to be my friend
But is it too much to ask
"Don't laugh at me
Don't call me names"
-- Don't Laugh at Me" performed by Mark Wills
Our neighboring state, Georgia, ranks as the fattest state in the United states, second only to Mississippi. While the article in question admits no studies have been done to determine the root cause of the problem. The only suggested cause --- minorities living in rural areas who are too far from supermarkets to feed their children properly --- just doesn't sit well with me. In fact, it smacks of both ignorance and racism.
If this postulation were true, explain Colorado, then, which has the lowest obesity rate in the country right now. Except for the Denver metro area, which includes Colorado Springs and Boulder, most of that state's population can be calculated at less than one to five people per square mile. Many of those would qualify as minorities as the state supports two large Native reservations, has a high concentration of Hispanics, and has a thriving community of African Americans and Chinese.
But Georgia isn't finished yet. In an effort to combat the endemic problem of childhood obesity their health department designed and launched the Strong4Life campaign. The campaign features billboards and posters whose designs make the children featured look like criminals. The pictures of these uhappy looking children are in black and white with a glaring banner in black and red below reading "WARNING" and comments such as "chubby children may not outlive their parents". It's worth noting that I was unable to find examples of these billboards anywhere except for news outlets and bloggers who are calling attention to the campaign because of its misleading practices. That, in and of itself, seems rather dodgy for a public education campaign. A little research revealed that on a Today Show interview the initiator of this brain child admitted that the children portrayed are actors; they do not, in fact, feel that way about themselves nor do they have the diseases they talk about in the clips displayed on the Strong4Life web site.
Before we assign condemnation, however, let's take a look at the web site itself.
The front page features those videos shot by child actors and little else. It offers up a statistic that 75% of the parents in Georgia with obese children either don't know their children are obese or ignore the problem but it gives no source for this statistic. The prior article admits that no studies have been done for Georgia so I have to ask just where they're getting their information from and how it was collected. I want to see the raw data or at least a link to it before I acknowledge their statistics which, by the way, are also used as a criteria for neglect and child endangerment. There have been several cases recently in which an obese child was removed from the home...but if they had siblings who were not obese, they remained with those same parents the state of Georgia deemed unfit because they had a fat child!
The section of the site meant for education contains no information of value. It merely repeats ad nauseum the benefits of using BMI (body mass index) to calculate your child's health and offers up a small link, which I nearly missed, to the CDC and its recommendations for BMI for children. Incidentally, that section mentions that BMI should be determined by a professional and should NOT be used by parents to determine a child's health. The site does mention that, in small letters, in one sentence at the end of yet another paragraph tauting the usefulness of BMI.
BMI, for those who do not know, is a calculation based on height divided by weight. For growing children, it's extremely unreliable and even dangerous to attempt adjusting diet based upon it. You don't know what the child's final height will be and the formula for calculating BMI for a child gets rather complex. It's entirely possible for a child to be a perfectly healthy weight and have no health problems even though his or her BMI does not match that definition. Within reason, the fat will redistribute as the child grows and may even be lost. Better indicators for potential health problems are A1C (measures how glucose is handled by the body over a period of months), cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. These factors together can tell more about the child's health than a weight calculation. Considering that the rate for eating disorders in children under age twelve has increased nearly 119% in the last decade, I'm uncertain how healthful concentrating on weight percentages and diet adjustments would be.
The site offers no discussion of other factors in the diseases which may be exacerbated by obesity (I would hesitate to say they're caused by it simply because even the medical profession has not thoroughly decided what factor obesity plays in those diseases) but simply names them and concentrates on their horrible effects: early death due to stroke or heart attack; diabetes and amputation of limbs or loss of sight (one ad actually displays a man, shown only from the torso down, with a pair of crutches and a soda beside him; the man in question is yet another actor who does not have diabetes and who has both legs). Before you can discuss prevention, you have to give your audience some knowledge of what actually causes these diseases. The plain fact of the matter is that some of us have crappy genes which predispose us to certain illnesses. Knowing those predispositions can aid in the impetus and motivation needed for prevention.
But no, this campaign basically resorts to scare tactics: "Your kid looks like this one, he's going to die before you do!" "You drink too much soda so you're going to get diabetes and lose a limb or your eyesight!"
When constructing a health education campaign, you need to at least tell your audience WHY they should be concerned and do it in a factual manner.
Considering the original presumption that the obese of Georgia are rural minorities (with which comes the presumption that they are also working or lower class families), this campaign does nothing to educate. It does, however, instill fear. Remember those chubby kids who are actually healthy? Imagine what they'll have to put up with at school now. The state just gave anyone and everyone a license to bully them about their weight whether or not they're obese and unhealthy. It also has the potential to create fear about handicaps: people with missing limbs, even juvenile diabetics (an inherited disease having nothing to do with obesity).
So I hear you saying, "Okay, you smart lard ass, what are we supposed to do about the problem?"
Well, I don't deny there's a problem. People are getting fatter and it WILL facilitate the presence of life threatening diseases if care isn't taken. No, I'm not going to throw a candy bar at it, shrug, and walk away.
First off, real data is needed and real scientific study. How many children are we talking about? What are the demographics of those children? Where do they live? What are their living conditions? Parents' income? Home life? All of these are things which can and do affect how well a child eats and whether or not he or she exercises. After all, if your neighborhood isn't safe you're not going to play outside. If your parents work long hours, you're probably going to be spending a lot of time at home eating pre-prepared meals and watching television. Parents with food stamps or EBT cards may not think they can afford fresh foods and they may not know how to cook them either.
With the money they spent on this campaign to instill fear and ridicule people the state of Georgia could have really made a difference. They could have:
- set up Farm to Table programs. This not only helps the local economy by providing the rural farming communities with jobs but it encourages affordable eating fresh. The foods are grown regionally to locally, boxed up, and delivered to nutritionally at-risk individuals. Some schools also contract with programs like this to bring fresh fruits and vegetables into their meal offerings.
- offered basic cooking classes to at-risk families through social services or similar aid programs. I've found that my family said they wouldn't eat a lot of the fresh produce because they'd never had it prepared properly. Through proper food preparation and seasoning, I've been able to get even my godchildren to eat Brussels sprouts, leeks, cabbage, squash, and bok choy. These are healthy for them, low in calories, filing, and provide a multitude of necessary vitamins and minerals.
- encouraged community gardens. If people can grow their own food, they're more likely to eat it. Not only that, but it will provide a source of family time and exercise.
- created an educational campaign letting people know that they can use food stamps and EBT cards at farmer's markets. Their food dollars would go a lot farther and the food is fresh and healthy.
I'd really rather see states pushing the current philosophy I have adopted, based on the book by the same name: health at every size. Throw away the measurements, the scales, the calorie counters. Work toward healthier habits slowly, one at a time, and celebrate them. If you moved around for ten minutes...great, you moved! Even if it was only to get another cup of coffee or to get the mail. If you ate a fresh fruit or vegetable, hooray for you! Try adding one new food item at a time in place of something less healthy and see where it gets you.
It IS perfectly possible to be healthy without being the 'right' weight. I'd like to see parents relying more on self esteem, blood work, and their child's efforts than on a random number created by a mathematic formula.