Follow the money: Childhood "obesity"

[lindentreeisle]

We've all seen the panic stories in major magazines and newspapers, where they trot out a couple photos of morbidly obese kids and scream about how ZOMG AMERICAN KIDS ARE FUCKING FATTIES. This piece on Lawyers Guns & Money provides some interesting facts about the statistics being bandied about by scare-mongers, as well as a likely motive for said

Comments

[mandy_nyar]

Well, I do agree that kids aren't eating healthy enough. When I was growing up, there were no soda machines in elementary school..now there are. I'm not sure if the problem is the same as it was when I was growing up though ^_^; The schools in town have replaced the sugary stuff with diet soda only...I think they should just get rid of the machines all together. My mom always limited the unhealthy things I could eat. It seems like some families are too busy for a home cooked meal. Fast food was a luxury for me ^_^; I think those sorts of habits influenced me as an adult. I went through a phase where I ate whatever I wanted, but eventually I grew out of that and hunger for more healthy things. I think it's an important period in life to encourage healthy eating so they grow up to be healthy. I don't think kids need to be drugged though to solve the problem :P Also this whole "epidemic" has taken all of the fun out of eating...I don't want to feel guilty indulging once and awhile ^_^; *clings to ice cream, brownies, and cookies

[lindentreeisle]

Mmm, brownies.

[cynlee]

This doesn't shock me. It's always about money. *sighs*

[lindentreeisle]

Very little shocks me these days.

[crabapplered]

Man, I always hate this sort of thing. Weight issues are such a messy thing, and people always throw rocks at the pharmaceutical companies. I'm not denying that some of them really are out to make as much cash as possible, but on the reverse side, how many people are actually looking for a solution to X health problem, and how many of them just want a miracle pill to make it go away? Pharmaceutical companies might not be angels, but they are by no means the only source of this problem. If enough patients go to their doctors wanting miracle cures, you bet the pharmaceutical companies will cave in.

[lindentreeisle]

People are dumb, and that's a fact...but it doesn't give big pharma a free pass if they are ginning up statistics and studies in an attempt to panic people about a nonexistent "epidemic." You can't run a con and then claim it's not your fault that people are so gullible, yanno?

[crabapplered]

No, of course not. I'm not saying they aren't exploiting people, though I will say that it is not always the case. Pharmaceutical companies are not the devil so many people want to paint them as. I just wish people would take responsibility for their own issues. It takes two to tango, after all, and yet you so rarely hear about both sides of the equation when these debates come up.

[lady_ganesh]

Yep.

[lady_ganesh]

I'm not convinced. For one thing, the increase of Type 2 diabetes among young people is most easily explained by higher weight among kids. They used to call Type 2 "adult onset" for a reason; you normally got it the way my mom did, after years of being overweight and not taking care of yourself. The author doesn't address this at all, just talks about the statistics being vague. They're not vague at all when it comes to diabetes.

The statins issue is something else altogether, and sounds like pharma company bullshit to me.