No it should NOT be treated as child abuse, but something should be done about childhood obesity in this country. When you have 200 lb 10 year olds, and teenagers too heavy to sit behind a standard desk, you have problems. When you have type 2 diabetes in kids, you have problems. When a child is so stressed and depressed from the ridicule, you have a problem.
We can start with food history and education; I was a child of the 60s and 70s where they experimented with irradiated meats. My father worked in a meat packing plant; if he didn't butcher it we didn't eat it. I grew up in an urban environment but my grandfather kept a garden in the backyard, as most did in our neighborhood. We even had summer projects at school tending urban gardens; vegetables and melons were everywhere!
There are many things that have happened to our food and nutrition over the last 30-40 years. It's been slow and systematic going on in laboratories everywhere under the guise of finding ways of feeding the hungry and poor. Most of the food we eat has no decent nutritional value....at all. It doesn't successfully fill or satisfy so what do we have a tendency to do? Eat more of it of course! Microwaves make matters worse by further irradiating the food and removing even more nutrients out of it-do yourselves a favor and exchange it for a convection oven. Bottom line is we're overweight but under nourished--it's a cyclical clusterf*ck!
Okay what are the alternatives? Well we used to have food co-ops and independent markets. Did you know that there is a law recently passed (without the public's knowledge and consent) that makes it legal to grow organically, but illegal to sell (unless it's certain markets-will get to that later)? I've been hearing about this for awhile but it's finally in play; our police are being used to shut down organic farms and markets that sell unprocessed goats' milk. When they can be taking care of REAL crime they're shutting down organic markets that sell goat's milk.
Did you know that many of the independent markets are being bought by Whole Foods? Did you know Whole Foods is owned by the government? So now you really have no idea where your food is coming from. It can be birthed from a petrie dish, genetically manipulated, fished out the gulf for all we know. And we get to pay top dollar for it too!
And don't get me started on corporate manipulation through the media known as advertising. You're not a cool kid if you're not wearing, playing with, or eating what we want to sell. Who cares if it makes you a 200 lb by the time you're ten? Don't you be without the latest, greatest, must have that we tell you that you need.
Let's just say I'm glad my kids are grown with their own jobs.....
I know I went all over the place so if you are still reading at this point, I commend you! But I wish it were as simple as parents getting educated about better food choices. Healthy food prices are cost prohibitive and who can
really tell how healthy they
really are? Poor people are stretching their budgets as far as they can go; you can tell by looking in the shopping cart who's on WIC or getting food stamps.
There are many components to the obesity epidemic; start with making as many healthier choices that you can afford and get off the couch and do some stuff. I've struggled with weight all my life; I have two children who struggle as well and they're very active (one's an athlete). Another thing--do yourself a favor and DON'T DIET! Dieting is the worst thing I ever did to myself; it ruins your metabolism and you might not get it back in order. It took years to get in this mess, and it's going to take time to get out of it.
