I wrote this partially in response to a comment in my child development class. Basically, the comment was that while it is sad to see young children on diets, it’s more depressing to see so many “morbidly obese” teens. The student went on to say that it would be nice if it wasn’t neccesary for children to diet at all because they’d been taught proper nutrition from the get go.
I felt like I needed to respond, not only to that student, but to most of my classmates. I know my way of thinking is revolutionary these days. I’m beginning to see, quite clearly, just how revolutionary it is!
xoxo,
Juliet
(response follows)
I am fairly convinced that part of why so many children are “morbidly obese” is the insane rate of dieting amongst children starting at a very young age. I know from personal experience that diets will almost always fail. This cycle of restriction, followed by binging, is very bad for the self-esteem. Having family, friends and peers be critical - if not outright cruel - just makes it harder.
There is also increasing evidence to support that some people simply will never be able to successfully “diet” down to a “normal” weight, due to various physiological factors such as genetics or serotonin levels. I can speak from experience that dieting did nothing for me long term - except exacerbate an eating disorder and result in more weight gain. During the times I didn’t attempt to diet, I would essentially maintain my weight without effort, and I naturally tended to eat more balanced, healthier foods.
Many “diet” foods are packed with just as much “junk” as “junk” foods. They often are merely smaller portions (like all the 100 Calorie packs out there now - and now they have them for DOGS!) of the same “sugary junk.”
I no longer look at food as “good” or “bad.” No food is off limits. It’s very helpful, believe it or not, to know I can eat whatever I want whenever, and I haven’t binged since December.
What we need to work on with kids more than anything else, is acceptance. Children need to understand that people come in different shapes and sizes. Healthy living is not about the number on the scale or the size of your clothes. It’s about so much more than that.
There is an overwhelming amount of disgust and judgment towards overweight people in our culture. Hollywood, the media, doctors, etc have a tendency to look down on fat people - and with the media and doctors, they claim to do this because they want to “help,” however, I see little to help and a lot to hurt. Some doctors are especially cruel.
We have CHILDREN having drastic weight loss surgery. Surgery that is fraught with complications. Unnecessary surgery that can cause permanent damage. Children are STILL growing and developing, and WLS is a medically induced form of anorexia. The body is getting next-to-no nourishment, especially in the more extreme types of surgery. There are also very few studies done to support that WLS actually makes a difference in health long term.
If we really, truly are interesting in having a healthier society, STOP making it about a number on the scale or physical appearance. There is a movement known as Healthy At Every Size, that is geared towards body acceptance and overall health.
There are some wonderful bloggers, many with a medical/clinical background, that have posted a wealth of information on the subject. I’ve listed a few of those, for anyone interested in learning more from a less biased viewpoint than the one we generally get from the mainstream media.
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/
http://everywomanhasaneatingdisorder.blogspot.com/
http://eatingmycake.com/ (shameless self-promotion of my own blog)
http://lovemeformexox.wordpress.com/ (the blog of a “fat” teenager, who is one of the most well adjusted teens ever)
http://harrietbrown.blogspot.com/
http://www.sizeate.blogspot.com/
http://bigfatblog.com/
http://www.obesitymyths.com/index.cfm (not a blog, per se, but an interesting site full of facts)
I just really strongly believe that we need to consider that being healthy is not about size. It’s about lifestyle.
First off, there are eating disorders that don’t as readily show as the ones that can cause obesity. They are often far more dangerous (anorexia has the highest rate of death of all mental health conditions [source: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/anorexia-body-neglected]), but the tend to get far less attention because being thin - even painfully thin - is generally considered more acceptable. Which isn’t to say actress don’t get tortured in the media for being too thin (and even actors aren’t off limits, though they are usually accused of a drug habit, rather than anorexia - even anorexia is not gender specific), but the expression “you can never be too thin or too rich” comes from somewhere!
Until we stop torturing our bodies, trying to mold them into something they are designed to be - whether that’s a size “0″ who wants to be a size 6, or a size 16 who wants to be a size 2 - we can never get beyond the physical to truly address the health issues. Worse, we set ourselves up to create even more, worse health issues.
So, I believe that while yes, we need to guide children in ways that are healthy when it comes to nutrition, it may be even more critical that we help them to learn that it doesn’t matter what a person looks like. Otherwise, we have three year-olds afraid their winter coats make them look fat and ten year-olds talking about how many carbs are in a cupcake. Or kindergarteners who say they’d rather lose a limb than be fat. Or fifth graders intentionally vomiting up their lunches.
We’re raising a generation who will have self-esteem issues far worse than the ones our generation grew up with. I’m much, much more concerned about children loving themselves - flaws and all - than I am about what their BMI index might be.
Trust me - it’s harder to fix the self-esteem issues.
Anyway… stepping off my soapbox now.
I wrote this partially in response to a comment in my child development class. Basically, the comment was that while it is sad to see young children on diets, it’s more depressing to see so many “morbidly obese” teens. The student went on to say that it would be nice if it wasn’t neccesary for children to diet at all because they’d been taught proper nutrition from the get go.
I felt like I needed to respond, not only to that student, but to most of my classmates. I know my way of thinking is revolutionary these days. I’m beginning to see, quite clearly, just how revolutionary it is!
xoxo,
Juliet
(response follows)
I am fairly convinced that part of why so many children are “morbidly obese” is the insane rate of dieting amongst children starting at a very young age. I know from personal experience that diets will almost always fail. This cycle of restriction, followed by binging, is very bad for the self-esteem. Having family, friends and peers be critical - if not outright cruel - just makes it harder.
There is also increasing evidence to support that some people simply will never be able to successfully “diet” down to a “normal” weight, due to various physiological factors such as genetics or serotonin levels. I can speak from experience that dieting did nothing for me long term - except exacerbate an eating disorder and result in more weight gain. During the times I didn’t attempt to diet, I would essentially maintain my weight without effort, and I naturally tended to eat more balanced, healthier foods.
Many “diet” foods are packed with just as much “junk” as “junk” foods. They often are merely smaller portions (like all the 100 Calorie packs out there now - and now they have them for DOGS!) of the same “sugary junk.”
I no longer look at food as “good” or “bad.” No food is off limits. It’s very helpful, believe it or not, to know I can eat whatever I want whenever, and I haven’t binged since December.
What we need to work on with kids more than anything else, is acceptance. Children need to understand that people come in different shapes and sizes. Healthy living is not about the number on the scale or the size of your clothes. It’s about so much more than that.
There is an overwhelming amount of disgust and judgment towards overweight people in our culture. Hollywood, the media, doctors, etc have a tendency to look down on fat people - and with the media and doctors, they claim to do this because they want to “help,” however, I see little to help and a lot to hurt. Some doctors are especially cruel.
We have CHILDREN having drastic weight loss surgery. Surgery that is fraught with complications. Unnecessary surgery that can cause permanent damage. Children are STILL growing and developing, and WLS is a medically induced form of anorexia. The body is getting next-to-no nourishment, especially in the more extreme types of surgery. There are also very few studies done to support that WLS actually makes a difference in health long term.
If we really, truly are interesting in having a healthier society, STOP making it about a number on the scale or physical appearance. There is a movement known as Healthy At Every Size, that is geared towards body acceptance and overall health.
There are some wonderful bloggers, many with a medical/clinical background, that have posted a wealth of information on the subject. I’ve listed a few of those, for anyone interested in learning more from a less biased viewpoint than the one we generally get from the mainstream media.
http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/
http://everywomanhasaneatingdisorder.blogspot.com/
http://eatingmycake.com/ (shameless self-promotion of my own blog)
http://lovemeformexox.wordpress.com/ (the blog of a “fat” teenager, who is one of the most well adjusted teens ever)
http://harrietbrown.blogspot.com/
http://www.sizeate.blogspot.com/
http://bigfatblog.com/
http://www.obesitymyths.com/index.cfm (not a blog, per se, but an interesting site full of facts)
I just really strongly believe that we need to consider that being healthy is not about size. It’s about lifestyle.
First off, there are eating disorders that don’t as readily show as the ones that can cause obesity. They are often far more dangerous (anorexia has the highest rate of death of all mental health conditions [source: http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/anorexia-body-neglected]), but the tend to get far less attention because being thin - even painfully thin - is generally considered more acceptable. Which isn’t to say actress don’t get tortured in the media for being too thin (and even actors aren’t off limits, though they are usually accused of a drug habit, rather than anorexia - even anorexia is not gender specific), but the expression “you can never be too thin or too rich” comes from somewhere!
Until we stop torturing our bodies, trying to mold them into something they are designed to be - whether that’s a size “0″ who wants to be a size 6, or a size 16 who wants to be a size 2 - we can never get beyond the physical to truly address the health issues. Worse, we set ourselves up to create even more, worse health issues.
So, I believe that while yes, we need to guide children in ways that are healthy when it comes to nutrition, it may be even more critical that we help them to learn that it doesn’t matter what a person looks like. Otherwise, we have three year-olds afraid their winter coats make them look fat and ten year-olds talking about how many carbs are in a cupcake. Or kindergarteners who say they’d rather lose a limb than be fat. Or fifth graders intentionally vomiting up their lunches.
We’re raising a generation who will have self-esteem issues far worse than the ones our generation grew up with. I’m much, much more concerned about children loving themselves - flaws and all - than I am about what their BMI index might be.
Trust me - it’s harder to fix the self-esteem issues.
Anyway… stepping off my soapbox now.