Rant I: Child Obesity isn't always genetic....
This is a bizzarre phenomenon I've always thought. I was
watching some program a while back going on about obesity in kids. They seem to blame the foods they
give them at schools according to report. This got me thinking, what was so different in the diet I
had at school ot now? Nothing! If anything there's probably less "E-numbers" in their food than when I was at school.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm quite thin (not sickly thin, just toned-ish without being particularly big) and I ate all the rubbish like "Top Secrets" (remember them?), Smarties and those grotesquely unhealthy iced buns. Not to mention the extravagantly coloured "Panda Pops" which masqueraded as refreshment, when the amount of chemicals inside them would be more suited to killing germs in a public toilet. Yet despite this gross sugar intake, my generation of kids at school were not shaped like The Death Star.
So why is it? One answer? Laziness. You never see kids playing football down the park (ah the old "jumpers for goalposts" scenario) or riding bikes like we used to. They're inside playing on Playstations or watching TV, every waking hour when they're not at school. Now don't get me wrong, I play a lot of playstation myself but I don't camp on it when I'm either not eating or on the loo.
Some parents these days are more than happy just to throw their kids in front of an idiot box that actually interact with their kids. And when the child call differentiate between right and wrong (in the case of the game "manhunt" being blamed for a murder), they blame the game. For a start, that said game is an "18", implying only people over the age of 18 can purchase it... so can a young teenager purchase a title like that? Computer games in this instance are a scapegoat for crap parenting. My parents limited me a lot when I first purchased a SEGA Mega-Drive (or Genesis to my friends across the pond) so that I wouldn't become dependent on it. I know now the games are more interactive and realistic but still I grew up playing Mortal Kombat and I'm still to eviscerate someone else as a "fatality".
So in conclusion, I understand that some cases of obsety are genetic or medical...I'm not poking fun at that at all. What I am saying is because kids these days are so bloody lazy, they gain weight and blame it on diets. Prevention is better than cure, and I for one will never let my kids (one day when I have some) become video game zombies, who are unable to kick a football.
End of rant
Now don't get me wrong, I'm quite thin (not sickly thin, just toned-ish without being particularly big) and I ate all the rubbish like "Top Secrets" (remember them?), Smarties and those grotesquely unhealthy iced buns. Not to mention the extravagantly coloured "Panda Pops" which masqueraded as refreshment, when the amount of chemicals inside them would be more suited to killing germs in a public toilet. Yet despite this gross sugar intake, my generation of kids at school were not shaped like The Death Star.
So why is it? One answer? Laziness. You never see kids playing football down the park (ah the old "jumpers for goalposts" scenario) or riding bikes like we used to. They're inside playing on Playstations or watching TV, every waking hour when they're not at school. Now don't get me wrong, I play a lot of playstation myself but I don't camp on it when I'm either not eating or on the loo.
Some parents these days are more than happy just to throw their kids in front of an idiot box that actually interact with their kids. And when the child call differentiate between right and wrong (in the case of the game "manhunt" being blamed for a murder), they blame the game. For a start, that said game is an "18", implying only people over the age of 18 can purchase it... so can a young teenager purchase a title like that? Computer games in this instance are a scapegoat for crap parenting. My parents limited me a lot when I first purchased a SEGA Mega-Drive (or Genesis to my friends across the pond) so that I wouldn't become dependent on it. I know now the games are more interactive and realistic but still I grew up playing Mortal Kombat and I'm still to eviscerate someone else as a "fatality".
So in conclusion, I understand that some cases of obsety are genetic or medical...I'm not poking fun at that at all. What I am saying is because kids these days are so bloody lazy, they gain weight and blame it on diets. Prevention is better than cure, and I for one will never let my kids (one day when I have some) become video game zombies, who are unable to kick a football.
End of rant
2 Comments:
Where are these overweight children that the government is forever banging on about?
When I look around my daughters playground - all I can see is skinny children racing about. If I see 2 plump looking children out of 100 that's it; so it's hardly the epidemic that we're led to believe.
Excercise is definitely key, most children aren't allowed the same freedom that we had - which leads to them doing 'safer' activities at home which obviously are more sedentary. I'm lucky that I have a really big garden and a park nearby that I can take them too but I do know that a lot of kids do come home from school and spend the rest of their time indoors.
I do hate it when I overhear parents complaining that they don't know what to put in their child's packed lunch because crisps and sweets are banned at school - there are other food groups! But having said they I give my two chocolate and the occasional bag of crisps, no food should be a sin..
By 50ftqueenie, Feb 02 07 4:33 AM
My kids school is considering banning crisps and sweets in lunchboxes - but will cancel P.E. (one hour a week) at the drop of a hat.
By jacquie38, Feb 02 07 7:03 AM