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You are here: Home / Archives for obese children

Upset About Bake Sales

August 6, 2014 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act went into effect July 1, setting new, updated standards for calories, fats, sugar, and sodium for “competitive foods” sold at schools.

competitive-food

“Competitive foods” do not wear uniforms and engage in sports; rather that’s government-speak for vending machine snacks and bake-sale goodies. This regulation sets standards for calories, fats, sugar, and sodium, and is attempting to push foods with whole grains, lowfat dairy, fruits, vegetables, or protein foods as their main ingredient. It does require that food and beverage items sold during the school day achieve certain standards, but also allows for special exemptions for the purpose of conducting infrequent school-sponsored fundraisers. What the law does not do is define “infrequent,” leaving that to the states to set their own limits.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Baby Boomers, Current Events, Diet, family, Health, Newspaper Column, Weight Loss Tagged With: childhood obesity, family, food news, obese children, politicians, politics, quality of life, school lunches, weight loss

The Healthiest Family on the Dance Floor

March 13, 2013 by Scott "Q" Marcus Leave a Comment

As an obese child, I hated P.E.

When choosing teams, I was always picked last, each side trying to give me to their opponent. When playing baseball, I would be strategically placed in “ultra right field” (outside the foul line if possible) so as to have virtually no contact with the ball, thereby helping to ensure my team would not be humiliated by my clumsiness.

man-dancing-blurryIn the gym, I was forced to do pull-ups by a drill-sergeant phys-ed teacher. Dangling from the steel crossbar in front of a gaggle of snickering classmates, too heavy to do anything but limply hang, kicking my feet as if that would help pull me up, the coach bellowing, “Come on tubby! If you can’t do it, go on a diet.” Disgusted, he’d discharge me from my personal hanging purgatory and I’d attempt to blend into the back of the class, hoping for a distraction to come quickly and pull everyone’s red hot gazes from me.

One doesn’t “hang around” much when one goes to Zumba as 58-year-old, but one’s old memories do.

My biggest fear when I began was that I would pass out.

I was fearful that my macho competitive persona (I might be middle aged but I am still a male) would override my professorial intellectual one and I’d over-exert myself attempting to keep pace with a roomful of twenty-something exercise enthusiasts adorned in designer leotards, headbands, and leg warmers (does anyone wear leg warmers anymore?) For my efforts, I would be mortified by having a heart attack, collapsing mid beat on the polished floor. The remaining dancers would heft me to the ambulance, albeit while maintaining the rhythm of a hot salsa dance move, all the while never missing a step.

My other paranoid fantasy was that I’d be humiliated. I was concerned I’d trip over my clodhoppers or people would laugh at how I look in gym shorts (since I don’t have designer leotards).

Long story short, I have (mostly) overcome my angsts, and — as hard as it to believe — I look forward to my classes, and try to find sessions to attend, even when out of town.

Since I didn’t know anyone in this new environment, I staked out a corner and observed as other participants entered. I witnessed an obese, late-thirties mom take a spot beside me. Nearby was her adolescent daughter, apparently on her way to replicating her mom’s physique, and Dad, who — although being shorter than me — probably tipped the scales at twice my weight.

Simply stated, it was a very heavy family.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Exercise, family, Newspaper Column, Traditions, Weight Loss Tagged With: bullying, childhood obesity, dance classes, family time, obese child, obese children, obese kids, shame, zumba

Obese Children and Bullying

August 2, 2010 by Scott "Q" Marcus

It was lousy growing up fat. Nothing was more degrading than buying my clothes in the “husky” section. Okay, maybe showering in front of a bunch of guys after high school P.E. was worse… or, wait, never dating… or, wait a second, here’s one: being teased behind my back – and for that matter – to my face… or, well… I guess there are countless things that suck about being a fat kid.

A recent study shows that obese children in grades three through six are more likely to be bullied than children of normal weight. Teen suicide due to bullying – an absolutely horrifying thought – has tragically been in the news a great deal, raising awareness of the psychological impact of constant harassment. Now we discover that it begins at an early age, with overweight children as the primary target.

Based on my own memories, I didn’t find this to be news. However, I had assumed, or maybe naively hoped, that things had changed. Not so, as researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed over 800 children ages eight to 11. In the third grade, 15 percent of the children were overweight and 17 percent were obese. A quarter of the students admitted to being bullied; with 45 percent of the mothers reporting that her child had been bullied for his or her weight. The odds of being bullied were 63 percent higher for children who were obese than their classmates of normal weight, and bullies did not discriminate based on gender or economic status. Overweight boys were just as likely as girls to be bullied, and even those with good social skills weren’t spared.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Diet, family, mental health, News, Newspaper Column Tagged With: anger, bullying, childhood obesity, lack of exercise, obese children, obese kids, overweight children, psychological impact, teen suicide, university of michigan

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