Spare the fat, spoil the child

Since 1981, obesity (defined as being 20 per cent or more above ideal weight for age and sex) has tripled among Canadian children, from 5 per cent for both sexes to 16.6 per cent of boys and 14.6 per cent of girls. The number of overweight children has increased from 15 per cent overall to 35.4 per cent for boys and 29.2 per cent for girls.
"There are tremendous health consequences," says Dr. Warshawski, now very serious. "What you see in the short term are mental-health issues, poor self-esteem. A child who is significantly obese is self-conscious and treated differently by other children." A study in the U.S. found that obese children were less happy with their lives than children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, Dr. Warshawski says.
Self-esteem is important, but not deadly. The real threat to health parents are failing to recognize is the long-term consequences of being overweight or obese for decades. Being overweight or obese is a key factor in health problems ranging from bad backs and arthritis caused by hauling around too much weight, to some types of cancer, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
"We are setting our children up for a life of ill-health," Dr. Warshawski said "Of kids born in 2000, one in three will develop type 2 diabetes because of their weight." Type 2 diabetes is not an easy life, or a quick death: generally, as the condition worsens, veins shrink and organs wither away. It can mean years of pain and disability, potentially ending in blindness,amputations and kidney failure.

I thought type 2 diabetes was genetic, inherited, and not caused by being fat? Is this guy hyping hysteria or what? Our kids are getting fatter so they're automatically going to get type 2 diabetes and that definitely means it always gets worse and leads to years of pain and disability? WTF!! Could the reason that the numbers of fat children have tripled in the last 20 years be because the BMI standards for what is considered "normal" have been lowered at least once in that time? Could it also be that kids are getting taller, and with that comes increased weight?
Of course kids who are fat have self-esteem issues. They are bombarded with thin images, messages that thin is ideal, fat is lazy, fat is stupid, fat is ugly. They are bullied by peers, parents, teachers, strangers. They are taken from their parents and told that their parents are abusing them by letting them be fat. If a child does happen to have loving parents who foster a sense of self-worth not based on their child's size, that child still has to deal with what is said outside his/her home.

Physician-delegates attending the 140th annual meeting of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) in August set their sights on curbing the obesity epidemic by recommending governments implement both mandatory 30-minute daily exercise periods for all school-aged children and youth. Delegates also called for creation of a user-friendly supplement to Canada's Food Guide that would outline a comprehensive strategy for children and youth on how to reach and maintain healthy weights.

A comprehensive strategy for children and youth on how to reach and maintain healthy weights. RIIIIGHT! No one has been able to do that for adults, what the hell makesthem think they can do it for kids? And who decides what is a healthy weight? The BMI is flawed since it doesn't take into account the fact that muscle weighs more than fat, so that a muscular person could weigh more than a flabby person the exact same size (and by size, I mean height and body measurements). Not to mention that you can't tell who is healthy and who is not just by looking at them. And why is being healthy such a moral imperative? It is not possible for every person on earth to have the exact same level of health as every other person on earth.
There are too many variables in life to be able to assure everyone the same level of health. Where you live, what kind of job you have, married or single, had kids or not, what kind of food you eat, how you handle stress, your genetics, substances you've been exposed to in the course of your life, all of these can affect your health, and there aren't many of them that can be controlled well enough to assure health.
In spite of the fact that people are getting heavier (or maybe because of it), our life expectancy is increasing. The so-called obesity epidemic that is supposed to be shortening our lives doesn't actually seem to be doing that, in any part of the world. I don't think it's going to shorten our children's lives either.