FFS!
Clinton was at the Mayo Clinic for his friend Dan Abraham, the founder of Slim-Fast, who came to the clinic for the first time in 1983 with a terrible year-long cough.
"The patient care that you get here saved my life at least three or four times," said Abraham.
The center is named the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center and is for employees of Mayo Clinic. About 150 employees were able to attend the dedication.
The center has high-tech aerobic machines, weights and even a salt water pool. Abraham gave several million dollars to the Mayo Clinic to make the center a reality.
"I looked around and saw all of the wonderful people that were working here but the shape they were in was not inspiring," said Abraham.
Oh yeah, he could tell what kind of shape they were in just by looking at them, so obviously, they need to work out (like working in the medical field isn't labor-intensive for nurses, aides, orderlies, housekeepers, and cooking staff).
The former president talked for about 20 minutes about affordable health care for baby boomers and childhood obesity.
"We had a 9-year-old child in Harlem last year diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, where my office is," said Clinton.
A nine-year-old with type 2 diabetes? Now, I know I read somewhere that growing children have fluctuating blood glucose readings and that doesn't necessarily mean they are type 2 diabetic, but they are being prescribed oral meds and in some cases, insulin, to control their BGs. I wish I could remember where I read it (I thought it was at JunkFood Science, but I just spent the last couple of hours searching the site and couldn't find anything, so maybe I read it somewhere else).
"And if we don't rescue our children from a culture they had no hand in making, which is literally compromising their ability to have good lives, then we won't make it. That's what all these machines mean" he said.
Mr. Clinton, the only thing compromising our children's ability to have good lives is the bullying about being "fat" and the social mentality of "thin is healthy/smart/beautiful/rich, fat is unhealthy/stupid/lazy/ugly" that is being promoted. When we start accepting ourselves and our children as we/they are, no matter our/their size, then we will all be able to live our lives to the best of our abilities without being shamed for being different.
I agree, very well written.
ReplyDeleteHey, a 9-year-old in Harlem had good enough health coverage to have his or her blood sugar checked. That's positive!
ReplyDeleteIt makes me ferocious when people insist on linking exercise to weight loss. Because I could get so fucking excited about a salt-water pool if it weren't part of an "OMG I saw some fatties!" panic.
FJ, yeah that he had health care so he could have his blood sugar checked is positive, for sure, but without knowing why it had to be checked, that bothers me. Was he showing symptoms of diabetes, or was it done as part of a routine exam? I don't ever remember anyone checking my son's blood sugar when he was that age.
ReplyDeleteExercise should be fun and done because it makes you feel good, not because you're fat and out of shape and people think you're going to lose weight if you exercise (and I'm not out of shape, round is a shape [I couldn't resist that one]).
I think the thing you were looking for about prepubescent kids having temporary insulin resistance is on RioIriri's blog, hang on...
ReplyDeleteYup, here it is.
and it has the link to the relevant piece on Junkfood Science.