Wu-Tang Is For The Children!

Well ODB, I don't know if Wu-Tang is for the children, but the rest of us should be - how will you?

From MSN - Obesity Epidemic May Cut Life Spans of Young Adults

...The study authors report that one in five people born between 1966 and 1985 became obese -- a step above merely overweight -- when they were between 20 and 29 years old.

By contrast, those who were born from 1946 to 1955 didn't reach the level of obesity until they were in their 30s. And those who were born between 1936 and 1945 didn't get to that weight category until their 40s ...

Wow. Startling trend huh? We now manage to become obese ~20 years quicker than we did just two generations ago - and we aren't slowing down. The current generation of children will become the first to have a life expectancy shorter than their own parents! Take a moment to let that marinate a bit.

This generation of children will become the first to have a life expectancy shorter than their own parents!

If you have children - or are planning to have children - that has to concern you. Might even piss you off. I know it pisses me off, and I don't even want children. But I do have two younger brothers, ages 16 and 12. I am concerned for them - they don't know any better. I hope they never know what it's like to have prick their finger after every meal, or become so skilled with a syringe that they could moonlight as phlebotomists. Unfortunately, the statistics suggest they likely will.

But not if there is anything I can do about it.

The staggering increases in the rates of obesity and diabetes in children have been well documented. If you are indeed Smarter Than a 5th Grader, it's also not hard to comprehend the ENORMOUS impact these numbers have on health care costs. Ahhh the costs - one of the largest arguments against the most recent health care bill. Who is going to pay for all of this? A question that does need to be asked, but one that is well out of the scope of this post.

Indeed, the costs are staggering. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn't think lowering health care costs is a huge positive. But what costs exactly have everyone so up in arms? Treatment costs right? Seems to me as though someone has forgot equations have two sides.

Couldn't costs be also substantially lowered through prevention? If there is nothing to treat, there is no cost! Seems like a logical approach to me. Are we saying - "Oh we tried that and it didn't work?" It's almost as if the FDA, USDA, AHA, ADA, etc. have all collectively thrown their hands up in the air and shouted - NO MAS! I am the only one that hears no one talking about prevention anymore?

The above statistics seem to suggest that the preventative strategies we have implemented that were recommended by the above agencies have been an utter and colossal failure - and indeed they have been! But WHY? Instead of giving up on prevention, why are we not questioning the methods with which we have been using with ZERO success?

How can we possibly say we have tried prevention when we look at our nation's school lunch programs? Pizza for breakfast and lunch? French fries as vegetables? We don't truly expect people to eat well or be healthy after feeding them crap for 2/3's of the day for 12-16 years of their life do we? They don't even know how! Large masses of "experts" still operating under the fallacies of healthy canola oil and dangerous saturated fat is bad enough - but french fries counting as vegetables? Who is making guidelines like those? What are their qualifications? Are they obese? All fair questions in my opinion.

The appointment of Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin - who is obese - was justifiably criticized due to her weight. Her response was that she understands "what it's like to be overweight" and that she would help us become a healthier nation. Lot's of people understand what it's like to be overweight - about 67% of the population at last check - that doesn't make you qualified to do anything about it. If you haven't been able to help yourself, how are you going to help anyone else? By no means does she need to look like a figure competitor - that would most likely be just as bad as being obese - but she is a posterchild for that 67%. If the message is that we just have to keep trying harder - using the same tired methods we have been - our ever declining health will continue.

We need to get back to real, nutrient-dense, unprocessed food. We need to get back to using good science - not what passes for good science (or is it a good headline?) these days. These changes need to happen not only in our homes, but in our schools, and perhaps most of all....in academia. A stronger emphasis on continuing education for our medical and health professionals is in order as well. Only then will we begin to reverse the dangerous downward spriral we have been in for the past 2 generations.

Recent Musings...

Figured I would post a couple of rants I have submitted to local newspapers recently in response to articles they ran. The first was published, the other I'm awaiting word on.

First, submitted to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

In response to Dr. Quinlin’s letter from Sunday’s PG (“Obese people generally don't have a choice,” Nov. 23), as a health & fitness professional with 10+ years of experience; I must respectfully disagree.

The original article ("Fat and Fact," Nov. 22) finally brought to light the elephant in the room. While people may not choose to be fat, they do “alone decide how much they eat and how much they exercise (or how little).” It’s not necessarily laziness; it also stems from a lack of education on effective ways to do so. Folks may be surprised to know that the size and scope of their primary care physician’s education on the subjects of nutrition and exercise is extremely small. Even the American Diabetes Association, up until very recent years, was giving dietary recommendations that were actually compounding the problems and symptoms of those following it. These, combined with the large disconnect between medical professionals and health & fitness professionals; are largely contributing to our failure to sufficiently address the obesity and diabetes epidemics.

While I agree with the doctor that genetics play a large role, and that we know very little about the subject as a whole; there is science supporting specific dietary and physical protocols that have significant success. The idea that obesity cannot be controlled or managed any more than eye and skin color is simply not accurate. The responsibility of the individual cannot be understated.

While the obese population may “wish for a solution far more than any policy wonk”, do they know how to go about it and are they willing to make the necessary changes to do so? The multi-billion dollar sales of the supplement industry and FDA approved drugs such as ALLI, combined with the staggering rate of increase in obesity and diabetes in both adults and children suggests that the answer is no.

And most recently for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

RE: School districts expand healthy menu options - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

While the increased attention that the systematic poisoning of our children at the hands of our nation’s school lunch program has been receiving lately due to the efforts of Jamie Oliver and subsequent articles such as Thursday’s “School districts expand healthy menu options” excites me, the content and comments contained within suggest while meaning well and on the right path – we still have far to go.

I applaud the removal of the fryers - and more importantly the harmful canola/vegetable oil contained within them - in the Moon Area School District. But I decry the idea that by offering kids “baked chips, SunChips or pretzels” that it is somehow healthier. It’s not. It’s still processed junk. Why are we even offering snacks in the first place? A school is a place for learning; students need nutrients in order to do so - those snack choices offer no nutrients to speak of, rendering there availability illogical.

The allocation of more funds via legislation like the Health, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 is good on the surface, but to “enable the secretary of agriculture to establish national nutrition standards” is not necessarily helpful. Not if that person decides, such as the case in Huntington, WV, that french fries count as a vegetable. Or that canola oil is healthy (it’s not). Or that saturated fat is somehow unhealthy (it’s not).

Again, I do believe that Ms. Lazzaro, and many others, “have the kid’s best interests at heart”. I do. But it’s not enough. Our educators need educated. The idea that “fat-free pudding and reduced-fat cottage cheese” is “cutting edge” – or healthy for that matter – is laughable. One would have thought the fat-phobia phase went out in the ‘80s right with Olivia Newton John. Those products are anything but healthy once you look at all the chemicals and additives that are poured into them to make them palatable. Not to mention many of our most vital nutrients and vitamins are fat soluble; remove the fat and you absorb nothing. Nutrients don’t function in isolation.

There is nothing inherently wrong with carbs, fat, or protein. The devil is in the refinement and processing of each of them. The solution is simple on the surface – eat REAL, nutrient dense foods. For all of the fuss about food labels, if what you are buying has a food label – chances are you shouldn’t be eating it in the first place.

The deeper issue is captured beautifully by Michelle Tejchman of Moon Middle School – “I’m a junk-food person.” Judging by the alarming rate of increase in obesity and diabetes – in our children – she is far from alone. But WHY is she a junk-food person? We can throw money at this problem just as we have at education in general. But it won’t be enough. Until there is a fundamental shift in the home - and America as a whole, the nation’s health will continue to decline right along with its intellect.

Jamie has done something beautiful. Hopefully it’s the beginning of a new movement, one which I intend to be a part of. The question is….

“Who’s coming with me?” – Jerry McGuire

Attn: Michelle Obama.....

If Michelle Obama is truly serious about waging a war on obesity, she would do well to read a great post by Richard Nikoley over at Free the Animal (Warning: NSFW...Not Safe For Waist - Food Porn Included!) touching on the deplorable state of the school lunch program in the US; contrasted by that of France.


It is imperative that we reach and teach children to eat REAL food early on in order to interrupt the growing obesity and obesity-related epidemics that have been increasing at such alarming rates. Otherwise, the war on obesity will end up being successful as the war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on terror..ahhh you get the point.


"Head Start; No Child Left Behind...Somebody's losing fu**ing ground here!" - G. Carlin