Just some thoughts on obesity (Children in particular)

These are some thoughts that I presented for a specific school project, but I thought I would share them with the masses.

As with most things, I view this issue from a different angle, maybe from a broader perspective.  As educators, we need to get out of our thinking that obesity is caused by overeating.  Especially in the case of morbid obesity.  For someone who is only 300 pounds, they need a whopping 3000 cal/day as a basal rate.  So for those that are 400-600 lbs, they should be eating nonstop all day long to get them there and keep them there.  They have to be true gluttons in every sense. This is obviously not the case, especially for children. There must obviously be another answer.  I don't want to be the one who is always blaming everything on our horrible culture, but there is some affect here.  The question must be asked, why does the human body create fat cells? Even though this is not entirely a simple question with not one simple answer there is a general category that engulfs the majority of the answers.  This is survival.  Why does a body need stored energy?  For survival.  What is out there that our kids need to survive? Isn't that all in their (our) head?  Well to name a few: our Lord of the Flies educational system, broken homes, isolation, abuse, peer pressure, and the big one... decision making.  Survival for the human body is a physiological shift.  It is often referred to as stress, but that term has become so trite that is almost mocks what people are experiencing.  We have placed our kids in an environment where they feel like they need to be constantly running and/or fighting.  They have no peace and comfort at home because their parents are engulfed in their own struggle to survive, they go to school where they haven't figured out how to conquer the social hierarchy to keep from being isolated or picked on and most have been placed in a role of primary decision maker for their own outcome.  They are choosing their meals, choosing their friends, choosing their past times, choosing the best actions to keep the family together and themselves happy.  This is not a proper role for a child. Children should not HAVE to make these decisions.  And then when we see these same kids getting sick and fat at alarming rates, WE, the health community, blame the children for eating too much or making wrong decisions that they should not have been making in the first place.  Is it too much to fix?  If it is then we have signed the death warrant on our children and on our culture.  We need to start being mindful and start dealing with these kids like they were adults, because they often seem to be the only ones acting like one.  We need to help them understand what is really happening in their mind/body/spirit and teach them to be the superintendent of self.  They need to know that they have power to make different choices and enlighten them to what is really happening to their body. I never give up on anyone and everyone is worth the effort but it makes more sense to begin to shift our energy and focus from educating adults to educating kids.  They are world turners right now.  I want to coin another term for the society that I think we live in now.  It is no longer a patriarchal society but a pediarchal society.  If you have trouble believing that then follow the money... watch a little tv and see who those with money are paying attention to; its our kids. Maybe we should do the same thing.