Running Jumping Climbing Trees–to Fight Obesity
photo by Michael Justus/Times-News
I ran across this news in my google reader, and at first blush, it made me happy–a picture of a little girl with a hula hoop! The idea of a small sponsoring an exciting activity day for kids, saying Hey, kids, it is cool to go out and play and run and be active and happy and use that awesome and excellent body you have which is a miracle of engineering and science and biology. Activity is good! Hula hooping is fun! Let’s go run down the block for the sheer, unadulterated joy of pumping our legs and arms and feeling our hearts slamming in our chest and knowing that everything is our bodies are designed to support us and keep us moving from place to place.
That’s good stuff, there. It makes me a little sad that we need to remind kids of this, that we’ve become a sedentary society with so many electronic options for entertainment available at our fingertips that it is difficult to want to shut them off and shift our butts down the couch and go do something on our feet, but that’s what we get, for living in the future (and what I think is so interesting about the Wii Fit and how it addresses that, but that is a whole other post).
Anyway, I moved past my immediate happy first impression and past the adorable photo, and discovered that Activity Day was sponsored by the Childhood Obesity Prevention Demonstration Project, and I got irrationally irritated. We will not ever stop shrieking about childhood obesity, will we? That’s always going to be the focus, The Danger of Maybe Getting Fat. Why can’t the focus just be on health, on activity, on making good choices, at being fit whatever size and shape you end up with? Saying, it is good to be healthy, rather than, Let’s make sure you don’t get fat!
The thing that kills me is that they’re doing something important–encouraging healthy habits (because no one can argue that it’s not a good idea to take care of your body) and being active and staying strong. I don’t want to be irritated; I want to applaud initiatives that encourage well-being. But I am so tired of that link between size and health, and tired of feeling that it is just never going to be broken.
Posted by jenfu
Email us
Not to mention that it’s really helping to ingrain a prejudice towards people of size at a very young age. Fat is bad and something you need to be very very afraid of. As opposed, as you pointed out, to: exercise is fun and is something we should do every day.
Le sigh.
I had a very similar experience this morning with my breakfast cereal. Yesterday I bought some new Paul Newman honey-flaxseed-whole wheat stuff, because I’ve been trying to increase my Omega-3s, and the front of the box said, “No High-Fructose Corn Syrup!” in big bold letters.
Well, yay for the front of the box. The BACK of the box, alas, had this sickening, rhyming story about little Timmy who hated his round tummy, so his teddy-bear doctor, after poking his gut and pronouncing it “gushy,” told him to stop eating heavily sugared cereals and switch to this stuff instead.
I fuckin’ lost my appetite.
Et tu, Paul?
I think this is one of those situation that you have to promote evil in order to get rid of it. When it comes to themselves, most parents are not as motivitated as when it comes to the health of their child. The more media and agencies promote the idea that kids are getting too fat, the more it makes parents think about whether they are putting on rosy lens when it comes to their kids. And when children are impacted by a health issues than it is an epidemic. Sure there is some judging going on about little Susie, but if it makes little Susie’s mom aware that little Susie needs help, is that such a bad thing?
Asithi,
I think that’s not the point – it’s not about the ‘rose-coloured glasses’ of some parents, it’s about ignoring the joy of healthy functioning bodies and let’s get-out-and-jump-and-it’s-all-fun! and more about avoiding teh fatz.
I think the important point is that you can exercies and still be fat – and you can not exercise at all and still be thin, if that’s what God and your metabolism have in mind for you. So maybe, instead of making activity about anti-fat, they should market it more as just plain good for you – at whatever size you, or your kids, happen to be.
Jenfu wrote: It makes me a little sad that we need to remind kids of this
*****
The thing is, though, I’m not sure we do. There have always been kids you couldn’t keep still if you tried, just as there have always been those who really weren’t interested in much physical activity beyond the age of 5 or so. My mother – born in 1926 – was the tomboy of her family, playing baseball and kick the can with the neighborhood boys. Her sisters stayed home and played with dolls. Kids who prefer sedentary activities over physical ones are nothing new, whether their activity of choice involves dolls, books, or video games.
Just getting kids to play, away from computers and TV sets, is important. Getting them to use their bodies and imaginations is vital. I , too, wish we could get away from “Don’t Get Fat!” (which, btw, is pretty much a guarantee of creating an ED).
Today was really warm. We took the kids to the beach. our son ran in circles the entire time, while our daughter walked along the shore and watched the waves. And we all had a really great time!
I wish we could all get back to that. To just having fun. Like you said.
(And on that note, I’d like to propose Big Wheels for grown-ups.)
Big Wheels for grown-ups! LOVE IT!!!!
Kids who prefer sedentary activities over physical ones are nothing new, whether their activity of choice involves dolls, books, or video games.
Seriously, I’ve had this impression for my entire life. Granted, I’m not very old, but I know that before video games became so popular, parents were always moaning about television. Before television became so popular … I don’t know, I guess people didn’t concern themselves with that yet, but I’m sure some kids would read books instead of going out to play.
My parents obsessed about my weight since I was a toddler, they restricted food and forced exercise. Now I’m a fat adult, trying to learn how to correctly feed after years of compulsively overeating and I don’t remember a time I didn’t hate myself. I’ve seen pictures of myself as a little girl, I wasn’t fat. I think we know how to feed ourselves and give our bodies the exercise it needs naturally until outside influences mess it up.
That should be “feed myself” up above.
Kids who prefer sedentary activities over physical ones are nothing new, whether their activity of choice involves dolls, books, or video games.
I am 23 years old, and so was directly in the cross hairs of unscrupulous 90s tv execs and among the first generation to grow up with computers. Video games were a part of my daily life. Even so, none of these things captured my interest. I was a child who read books (obsessively).
That didn’t mean I was without the press of 90s(/universal?) dogma to be thin, though. I grew up with admonitions to suck in my gut, and was weaned on the idea that women “must suffer to be beautiful.” I’ve struggled with my weight since 9 years old, developed eating disorders and disordered eating.
I don’t hate my mom, or (for the most part) our society, but maybe if the emphasis were put on health rather than conforming to a single ideal of beauty we would spend more time on things that sort of matter… Like the future of our species and our planet perhaps?
Yeast infections are not considered to be sexually transmitted infections (STI) because a celibate woman can develop them, but having unprotected sex can pass them along. A man who has unprotected sex with a woman who has an active yeast infection can get a penile yeast infection. Transmission of genital yeast infections from woman to man is uncommon, but it does happen.
Obesity and diabetes are becoming more and more of a problem these days. Actually it is easy to avoid being overweight by just having the proper diet and exercise.