Reading between the lines
I read this article Thursday and it really pushed my buttons. I took the liberty of posting the article here to see if it pushes your buttons too. I also added a few annotations to convey my own thoughts on the topic.
Experts see slow obesity fight for kids
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP MEDICAL WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Ride a bike or hop on a skateboard. Any physical activity is cool - and a plus in the fight against childhood obesity.
That was the straightforward message from an expensive and heavily promoted federal program that claimed it led to a 30 percent increase in exercise among the pre-teenagers it reached.
Brilliant. I wonder how they figured out that exercise helps fat kids lose weight? Expensive? How expensive is common knowledge?
Despite the apparent success, the Bush administration killed the program this year through budget cuts. That was a shortsighted decision in the view of an organization that advises the government on health matters.
The demise of the program, known as VERB, "calls into question the commitment to obesity prevention within government," an Institute of Medicine expert panel reported Wednesday.
Whose responsibility is it to monitor the weight of a child? I believe it is not government, but the parents. Hello.
Dr. Jeffrey Koplan of Emory University, who led the panel, was more blunt, saying it was a waste of public money to develop a program that works and then to dismantle it.
It was a waste of money to do the program in the first place.
One in five children is predicted to be obese by 2010. Efforts to turn that tide are scattershot, given too few dollars and lacking the national leadership needed to speed real change, the report found. No one knows how many of these programs to trim kids' growing waistlines actually work, the panel said.
Two things: Too few dollars? Money is not the answer to reducing childhood obesity. Exercise and nutrition is. Everyone knows this already. The problem is action; or shall I say innaction.Lacking national leadership?Let me direct you to the photo in my sidebar. President Bush is running with a US Army Seargent who only has one leg. I would say that the President has demonstrated a commitment to hard work and exercise by example. Then look at the example of the serviceman. He could sit on his butt and be justified in doing so, but he is still exercising, while able bodied lard assed kids are laying on the couch sucking down chocolate milk and playing video games.
A kid will take the easy way. Parents are there to make sure they do the right thing.
"Is this as important as stockpiling antibiotics or buying vaccines? I think it is," Koplan said. "This is a major health problem. It's of a different nature than acute infectious threats, but it needs to be taken just as seriously."
To reinforce that point, the report spotlighted VERB, a campaign by the federal Centers for Disease Control that encouraged 9- to 13-year-olds to participate in physical activities. Slick ads, at a cost of $59 million last year, portrayed exercise as cool at an age when outdoor play typically winds down and adolescent slothfulness sets in.
My blood pressure is going up again. This wonderful program consists of a "slick" ad campaign to the tune of $59 million dollars. The message of the campaign was the never before spoken finding that nutrition and exercise reduces fat. Thank God Bush cut the program. What a crock.
A CDC spokesman, Jeff McKenna, said the agency is "trying to do everything we can to package the research and lessons learned from VERB so it can inform campaigns local groups might take on throughout the country."
What packaging? There is no secret to fixing the problem of childhood obesity. Parents have to monitor what their kids eat and they need to make sure they do more than sit on their asses.
The report cites other examples of promising federal programs that have not reached their potential:
-Kids gobbled fruits and vegetables in an Agriculture Department school snack program. But it only reaches 14 states.
Do we need a federal program so kids can eat fruits and vegetables? Last time I checked, there was a produce section at our grocery store.I would suggest showing Popeye cartoons again. I ate spinach because Popeye ate spinach and it helped you beat people up. Oh, I guess that's not politically correct. I know; if you eat spinach you will have enough energy to keep the polar ice caps from melting.
-The CDC's main anti-obesity initiative had enough money this year to fund just 28 states starting childhood nutrition and exercise programs.
The report did praise some state and local efforts for their creativity. Examples include:
-A California program, begun in Marin County, to build new sidewalks and bike paths. They are getting more children to walk or bike to school.
Let's buy them the bike, running shoes, and a membership to the health club while we're at it. Those poor people in Marin County are so disadvantaged.
-A community garden project in New York City's Harlem section to increase inner-city youngsters' access to healthful food and safe recreation.
Good for them, but the government doesn't need to spend money on it. How much does a shovel and a bag of seeds cost?
-An effort by Arkansas schools to notify parents when students are overweight. Combined with new school menus and physical activity programs, the initiative recently reported a leveling off of the state's child obesity rate.
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, This is to inform you that your son Johnny is fat. The government told us that if he rides a bike or a skateboard more, maybe he will get skinny. Sincerely, Your friendly Arkansas School.
In 2004, the institute recommended that parents, schools, communities, the food industry and government work together in taking on childhood obesity. Wednesday's report was the first assessment.
"We still are not doing enough to prevent childhood obesity, and the problem is getting worse," said Koplan, a former CDC director. "The current level of public and private sector investments does not match the extent of the problem."
Investment? This is not a top - down problem. It needs to be addressed by the parnets. Eating less should not cost more money. Exercising is free.
More than individual programs, full-scale social change is needed to make healthful eating and physical activity the norm, said one member of the expert panel, Toni Yancey of the University of California, Los Angeles.
Some 17 percent of U.S. youngsters already are obese, and millions more are overweight. Obesity can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, sleep problems and other disorders.
The report shows "what the country is doing is like putting a Band-Aid on a brain tumor," said Margo Wootan of the consumer advocacy Center for Science in the Public Interest.
These programs will be as efficient as threading a needle while wearing boxing gloves. Childhood obesity does not require a top-down solution, but an individual solution.
The institute is part of the National Academy of Sciences, a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government of scientific matters.
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I think it is funny how this "crisis" is presented as if it were a mystery that only expensive programs can address.
$59 million dollars were spent on ads to tell kids to exercise. It would be a lot cheaper if more mothers would say what I often heard when I was hanging around the inside of the house too much. "Why don't you go outside and play." If I didn't do that fast enough, I might end up with a bucket washing windows. Both scenarios qualify as activity and have been proven to reduce fat.
Are parents so stupid they need a government program to tell them that their kid is fat? Is the kid so dumb he/she is helpless to keep the pounds from piling on? Will that kid stay dumb and continue to expand, developing diabetes, sleep apnea, and heart disease? Will government spending change any of this?
It seems to me that if people are that stupid, government should go door to door, confiscate all of the fat kids and make them live on a big fat farm until they achieve the ideal weight. No one should be allowed to get fat unless they have a note from their doctor that they have a thyroid problem.
Maybe government should get out of the area of common sense. Allow people to destroy themselves without feeling abliged to piss away millions of federal dollars in the process.
This is a free country. At least we say it is. If you want to smoke, drink, or get fat, that is your business.
On the other hand, it's Friday, so who cares anyway?
Until the next time
John Strain
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 at 12:01AM 
The laptop is plugged in, the iPod is hooked up to its wire of life, and all over the house, battery packs and electronic devices are sucking energy out of the wall.