Obesity Equal to Child Abuse

I just read an article about children in the UK being taken from their parents with the child's obesity being a primary factor in the decision. Here's the first half of the article (I've inserted the stone-to-pound conversions):

"One child had a BMI measurement of 35, which for a six-foot man would mean weighing 19st (266 pounds).

Britain's obesity epidemic, which sees NHS hospitals dealing with 1,000 cases every day, is a reversal of the traditional problem when children were undernourished. Increasingly social workers find youngsters being fed a high-fat, sugary diet, which can be just as bad for their health.

The phenomenon is known as "killing with kindness" because the child craves the unhealthy food and a loving parent feels unable to say no.

Professionals say they have to make complex decisions in care proceedings and a family's gross over-eating can be one of the factors that leads to them losing their children.

A Sunday Express survey of councils found that in the past year five children were taken from their families for that reason: two in Wake-field, West Yorkshire, one in Oxfordshire, one in Salford and one in Hounslow, London.

The previous 12 months saw five similar cases in Sheffield, Portsmouth, Lincolnshire, Slough and Harrow, London.

A social worker said: "Only in extreme cases would we take a child into care just because of their weight as we would seek to work with the family to improve their eating habits."

Ex-Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson warned in 2006 that health chiefs would look at removing children from their families if they became super-sized, risking their health.

The first reported case took place in 2007 when an eight-year-old girl from Cumbria, who had to wear size 16 clothes, was taken into care weighing 10st (140 pounds)."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

 

I know obesity has gotten pretty bad (I'm one of those obese people myself), but I was aware that the thought of 'facilitating' obesity being child abuse / neglect had become mainstream enough for people to start getting their children taken from them. Then again, if it is the parent's responsibility to take care of the child in an appropriate manner, the child being obese definitely isn't doing that. 

I think a lot of parents just believe that as long as they give their child everything that they want, especially if they actually have the financial resources to do so, they are taking care of their children. But, they still seem to usually be able to draw lines at certain places that might lead to harm to the child such as trying to jump off of the roof and fly like a comic book character.

It might be helpful if the parents were able to understand just how much physical danger they are putting their children in over the long run, even though it seems like they are being loving towards their children by giving them the unhealthy things to eat that they want. Then again, I guess if it's so hard for adults to discipline themselves enough to not become obese, it can be just as difficult to try to guide someone else towards eating in a healthier manner.

I've always thought that it would be nice to have a program available that actually pays people to lose weight. For instance, if we could calculate that I save this country $500 in medical costs for every pound that I lose, why not give me $50 of those dollars? Can you imagine how much weight people would lose if they were actually paid decent money to do it? Extra bonuses could be added for attending various fitness classes and dietary education courses in order to help encourage people not to lose weight in unhealthy ways (like starvation or using certain drugs). Also, it would be great if there were a lower limit for the feat. That way, people don't keep losing weight forever and ever until they're pure skin and bone. Based on their weight, height, sex, and age, once they reach their appropriate weight, they are no longer eligible for compensation. The same thing would go for the other end of the spectrum as well. You can only get money for weight that you lose from the time you register, so you won't get money for re-losing five pounds that you've regained.

Just a thought. What are yours?

Sweet Tooth vs Waistline: No Contest

 

 

If you've decided to engage in that hellish battle that is weight loss, congratulations! However, as hard as we may try to choose a better diet, sometimes our little sweet tooth can be a very large obstacle to keeping our calories down each day. Here are 3 swaps that you can start making in order to feel more full and satisfied while cutting back on the calories you consume.

(Red Seedless) Grapes

 

These sweet little orbs offer a good source of vitamins C and K and are only 104 calories per cup. If we compare eating grapes to eating some other small, round treat such as milk chocolate M&M's candies, the difference can be startling. A single 1.69-ounce package of M&M's costs you about 236 calories, whereas 1.69 ounces of grapes would only cost you about 31 calories. As an added bonus, grapes carry only about 5% of the sugar as the same amount of M&M's (7 grams for grapes, versus 132 grams for the candy). This is an especially sweet trade-off for people currently managing, or at risk for developing, diabetes. Keep in mind that our bodies can often process basic, natural sugars (such as those found in raw fruit) much more easily than the complex, human-altered sugars that are often found in processed foods such as chocolate.

Carrots

Next to celery sticks, carrot sticks and baby carrots are probably very close to being what a lot of people think of when the word 'diet' is said. Carrots are so versatile that they can cover the savory and the sweet ends of the spectrum. For the sweet, just grab some! Baby carrots have a wonderful, lightly sugary flavor. Raw carrots (meaning you can still see a green top or at least still see where it used to be) can be boiled in order to really make the sugar in the carrot a prominent flavor for those of us who like sweet things.

For the savory, grab some vinaigrette dressing. If you're careful with the amount, even light Ranch dressing would suffice. When comparing a snack like carrots to something like honey barbecue potato chips, you can easily see how much more bang for your caloric buck you get for this substitution. A snack-sized bag of Lay's Honey Barbecue potato chips has 160 calories per ounce, while an ounce of carrots only has 10 calories. For the same calorie count, you could have eaten 16 ounces (an entire pound) of carrots (talk about feeling full)! Not to mention that carrots also provide a good dose of vitamin A and have about 50% of the sugar and only 20% of the sodium found in the potato chips.

 

 Freshly Brewed Sweet Tea or Lemonade

It's pretty well documented that one of the major sources of our calories (and sugar) throughout any given day is in the sugary drinks that we consume. As a rule of thumb, however, when you are part of the process of making a meal or drink, you have more control over what goes into it, and can therefore eliminate much of the things that do your diet harm.

For instance, sweet tea can be made palatable with a tablespoon or so of lemon juice and maybe a teaspoon or two of white sugar. Each teaspoon of sugar only has 15 calories and weighs in at about 5 grams. So, for an 8-ounce glass of tea, your calorie count could be as low as 18 calories, since lemon juice (if you just squeeze a wedge to get it) only has 1 calorie, tea can add up to 2 calories per 8 ounces, and water (of course) doesn't have any caloric value.

Compare this to Arizona brand's lemon tea. 8 ounces of it will cost you 90 calories and 24 grams of sugar! Yikes! And to add insult to injury, this tea isn't commonly offered in standard 8-ounce servings, but come in either huge 23.5-ounce cans or 20-ounce bottles, meaning that drinking one of these containers of their tea actually gives you between 2.5 and 3 times as much sugar and calories as just brewing a cup or two for yourself.

The same goes for lemonade. With a tablespoon or two of lemon juice and maybe 3 teaspoons (15 grams) of sugar in an 8-ounce glass of water, you've got a cool, delicious, refreshing drink. However, if you were to purchase a can of Minute Maid lemonade--IF the can only held 8 ounces of lemonade--you'd have to sacrifice 100 calories and 27 grams of sugar. But, since people are usually more likely to drink those other four ounces because they came with the container, you'll probably consume the full 150 calories and 40 grams of sugar. But if you stick to the cup of lemonade you make yourself, you could drink up and only consume about 15 grams of sugar for a total of 45 calories. Now that's a sweet deal.

Though making these sorts of swaps are pretty much certain to help increase the amount of weight you lose on a weekly basis, remember that exercise is the yin to calorie management's yang. So, to increase the chances of you reaching your weight loss goals, be sure to incorporate plenty of movement into your daily routine. Check out www.NutritionData.Self.Com for more info on the nutritional values of various fruits and vegetables, along with info about various processed snack foods. If you can't find a product on the Nutrition Data site, just go to the manufacturer's site: www.DrinkArizona.com, www.MinuteMaid.com, www.FritoLay.com, www.MMs.com



Any other favorite swaps you want recognized? Leave them in the comments section!