Child size please, no ice.
America, we are a fat nation – the fattest in the world, in fact. I’m willing to live with that designation. No matter which way my bulbous belly stumbles, there’s a dollar menu waiting to be ravaged and a maximum drive-thru limit to be tested. I’m not ashamed to have used all 8 of my car’s cup holders, are you?
Numerous studies have linked the poor with obesity. It’s not science, it’s a common sense mentality – poor quality, horribly processed food is within the grasps, and wallets, of many Americans. However, the CDC recently reports…KIDS ARE LOSING WEIGHT!
Well, POOR KIDS ARE LOSING WEIGHT! The rich ones were always doing alright.
We’re gonna celebrate with a cereal bath.
This study, based on data collected from 30 states and the District of Columbia, shows a marked decline in the prevalence of obesity in preschool-aged children in the lower income brackets. Extreme obesity, defined as a BMI of over 120% the 95th percentile, went down to 2.07% from 2.22% . Regular ‘ol obese kids dropped to 14.91% from 15.21%.
Those numbers don’t look too promising, but as Heidi M. Blanck, a co-author of the study, puts it:
The declines we’re presenting here are pretty modest, but it is a change in direction. We were going up before. And this data shows we’re going down. For us, that’s pretty exciting.
It’s a change of direction. That is what is important. This is the first study that has showed such progress, especially in the most sensitive of the population – our children.
How we’ve reached this point is uncertain, but we do know from another of Dr. Blanck’s studies, this one focusing on food marketing, that:
- The amount of money spent on food marketing to children declined nearly 20% from 2003 to 2009.
- Cereals marketed to children have averaged one less gram of sugar per serving than before.
- Marketing of the unhealthiest of cereals (between 13 and 19 grams of sugar) has been nearly eliminated.
Not only has that helped, but things like fast food places placing nutritional content on menus and Michelle Obama’s new Let’s Move! Child Care initiative providing healthy alternatives to child care centers, all can help us curb childhood obesity from ever happening.
America, keep up the good work. Soon we won’t be the laughing stock of the entire world with our jumbo sized beverages and the fashion abomination that is Jeggings.
But until then, I’ll take the large.
Sources and further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/business/mcdonalds-to-start-posting-calorie-counts.html
http://www.healthykidshealthyfuture.org/welcome.html
http://www.watoday.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/the-new-fashion-monstrosity-20100407-rrd9.html
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/60/11/2667.full
http://money.msn.com/family-money/does-being-poor-make-you-fat.aspx
Wondergressive 