weight issues and children

Early morning flight tomorrow out of Buffalo so you get these wonderful insights a bit earlier...kind of like the old days when my parents would get the Sunday Daily News in New York on Saturday nite.,..the bagel places in new york were churning out hot NY bagels on Saturday nite....My dad would take me out for a saturday nite ride for those great smelling bagels and get that paper early....but alas, if my Dad only knew then that his son would be railing against bagels as being too high in carb calories and they should not be eaten!

I read a very disturbing report in the USA Today earlier in the week that almost 1/4 of the children in the nation have had times in which food was scarce in the household. 1/4 of the children in America have suffered from hunger? This is the United States...not some third world country...I was shocked.

Clearly, if households are experiencing financial issues that are difficult the response will be parents trying to purchase as many food sources they can at as low a cost as possible...this will lead to the purchase of fast foods, pasta etc. The result unfortunately will be an increased tendency towards obesity in the children. The affected parents are trying their very best to feed their children and not have them feel "hungry" but the outcome will not be long-term health.

Solutions? Perhaps having government monies directed to food support programs for familys in need.....funding this? Not an answer this doctor can come up with but everytime I read about waste, fraud and abuse involving billions of our tax dollars on ridiculous BS, one has to wonder how much healthy food that could buy for children who need our help.

weight loss and rewards

Yesterday a patient of mine who is a teacher was describing an end of the year party she is organizing for her students. The food provided will be pizza, cake and other assorted high-caloric foods. Clearly, with childhood obesity being the nation's largest health concern, the question arises as to how socially responsible this is? However, what a dilemma! Would a "treat" for this event to children be chicken breast on a bed of salad? A dessert of no-calorie jello? Many of the kids attending this event will not have a weight problem at all. Is it fair to them to only provide caloric-restricted choices?

I am not sure of the answer to this problematic issue. Providing pizza and cake to overweight kids is certainly not helping their weight problem. Only providing low-caloric choices will make the event less fun. What is the correct thing to do?

Perhaps labeling the food items out with caloric counts on a card beside the food choice will allow both parents and children to see the differences. It would be difficult to separate the food chices to different areas because then the overweight children will feel compelled to go to a different area to get their food.

The same issue holds true for adults attending conventions and seminars. Often the hosting entity fails to provide food choices that a re compatible with a weight loss effort. When there is only sandwiches or pizza and chips at a lunchbreak, this becomes very challenging to a person trying to lose weight.

I am interested in your opinions on this, especially teachers. Please feel free to comment.