Lake Superior News November 24 2010“Big Fat Lazy Kids “

[Paul Murphy]

“Big Fat Lazy Kids “

 

Childhood Obesity media messages continue to mislead our public to support special interest and very persuasive ad campaigns. This piece of writing is
focused on the media, the weight loss industry and the concept of
prevention. The lifestyle tool appears to be a very big tool used to
scheme over to and slide into blame. Our media and food industries
have been blaming TV’s and couches for years and years. We, as a
society have been standing by and watching our children get bullied,
due to obesity and we are all shocked when we see young girls nearly
starving themselves to death, in the hope of emulating the Hollywood
image. The media continues to promote an image of woman to be
extremely thin often wearing a bikini, with a perfect body. These
images continue shape our vision of what beauty and health are.

 

Obese children are seen everywhere and when six month old babies are
overweight can we still blame TV’s , or is there something more
sinister at hand. The miracle, colon cleansing weight loss industry
has made losing weight simple, easy and fun. However, if the diet
fails, who fails, is it the diet, or is it the individual child with
all of that weight. How do we insulate and protect the self esteem
of a child, who is labelled in the classroom? What safety plan is in
place for the children going home with their BMI score? The “BMI”
provides a number and fails to measure any actual fitness level
of the individual. Many refer to these negative messages as forms
of motivation and some tend to believe this is bullying and
detrimental to the overall health of our children.

 

Our oppressive media continues to shape the complex issue of childhood obesity onto the individual. Daily I watch children in my community struggle to move
and witness bullying at the expense of their mental health and
fragile self image daily. These children often dress in dark,
unassuming colours that do not draw any attention to themselves.
Watching these wonderful little people adopt and adapt skills that
avoid detection by their peers, so that they do not stand out in any
way. They are very in tuned to their body, and do not need any health
care professionals adding more negative attention upon them. The
media driven perception of the lifestyle, lack of will power and
blame is very prevalent. Are obese children included in

the charter of rights and freedoms? The discussion on bullying is searing all across the planet and it is wonderful to bear witness too. Change is coming and we are
awakening to the messages that label children to be unhealthy, or
lazy. The Biggest Loser Tv program that is very popular and eagerly
accepted by our citizens continues to be promoted by the giants of
media. Is calling someone a big fat loser okay? Some have called this
a national disgrace. Describing someone as a loser, a big loser, no
less is downright shameful, and shaming people is a kin to bullying.
The term is offensive and another example of bullying the overweight,
obese child. Our community can work to educate others and at the same
time recognize my own beliefs about obesity bullying. Children are
the victims of this food environment and our media needs raise their
level of awareness, and open up to a full investigation of the
obesity issue. Reporters can go out into the community and talk to
people and truly investigate the issue and ask some questions related
to the powerful lobby groups that steer the discussions. Experts can
join in and support a national childhood obesity discussion from
media outlets .We could call it “ Fat Talk” and people could
discuss their experiences on the radio with a call in panel. The
concept could be an open line radio, or TV program. People could talk
about the issue of childhood obesity and healthy work plans and test
the information.

 

The billion dollar weight loss industry has been feasting on ignorance for many years and the message of diets and exercise appear to be at
the core. Diets are generally calorie restricting in nature and
focus solely on numbers on a scale. Do we love and accept our
children more if they lose a pound? Obesity is a by product routed in
many complex issues like poverty. Since poverty is not a lifestyle
choice I am left to wonder why being overweight is linked to a
lifestyle decision. Lifestyle is the miracle tool that many in the
weight loss industry embrace and I believe it is blame .Blame allows
other issues to pass by and slither on without any real notice. Does
the weight loss industry portray the obese child as valued? Our
children continue to be victimized and bullied by the weight loss
industry. Thanks to the many social networks people are getting their
ideas past the media and more obese acceptance movements are moving
into mainstream. This represents a wonderful opportunity and
encourages the conversation about this complex issue.

 

Since fat kids tend to run slower than thin children I am forced to wonder why we need to tackle, or fight obesity. The time for obesity peace
talks is upon us and the food environmental childhood obesity crisis
is gaining momentum. I believe the intervention is the big fat
conversation that is taking place due to social networks. We could
address food advertising, re-tool our grocery stores, lower the
costs related to real food, and challenge the weight loss industry
for misleading our vision of what healthy children should be. Blood
pressure testing for every single child in Canada and education on
body image may assist in guidance and actually pay dividends.

Childhood obesity interventions will require education and the
creation of community,”grass-roots” action plans. Maybe, through
a process of addressing the hidden messages and dissecting
heavily funded programs that are restricted to the “Activity
Only “ plan, we may have an impact on the issue. Could we be
blinded by the “Inactivity Crisis”, or the “Physical Activity”
plan? Our plans could include the feelings of the overweight child
and promote fitness at any size and talk about bullying and
acceptance. Accepting children for who they are and their
exceptional gifts and talents that they can bring to the growth of
our community, when we support acceptance. Obesity is a by product
and it has downloaded onto the innocent child. Together we can
create an articulated community driven action plan and build our
action plan on the basis of food security and the availability of
affordable, brightly coloured fresh produce.

       In closing the landscape of childhood obesity and our views of the obese are changing dramatically. The conversation is raging and accountability is front
and center and this includes all aspects of the food chain. Children
living in the grip of poverty are feeding themselves with the food
products that are brought into their homes. Childhood obesity
statistics are reprehensive of this food environment and the efforts
at addressing childhood obesity are changing slowly. The media needs
to remove their couch potato glasses and finally, report on this
obesity crisis. Our weight loss industry and our focus on what is
healthy, sexy, and attainable need a shake up. Our eat smart,
healthy, active, living messages that are heavily fortified by the
giants of the food industry appear to be fleeting and very
misleading. Why would the food

and weight loss industry want to scheme and restrict the camera lens? Weather the plan is called, “Let’s Move”,”Particapaction”, or” Change4Life”
the tired old message remains and it is routed in the physical
activity fractured work plan. At some point and time we need to
stop funding plans that are failing to address the issue.We also have
the” Inactivity Crisis” and this fails to address the surplus
calories that are genetically altered to taste much more exciting and
just a little addictive. Perhaps we need to do more farming and less
pharming. After all obese children are not the enemy, they tend to be
the victims of this food environment. “ Our children are what
they are being fed .”

 

Please see and share.

 

[365tolifeproject]

The media and the magazines love to do their magic and give us a great illusion . They advertise these celebrity models as the model for health and fitness even though most of them smoke
, Drink , and do all kinds of other unhealthy things but you will never see that on a health cover .