carl h. d. henriksen, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by carl h. d. henriksen
Obesity 12/14/2006 7:37:21 PM
When I arrived in the US in 1973 I was surprised by the number of obese people, young and old, I encountered daily. Recently I read an article that obesity in children was epidemic in Arkansas and probably other states. Growing up the only obese children I ever saw were those with metabolic problems and those were few, the rest were of normal weight. It did, however, set me thinking what the differences in environment between then and now were that might explain such disproportionate numbers of obese kids. The following are a number of points.
1. We all came from fairly stable homes where mom stayed at home and dad worked.
2. We were served balanced food and vegetables daily carefully portioned out.
3. We were allowed two candy bars per week, normally on saturday night.
4. There were no fast-food restaurants other than hot-dog stands, and their business was marginal.
5. We were all active in sports, summer and winter, and had at least 5 hours of physical education per week from first grade through 12th grade.
6. We went to school 6 days per week and still had time to play in nature daily, weather permitting.
7. We were allowed one bottle of soda per week period.
Todays kids come from broken homes without supervision with parents working 2-4 jobs to survive. They have no physical education in school and become coach potatoes at an early age. Their staple of food is fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, KFC, and others serving high fat foods. It is just comfort eating taking care of the pain. It is no wonder our children are obese.
