It had to reach a maximum at some point.

The propaganda is working. My already skinny first grader is now obsessed with eating "healfy" even though he has little grasp of actual nutrition beyond what his mother and I have taught him.

"Thanks for coming to Play 60"


"Any time"


"Maybe we won't grow up to be fat"


"whoa"


"did you rtfa?"

How is that surprising? Most parents I know are obsessed with feeding their kids the healthiest food they'll actually eat. I don't remember it being like that when I grew up.

Could be that they only serve rabbit food in school now.

Sugar is gradually making a comeback over corn syrup.

Damn so I guess my plan to become an oil barron by rendering the obese into oil wont work now :(

More likely the definition of obesity was raised

My anecdotal observance of my both of my son's classmates is that there are not the overabundance of fat kids I expected. The school also has a farm to school program where a local farmer donates produce for a midday snack, and they get that instead of Cheetos or Lay's or Fritos.

I still see a lot of fat kids, but I've even been seeing skinny kids with obese parents. The parents might realize they're farked, but maybe their kids also are getting the message about being careful to not get fat.

//Or it could all be related to the hunger problem America has, and the number of families without food security is growing. Thanks trickle-down economics!

hobnail: The propaganda is working. My already skinny first grader is now obsessed with eating "healfy" even though he has little grasp of actual nutrition beyond what his mother and I have taught him.

My son has autistic tendencies, though the docs won't formally diagnosis him as such. Very OCD, worse than me. The school forced all the kids to attend an anti-obesity rally, and he became obsessed with not getting fat. He was already badly underweight, so much so that his doc said he was a few weeks away from hospitalization and forced feedings. After that, it got even harder to feed him. He read all the labels, rejecting stuff with too much sugar... you know, "bad for you" stuff like bread and juice. For a while, all we could get him to eat was mac&cheese and chicken noodle soup (and he'd leave the chicken bits behind). Thankfully he finally started eating, if not better, then at least more. He's still blow-away-in-the-wind skinny, but has learned to love Mom's chicken and roasts.

LesserEvil: Dress their kids in mumus?

We could eliminate childhood obesity in a year if we made that standard practice. Bad enough being the fat kid, if your parents make you wear a mumu to school, you'll put down the french fries and pick up some carrot sticks toot sweet.

I don't believe it. Stopping it at "they're only 30 pounds overweight when they're 13 now" is not really stopping anything.

Oh look, everyone is only obese now, and not morbidly obese. USA! USA!

LesserEvil: What I don't understand is.... my son isn't fat (he's not skinny either, just normal). A couple of years ago, we'd go into Walmart to buy clothes, and there'd be kids weighing twice what he does, and shorter... but we were unable to find pants to fit him. WTF? At Walmart, no less. You'd think they'd have their target customers down pat, and feature husky sizes that were, well, husky sizes. We'd have to buy pants that were 2 inches longer on the inseam and hem them up.

What do parents of truly fat kids do, anyway? Buy shorts and call them pants? Dress their kids in mumus?

At least now that my son is tall enough, he fits mens' sizes, which work out fine for him. I just wonder why the same proportions aren't available in kids' sizes. Even "husky" sizes expect kids to be skinny.

First, don't shop at Wal-Mart for kids clothes, their sizing sucks HORRIBLY.

Second, if he's not smack in the middle of height and weight percentiles, it is gonna suck for him (speaking from experience from when I was younger and now as an adult that has trouble finding jeans that are long enough and the waist size is small enough)

Penney's has a much better sizing, for both children and adults.

How much longer until I can't say "America, home of the fattest poor people in the world"?

LesserEvil: meat0918: I've even been seeing skinny kids with obese parents. The parents might realize they're farked, but maybe their kids also are getting the message about being careful to not get fat.

It's not that... it's that their parents are eating all the damn food in the house. Hard to get fat when hover-round Mommy is scarfing up all the Doritos and Mountain Dew.

I was gonna make that joke (and I do quite often actually), but for some reason held back.

I wish I knew why.

meat0918: //Or it could all be related to the hunger problem America has, and the number of families without food security is growing. Thanks trickle-down economics!

This.

JohnTuttle: hobnail: The propaganda is working. My already skinny first grader is now obsessed with eating "healfy" even though he has little grasp of actual nutrition beyond what his mother and I have taught him.

My son has autistic tendencies, though the docs won't formally diagnosis him as such. Very OCD, worse than me. The school forced all the kids to attend an anti-obesity rally, and he became obsessed with not getting fat. He was already badly underweight, so much so that his doc said he was a few weeks away from hospitalization and forced feedings. After that, it got even harder to feed him. He read all the labels, rejecting stuff with too much sugar... you know, "bad for you" stuff like bread and juice. For a while, all we could get him to eat was mac&cheese and chicken noodle soup (and he'd leave the chicken bits behind). Thankfully he finally started eating, if not better, then at least more. He's still blow-away-in-the-wind skinny, but has learned to love Mom's chicken and roasts.

Good luck to you. Mine's already a picky eater, but now he has this vague concept of eating healthy to boot. He knows that too much sugar is bad for him but he has yet to figure out what the main components of fruit juice and mac 'n' cheese are, fortunately. I make sure he gets enough starch and fat, and he actually likes salad greens.

I wonder if all the ADD/ADHD drugs are having an effect?

I blame Hostess going bankrupt.

I blame Obama. Kids don't eat as much because they're depressed about the direction this country is heading.

Come at me bro!

hobnail: The propaganda is working. My already skinny first grader is now obsessed with eating "healfy" even though he has little grasp of actual nutrition beyond what his mother and I have taught him.

I asked my 6 year old if she wanted some ice cream the other night and she said no becuase she didn't want to get fat. She's a stick.

one look at honeybooboo will do that.

cryinoutloud: I don't believe it. Stopping it at "they're only 30 pounds overweight when they're 13 now" is not really stopping anything.

It's a good thing they didn't say the epidemic had stopped, or you would have had a really good point.

Warthog: Hmmm. Companies reduce trans-fats from their products, and HFCS starts getting replaced with natural sugars. Obesity starts to go down. Surely there can't be a connection.

Or it could be that food cost so damn much now days.

I would like to see the how the rates of childhood eating disorders have changed (or not) since we started focusing on the childhood obesity epidemic.

Bad news for black men

Unfortunately, didn't come quickly enough for my niece. But that's kind of how it was for her entire family, the only ones that aren't fat are the ones who lost it in their late teens, the rest never bothered.

However, isn't anyone worried about the fitness craze jump-starting another plague of eating disorders, stunted growth, and broken bones, followed by another reversal into "please eat what you want and don't anorexic and bulimic yourself to death"? The eating disorders of the 70's and 80's, and the regular hospitalizations and deaths that are an unavoidable risk of playing outside, spawned the attitude shift that directly led to the obesity epidemic in the first place. HFCS and video games had less to do with it than parents afraid of injury and eating disorders (and being accused of neglect), unable to see that eating too much is also a disorder.

America does not understand moderation. It is all excess and magic cures, and it ever will be so, no matter what the specific problems of the day are.

Bull(cough)

The shiat people get paid to publish...
The skeptics are just lying, there are far far more peer reviewed papers indicating that childhood obesity is increasing.

I am a fatty fat, and have struggled with my weight since I was 10. My husband grew up eating crap food and though he is a healthy weight, he got diabetes young. We both have fat parents. We are able to recognize what our parents did to encourage bad habits and we are doing everything in our power to protect our children from inheriting our issues. So far, they are slender, fit and active. Our family eats better and gets more exercise than either of us got growing up. I think that is what is happening. People are recognizing and breaking the pattern.

I think what's actually happening is most the processed food is becoming more and more like the cereal boxes... pointless nutrition devoid fiber and starch. So people stay hungry until they eat REAL food and then they feel great quickly.

Steak, potato, carrot peas broccoli. I'm eating that more than my family ever did.