A few years back, I gave a talk on the island of Maui. Ordinarily, that would be cause for envy, I admit. But in this case, I was there for all of two days to speak at a conference, and the two days happened to coincide with a visit from the remnants of a tropical storm. So no need to mutter about my good fortune under your breath.
What is relevant to my topic about being on Maui is the plane I took to get here. I happened to be sitting in first class (I know, you're muttering again; just pay attention!). In my row was a woman who moved to Maui a year ago, her sister, and her sister's 2-year-old daughter. They had only two seats for the three of them, as the purchase of a seat for a 2-year-old is not required. But holding a two-year-old on your lap for six hours is no picnic, so the Maui resident asked to take the empty seat next to me.
I am not ordinarily very sociable on a plane, as I tend to have a lot of work to do. But this very friendly woman engaged me in conversation I could not decline. I did not get to know her well, but enough to recognize that she was intelligent, kind and warm-hearted. She was thrilled to be bringing her sister and baby niece to visit her new island home for the first time. I liked her.
There was something else I got to know about her, which required no conversation at all. A glance was sufficient. Namely, she was a very large woman. Very, very large. I would guess she weighed more than 250 lbs. Her sister, just a couple of seats away, was at least as large.
At one point during the flight, my neighbor's sister returned from the airplane lavatory and told her sister, with a chuckle in her voice, "if I get any bigger I'm not going to fit in there!" The two of them had a good laugh and exchanged quips about the need to "extend" those little toilets. They clearly had some version of a supersized potty in mind, as they joked about their mutual plight.
Throughout the entire flight, my neighbor (and her sister) were eating and drinking. This is hard to resist in First Class, where you are constantly offered temptations. So my neighbor consumed several glasses of wine. She ate everything that was brought out. And she ate a box of some kind of glow-in-the-dark cheese puffs she had brought with her.
Now I, too, brought food with me. But I brought mine as an alternative to what might prove to be nutritionally questionable choices offered by the airline. So I ate what I brought: fresh and dried fruit, and some home made granola squares instead of the creamy entree, and myriad tidbits. My neighbor brought along junk food, and ate it in addition to everything the airline could serve up.
Now you may be thinking this is none of my business, and perhaps the fact that I'm sharing these observations is even a bit distasteful. I could almost agree with you. But I watched my very delightful neighbor and her probably equally delightful sister share their eminently destructive behaviors with the two-year-old in their company. I have essentially no doubt that this child -- still lean at age two -- is destined for even more extreme obesity than her mother and aunt, and destined for the chronic diseases that ensue. In other words, I was observing a pattern of familial behavior that would destroy an innocent child's health.
That is everyone's business. I am not suggesting we should tell friends and neighbors how to live their lives. I am not proposing we impose our opinions about nutrition on other families than our own. I am not advocating for policing the diets of fellow passengers on our planes. What I am proposing is much bigger.
I am proposing, imploring and insisting that we start taking obesity seriously as the health crisis it is.
It was not really funny that these women were busily feeding the propagation of their own obesity, not funny that they truly will find it difficult to fit through the door of an airplane lavatory should they expand any further. It was no funnier than the diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and cancer that might well result. It was not at all funny that they were cultivating this same fate in a child.
Imagine if two drug addicts joked in public about the health consequences of their drug use, even as they shared their drugs with a small child. Society would deem such behavior unacceptable, even if the drugs in question were legal. Children are removed from their parents for less than this.
Imagine if smokers joking about their worsening emphysema put their cigarettes into the mouths of their infants. Would anyone observing this feel inclined to mind their own business?
Don't get me wrong; I am not maligning these women. As I said, I found my airplane row-mate to be quite delightful. I really liked her. Nor am I am suggesting her harmful behavior was even her fault. Our society has yet to provide any clear guidelines on what is, and is not, acceptable when it comes to second-hand obesity.
That is what has to change. You don't get to decide for yourself if giving drugs or cigarettes or alcohol to small children is appropriate. Society has decided for you: it is not!
Why? Is there something unique about these substances? No. Rather, there is something unifying about them: they all have the potential to harm children. The principle that governs our societal standards in these cases is that responsible adults defend innocent children from harm.
That same standard calls out for guidance about the feeding of children. Data from the CDC indicate that children growing up in the United States today will suffer more chronic disease and premature death over their lifetimes from eating badly and lack of physical activity than from exposure to alcohol, tobacco and drugs combined. If the principle we care about is protecting children from harm, the practice should pertain to all threats comparably. At present, it does not. We are feeding our children to death.
And that's just not funny. I watched my neighbor's behavior in silent despair. It was not my place to impose my views on her. But it is society's place to establish behavioral guidelines that address our collective priorities. Surely the protection of children's welfare ranks high among them.
Obesity is not the fault of its many victims, but they should not be laughing about it either. And they certainly should not be propagating it and its harms among children. I like a good laugh as much as the next guy. But unless we start recognizing obesity for the serious threat that it is, the fate of our children will be cause for tears.
David L. Katz, MD, MPH, FACPM, FACP
www.davidkatzmd.com
Follow David Katz, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrDavidKatz
Debra Eschmeyer: From the White House to the Wii: Moving to Conquer Obesity
Susan Blumenthal, M.D.: Weighing in on Childhood Obesity Prevention
David Wallinga, M.D.: Challenging the Obesity System
Childhood obesity - MayoClinic.com
Obesity and Overweight for Professionals: Childhood | DNPAO | CDC
Given a choice, kids will always go for the sweet and the fat. I made my own baby food and at the time, guidelines cautioned against giving fruity or dessert foods because once a baby gets a taste for them, it's harder to make them happy with the meat and veg. As parents, it's our jobs to ensure that our kids get balanced nutrition to help them grow strong and be healthy.
I'm overweight. My vices were cheese, bread and chocolate. We have a very healthy diet in our home because of our responsibility as parents but I forgot my responsibility to myself for a while and in a sea of good choices, I made poor ones and my weight started increasing. I ate more calories than I expended but I've started to change that.
My nieces and nephews are all on their way to building a lifetime problem. They all eat only brown food. Fries, fast food and a lot of processed chicken bites. They live on microwave meals and instant fixes and none of them eat veggies. They all have one thing in common, parents who don't eat veggies or fruit and who don't make good choices. It's one thing to make wrong choices as an adult but we have no right to inflict fat and sugar on our kids.
Look, I get that you are heavy. But that does not make you a ‘bad’ person or bad parent. It is just a physical characteristic. You seem to take it as an identity. We get it. You are fat and proud of it. Yay!
I was a chubby child and teenager and I would be thirty pounds heavier if I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Now I eat half portions and lay off the desserts when my pants start to get snug. I exercise 20 - 30 minutes three to five times a week. When I can't exercise, I eat even less. For MOST people, it is as simple as that. Eat less and/or exercise more. It is really quite simple.
That said, you are correct on one point: it’s not just about how much you eat, but WHAT you eat = all calories are not created equal. A really good resource on this subject is Eat Right 4 Your Type. It talks about what foods react with each person’s body based on blood type and ethnicity.
And by the way - those florescent cheese puffs are poison & in fact almost as bad as street drugs, perhaps more so because they are more insidious in their effects. IMO, ‘junk food’ is indeed ‘junk’ and should not be a treat for kids/is NOT healthy in moderation.
Look, I get that you are the epitome of health, that your lifestyle is beyond reproach, and therefore your opinions should be assimilated into society as unwritten dogma, but not everybody believes that junk food is poison.
If your definition of poison is that excessive consumption is unhealthy, fine. Then raw potatoes are poisonous. Beer is poisonous. Water is poisonous.
As far as junk food being almost as bad as street drugs... wow. I stand in awe of such logic. I know some GOP speechwriters who would kill for that kind of convolution of logic. You could be a National Review ombudsman.
The assertion that giving a child cheese puffs, even as a regular part of their diet, is any way akin to giving an infant a cigarette, or a child drugs or alcohol, is the definition of absurd. Any one of those substances could kill a child on the spot, and if not, irreparably destroy healthy functioning.
Having a junk food diet (if coupled with a sedentary lifestyle) could lead to health problems down the road, but whatever damage is done can be reversed with improved diet and exercise.
Shaming people and intimidating people with accusations of child abuse will not solve childhood obesity. Narcing on some hungry fatties on a plane (what a great movie title that would be) only reinforces the asinine assumption that my life is your business.
(continued)
My kids are veggieholics... there are tomatoes and orange peppers in my fruit bowl along with the pears, bananas and grapes and they'll grab one and eat it like an apple. They made good choices because there were always good choices in the house. Treats and desserts for them were fruit and occasionally, I baked cookies or a cake but that was rare.
I'm overweight but my kids are not. I gained weight over the years by eating too much cheese, bread and chocolate .. my choice and my responsibility and I'm working to change it. If my kids gain weight, it'll be their choice but I've gotten them to the ages of 17 and 23 healthy and fit.
Well, the days when that attitude, and its accompanying behaviors, plagues the daily lives of fat people everywhere are over. If you express that sort of self-righteous attitude in public, then you best expect one of those fatties to respond.
Cur Non, you can engage in whatever lifestyle you choose... you can smoke like a chimney, get drunk every night, go tanning every day, treat your kids like crap, stockpile an arsenal of assault weapons... you can do any of these things and be completely within the boundary of the law.
Yet this society, as a whole, tends to be a "live and let live" sort of place. Yeah, there are groups that denounce smoking and drinking and assault weapons, but there isn't a War on Smoking or a War on Alcoholism or a War on Firearms.
What makes obesity such a heinous condition? Are there health risks? Absolutely. But is it the fatness that is the health risk or the lifestyle that can accompany that fatness? What role do genetics play? What role do hormones play in the development of obesity and particular diseases (such as the link between leptin and arthritis)?
(continued)
It is NOT easy!
I stand my ground on the junk food. It IS junk. And it is addictive. It is generally loaded with excess processed ingredients, fat, artificial colors, flavor or sweeteners... And I would not feed it to child. Best practice would be to not eat it at all, IMO.
But like I said, I DON’T CARE if you are fat. I would not criticize you because of how you LOOK; although I DO know many people that do that, and I don’t condone it! My arguments here have always been attacking your impaired logic, not appearance - which may or may not be indicative of an eating problem. Get over your fat-pride - you are doing what you accuse others of: arrogant judging.
Are you asserting that for MANY people, changing their LIFESTYLE (NOT dieting) eating the RIGHT amounts of the RIGHT foods and exercising will NOT allow them to acheive their healthy weight?
The fact of the matter is, we HAVE to eat and drink in order to survive. I am TIRED of hearing that drug addicts and alcoholics have a disease and need 12 steps and understanding, while the overweight are just lazy slobs who choose junkfood because they are idiots.
Junkfood is cheap. Crap is subsidized by the US GOVERNMENT. Corn, sugar, whet. And everyone add fats and salts to push their sales.
OBESITY IS THE DIRECT RESULT OF CAPITALISM. Sorry, but it's true.
Sure, people should do what they can to be healthy. And it's awful that the kids are being taught such unhealthy behaviors. Are you as outraged when people take prescription painkillers on a regular basis or smoke or drink in front of their kids?
What there needs to be is a list of products that no one should every buy. That would actually be helpful. And the next thing would be for employers to allow for an hour or more per day for exercise, meditation and/or recreation. We all need to sleep more. And eat organic foods.
In a way, the corporations are killing us.
That the little girl may grow up to be obese isn't "unfounded" it's a likelihood and it doesn't take a doctor to figure that one out.
The fat acceptance types can yell and scream all they want but it doesn't change that they're wrong.
I'm responding to you here because there's no further reply thread below. What have I said that is mean? Please, point me to where I have been mean or judgmental? I've refuted faulty opinions. Is that judgmental? Sure, in the sense that when a person posts an opinion and I read it I'm going to judge their intelligence and grasp on the issue. But where have I been mean? Just curious.
Second, that child may grow up to be fat, but it's not from emulating their parents' eating and exercise habits. One of the largest studies ever done on obesity and genetics looked at Danish adoption records (as they have some the most open adoption records in the world) and compared the child with his or her biological parents versus adoptive parents.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3941707
Guess what they found. No, go on, just guess.
In the majority of cases, the child's eventual weight was closest to the biological parents than the adoptive parents. Meaning genes accounts for a significant amount of weight in people. The same results were found in a study of twins.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/256/1/51
So yeah, it is unfounded to assume that due to the cheesy poofs, this child will be fat.
Peace,
Shannon
As for twin studies here's one:
Preventing Diabetes: Small Changes Have Big Payoff
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122104219
~
...consider this story of identical twins Tim and Paul Daly. They shared almost everything in childhood, including the same eating habits, the same love of basketball and the same genes — some of which predispose them to diabetes.
Back in 1996, one of the twins was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
Since the disease runs in families, it seemed almost a certainty that Tim would develop it, too.
"Because we know that Type 2 is genetic disease, and since he has an identical twin, he has a risk that's about 95 percent," says diabetes expert Dr. David Nathan of Massachusetts General Hospital.
But 14 years later, Tim still does not have diabetes. And he doesn't take any medicine to keep his blood sugar down. Instead, he has been able to make small changes to his eating habits and exercise to keep diabetes at bay. He isn't alone — a large national study conducted at 27 sites around the country, including Massachusetts General Hospital, found that small lifestyle changes are far more successful at warding off diabetes than a drug.
~
Even for twins, adopted or not, eating habits, lifestyle and activity trumps these genes.
It's astounding how we turn a blind eye toward the fact that people are all different. I eat healthy - low fat and low carb, and an appropriate number of calories. But i will never be thin. I am, however, healthy.
Weight is a complex matter; however, I do understand some peoples' need to be able to quickly sort complicated things into simple, black-and-white categories - it does make life easier for them.
ALL THIS GOES TO REITERATE EXACTLY WHY WE
NEED SERIOUS, SERIOUS!, EDUCATION IN AS EARLY
AS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ABOUT NUTRITION, AS MANY
PARENTS AREN'T EVEN ABLE TO SPEAK TO THEIR
CHILDREN ABOUT HOW TO EAT WELL.
***********************************************************************************
My best friend had a young obese daughter and the Peds doctor kept telling her that she'd grow out of it which she didn't. Her daughter is now 30 and obese but the peds doc never would be honest with her. He kept measuring her daughters wrist and somehow he determined that she would not be obese according to her wrist size! You would have had to be blind not to see that this girl was clearly obese and her wrist size was not a factor of her future size but if she'd stop eating entire pizza's every darn day for lunch-- maybe she'd loose weight. She still has tiny delicate wrist but they are now attached to a 5'10" obese frame!
Pediatric doctors need to start telling these parents the bold truth. If they all did that, then running away from a truthful doc would not work. Watching an obese youth turn into an obese adult because no one wants to hurt their feelings is wrong.
One of the biggest problems with the obesity crisis is that too many people think nothing should be said. Not even constructive comments are accepted as the truth they are. After all it's not our place to speak out, right? Wrong!
As someone who definitely needs to lose a few pounds I found his comments refreshing and very spot on. I know my family loves me dearly but for years they have watched me in silence as I moved toward an unhealthy state. I don't blame my family for my situation but I sure as heck wish just once they had confronted me with love and concern as I do my sister in regards to her smoking.
It's time to stop being silent about this very real killer. I applaud Dr. Katz for speaking out in such a caring and discreet (keyword) manner.
Is it any wonder that there are obese people who hide in their homes, unwilling to face the looks of disgust, the comments, people staring at them, watching what they eat; people who stop socializing because so much of our socialization revolves around food, people who won't walk because of the catcalls, won't ride a bike because of the cruel laughter, won't go to the beach or swim because fat-haters find them so repulsive, physically and because they 'did it to themselves', growing more depressed and more lonely and more obese each day.
Thank you Dr., and others who let obese people know what's really going on in your minds when you are talking to them, your "concern" is killing them.
This article is the journal of a man who has observed others closely and drawn conclusions based on a brief plane ride with them. He was observing them like a germs under a microscope, and I doubt he would have given a second look to this group of people if the two women were thin and exhibiting the same behavior.
If you want to do something, promote healthy lifestyles, not shame.
Peace,
Shannon
Atchka.com
FierceFatties.com
Shame solves NOTHING.
Peace,
Shannon
Reading many of these comments sure underscores how sensitive people are to their eating habits and whatever results they engender. It's amazing how we let the cloud of our personal experience/preferences/fears/attitudes, et al, so completely color our life and actions.
Me too, surely...
... But, I pride myself on being objective with an overarching desire to seek out and understand the core reasons for things. Causes and effects. Uncolored and unvarnished by my own particulars, or others.
Of course, this is hard to do.... I only have my senses and particular mind at hand to make sense of it all. When I read this post, the personal stuff mentioned did not affect me one way or the other. But I was nodding affirmatively when reading the facts of the matter.
The facts speak loudly and are amply obvious as you walk around American and note our collective girths. Something has happened over the decades. Twenty years ago, 60+% of us were not obese or overweight. Diabetes was not a pending epidemic... particularly for children.
http://www.garmaonhealth.com/2010/02/lets-move/
I write a blog that often focuses on diet. My research does not come up with anything unique. We are overfat because we don't move enough, and eat too much salt, sugar and fat that's embedded in manufactured, fiberless food and the bubbly sugar-water called soda.
My 2 cents.
jgarma
www.GarmaOnHealth.com
These things need to be said and they can either come from a caring, compassionate person or from hateful, rude people who don't care how their words wound.
Fanned!
I was judged on my child. All of us eat less than it looks. Meanwhile I took her to one doctor after another. They all told me I was doing it right. At one point found a neutritionist that had no personality so that didn't work. I tried everything. I've had a doctor say Taekwondo wasn't much exercise in front of her. She wanted to quit then. Of course I had her in one activity after another. I have had teachers contribute to the problem. Neighbors. To this day I question how and what I did. Since I was raised chubby with no self-esteem, I got that I didn't want to rob her of that completely as we fought it. It's such a fine balance for a girl. I've had adults shoot me ugly looks to let me know what they though. They had no clue.
You can not take a snap shot and get the true picture. To suggest you can do it when people are traveling is even more unreasonable. Even I gave into things in situations like that maybe so the young child would not act up. When we traveled we didn't boot camp it like we did at home maybe.
Even mentioning real examples of child abuse in the same article bothers me.
Furhman is a doctor and bases his nutritional philosophy on scholarly research.
Peace,
Shannon
What does bother me is the use of a personal experience involving apparently real people to illustrate a point. This use implies a judging, a condescension and it doesn't help with the writer's argument.
See, it is so easy to demonize a person, when there is a much larger problem that is hard to solve. Our food industry is literally killing us and influential health writers are busy blaming the victims.
I know that those of us who are obese are responsible for ourselves. That is why I am involved in a transforming eating and exercise plan now. I want to change. But believe me, lifestyles and expectations in this modern world do not foster healthy habits. Not at all. For those of us genetically predisposed to obesity, change is very very hard, and you never get a break from this reality. I don't want to read about this doctor's experiences until he has walked in the shoes of someone who has battled overweight an entire lifetime.
-our society would not consider an adult who puts drugs, tobacco, or alcohol into the mouth of a 3-year-old a 'decent' person. For that that reason only, I made clear that I found these women to be quintessentially decent, insofar as I could tell.
-We would not need to know that an adult ALWAYS puts a cigarette in a child's mouth to consider it inappropriate to do it some of the time. We don't even begin to think of 'junk food' the way we think of drugs or alcohol, and I am asking; why? Is our objection to tobacco unique to tobacco in some way, or is it because of the harm that tobacco does? If it is because of harm or potential for harm, and food is causing more harm than tobacco- then why should the offending foods be granted immunity?
-it is far more exception than norm to bring a bag full of junk foods to feed a child on a trip when one, in fact, feeds that child healthful foods in general. People tend to eat and feed their kids...what people tend to eat and feed their kids. One cannot know this in any given case- but one can know that it is the prevailing norm.
Your hyperbolic reaction to these women is absurd. You witnessed them on a plane for six hours and somehow you feel justified in analyzing their dietary habits because "People tend to eat and feed their kids...what people tend to eat and feed their kids."
Your assessment is irresponsible at best. You are basically shaming people for daring to feed their children something other than whole, non-processed foods. You are drawing parallels between moderate feeding behavior (again, based on limited observation) and a parent giving a toddler drugs, alcohol and nicotene.
I recommend before you give any more advice on the feeding and care of children, you read more about healthy feeding behaviors, which does not include your prescribed Draconian ban on all processed foods. I recommend the work of Ellyn Satter, who has worked exclusively in this field for decades.
http://www.ellynsatter.com
Peace,
Shannon
Atchka.com
FierceFatties.com
Look, I get that you are heavy. But that does not make you a ‘bad’ person or bad parent. It is just a physical characteristic. You seem to take it as an identity. We get it. You are fat and proud of it. Yay!
I was a chubby child and teenager and I would be thirty pounds heavier if I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Now I eat half portions and lay off the desserts when my pants start to get snug. I exercise 20 - 30 minutes three to five times a week. When I can't exercise, I eat even less. For MOST people, it is as simple as that. Eat less and/or exercise more. It is really quite simple.
That said, you are correct on one point: it’s not just about how much you eat, but WHAT you eat = all calories are not created equal. A really good resource on this subject is Eat Right 4 Your Type. It talks about what foods react with each person’s body based on blood type and ethnicity.
And by the way - those florescent cheese puffs are poison & in fact almost as bad as street drugs, perhaps more so because they are more insidious in their effects. IMO, ‘junk food’ is indeed ‘junk’ and should not be a treat for kids/is NOT healthy in moderation.
Dr. Katz observed two fat women stuffing their faces, yet it he is off the mark to conclude that they eat like that all the time? Really, how cruel and unfair of him! Talk about jumping to conclusions! Come on! You are so busy defending your lifestyle that you fail to see the logic.
Res ipsa loquitur