Obesity among American children is at epidemic proportions. Fifteen percent of children are
overweight or obese and in some states such as Arkansas and Virginia the numbers are as high as
40 percent. These numbers translate into individuals, human beings who suffer social and
pychological problems related to being overweight or obese, including serious health
ramifications. Overweight Children are suffering diseases once rarely seen in children such as
high blood pressure, high choleserol and adult-onset type II diabetes.
For Mexican-American kids the outlook is worse. Sixty-three percent are overweight or obese in
the 6 to 11 age group, and the figure is 67 percent for those in the 12 to 19 age group,
according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Yes, with the help of fast food and convenient snack foods at every turn, we're eating more than
we did a generation ago. But we're moving even less. Today's children are the "most inactive
generation in history," according to the American Obesity Association. Although Americans on
average are eating 100 to 200 more calories a day than they did 20 years ago, people are burning
roughly 700 calories less a day than they did in the past.
Everyone is sitting on their ever-widening bottoms watching Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me or
lounging in their lawyer's waiting room waiting to file suit against McDonald's for making them
fat. Food consumption is only part of the obesity epidemic equation. Our sedentary lifestyle is
equally to blame.
And what happened to movement anyway?
Anti-obesity CD Promotes Sedentary Behavior
Bimbo USA recently released a game on compact disc (a give-away in hispanic kid-popular Marinela
cake snacks) claiming the disc "promotes healthy exercise." Seems the bilingual CD games don't
bother to have kids get up from their computers to do anything physical. Instead, they sit and
work a mouse.
A spokesman for the company suggests the CD does encourage kids to be more active, just as
watching the Olympics might make viewers emulate world-class athletes. (Yeah, all those football
widows are married to sleek and trim spouses who cannot stop playing touch football in the
backyard in their spare time).The CD, featuring a duck that swims, bikes, runs and kayaks, is just
another example of our society translating healthy behaviors such as outdoor activities into a
convenient, calorie conserving experience to be had by anyone who desires never to leave their cushy seat.
"If nothing changes," says Dr. John Menchaca, "Hispanic children will have a 50 percent chance of
developing diabetes in their lifetime."
The bottom line? If the trend toward increasing obesity rates
are not changed, American children are in line for serious health problems before they reach adulthood and
worsening health and mortality as they enter adulthood. Medical experts and research scientists are predicting
this "generation Xtra Large" will live shorter life spans than their parents.