They Know They're Fat

I ran across this story in the LA Times yesterday.  Essentially, it says that "...a federal health advisory panel on Monday recommended that all obese adults receive intensive counseling".  You know, to rein in the fatness.  And really, it wouldn't be that big of a deal what the advisory panel said except that since Obamacare has been ruled to be constitutional (don't get me started), part of that whole deal "...requires adoption of certain recommendations from the task force, such as this one on obesity."

Now, I'm way more into preventative health care than I am just letting people's bodies go completely to hell and then trying to maintain some semblance of "normal" living through medication.  I'm not so sure how I feel about "intensive counseling", but that's kind of only because I don't know what in the hell that means.  But here's the part where I realized that it's likely going to be some utopian effort to try and change something that might not be changeable.  It's the part that said "...a recent study that found that more than half of all obese patients had never been told by their physician that they needed to lose weight."

More than half of all obese patients?  Soooooo...someone is obese and because they were never told by a doctor that they needed to lose weight....that they what?  They didn't know that they were obese?  They didn't know that it's not normal to wheeze and gasp for air every few steps?  They didn't know that using their Fry Daddy for all three meals each day (and snacks) was a bad idea?  Because no one TOLD them they needed to lose weight, they just assumed that they didn't?  Is that what I am supposed to take from that?  Or am I supposed to be blaming the physician for the fatness of the patient?  Either way, no matter which answer I get to that question, it's not good.

Since when did we need to be told everything to do?  I understand giving people nutritional counseling, I suppose.  It can get a little complicated at times if you're really trying to improve your health.  But if you're obese, I'm pretty sure that you can figure out why you're obese without someone telling you.  And I'm also going to find it difficult to believe that an obese individual doesn't know that it's not good for them to be obese.  Do you really think that an obese person can't figure out that they (most likely) would lose some weight if they ate less? 

And please do not email me your stories of obese individuals that you know or are related to and tell me all about their "thyroid problem" or their other metabolic condition that prevents them from losing weight.  Even IF that was the reason that those particular individuals are obese, those people make up such a small percentage that it isn't even worth discussing.  (It's funny how all of those thyroid folks eat fast food and Ding Dongs all the time, isn't it?  Must be part of their "condition".  Go figure.)    Also please refrain from the emails and comments telling me that I must hate fat people.  I don't.  What I hate is people unwilling to take responsibility for anything that they do to themselves and then blaming the government or someone else for their "misfortune".  Granted, I hate the government enabling those people more than I hate the unwillingness of the people in the first place.  But I gotta focus on something.  And right now, my focus in on the government thinking it can fix things that it can't.  Good Lord, we're doomed.

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Disproportionate Perspectives

Well, this explains a few things. From the journalistically challenged group calling itself Yahoo! News, we have this grammatically mangled headline "Bullying Top Concern of Parents With Overweight Child" I'm going to take a pass on a grammar rant today because the story itself needs to have it's idiocy highlighted. If I spent time pointing out all that is wrong over there at Yahoo! News, we could be here a while. No, we would be here a while because the 23-year olds who are running that debacle are not about to be told what to do when they clearly know everything.

So here's the scoop: "According to a report by the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health, bullying is the top "health" concern among parents with overweight and obese children." Um, WTF? Are they kidding? First of all, bullying is a "health concern"? Since when? A "concern over the condition of the human body (and whether or not it's going to get F-ed up by a bully)" it may be, but a "health concern"? Second, how does "bullying" take priority over the fact that their kid is obese? Oh, right, because their kid is obese.

See, there are not a lot of reasons for a child to be overweight. (Don't send me email about medical conditions, thyroid problems and slow metabolisms. I know. And we both know that 99 times out of 100 none of those things are the problem.) That's because it's pretty easy to keep a child at an acceptable and healthy weight. As the person with the job in the household who buys the food, you do have more control than the child over what they eat. You're also the person who can say, "Go play" and toss them outside while you flop your ass on the couch to watch the game. So if your little bundle of joy is rotund, that's a problem, but it's not just the kid's problem, it's the parent's problem as well and those kind of parents don't do so well with the whole "taking responsibility" thing. But I digress. Where was I?

Oh, right, bullying is the number one concern among parents with obese or overweight children. A one Dr. Matthew M. Davis who is the director of the National Poll on Children's Health, said, "We found that parents with overweight or obese children actually view bullying as a greater problem than childhood obesity. Since bullying is known to be a problem for children with increased weight, bullying prevention programs will need to be mindful of obesity as a potential trigger for bullying behavior and of parents concerns surrounding this issue." Wait. What does that mean exactly?

First of all, which group are the "bullying prevention programs" directed at? The potential bullies or the potential victims? Does that mean they will be telling the parents of potential victims that, hey, if your child is overweight, they're likely to get picked on? So if you don't want that, well then, you'd better help your little butterball buttercup out there. (Oh, how I would hope that would be in addition to all of the "obesity prevention programs" that I'm sure are equally prevalent. Actually, in case you didn't catch that, I was being sarcastic. See, I'm not sure that there are "obesity prevention programs" at all. There used to be and they were called "recess" and "playing outside". You'd think that there were "obesity advancement programs" from the looks of a lot of people I've seen lately.) This is just wrong on many, many levels.

The fact that bullying was more of a concern to parents of overweight or obese children than the overweightness and the obesity itself is disturbing. And that weight issues as potential triggers of bullies are now needing to be incorporated into programs designed to prevent bullying is a sad statement in and of itself. You know what else is disturbing? "Nearly two in five of the families polled included one or more overweight or obese child between the ages of 6 and 13.

"Between 6 and 13"?! See? It is not OK that we are talking about obese six year olds! And why is that do you suppose? Oh, here's a clue: "The poll also showed that children who were obese or overweight were almost twice as likely to have an obese parent as healthy weight children." All right, they needed a study to figure that out? Have they not been to a County Fair lately? It's like an Oopmah Loompah convention down there!

The point here is that people are more concerned about other people picking on their child than if their child is overweight. That would explain why there are more overweight children than there are children who are picked on (regardless as to the proportion of overweight to regular weight kids who are picked on), because while being overweight is not exactly "acceptable", it's more acceptable than having someone else draw attention to the fact that you're overweight? Why is that? I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with the general soft-headed mentality that's taking over. You know, the one where everyone is OK and no one can do anything wrong and there are no mistakes and no one loses the game and a whole bunch of other crap like that.

The thing is, regardless as to why your kid is overweight and regardless as to whether they're being picked on or not, the kid's weight needs to be the focus and the point of importance, whether people like it or not. It's a health issue and being overweight when you are between 6 and 13 is only going to cause more health issues as you get older. And really, if you're 6, I don't think you should have to deal with health issues because of your weight.

Attention, people who took that poll: Focus, people! Focus! Everyone is going to get picked on, overweight or not. It's called school (and after that it's called life). Raise your kid to be able to deal with it. That way, they can take care of that and you can take care of them and make sure that they are at a weight that is appropriate for their body type at whatever age they're at. Perspective. It's all about perspective. (That's why when people get too large, they lose that perspective. And when that happens, it really helps to paint a stripe around their middle so you can tell if they're walking or rolling.)

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