Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Fat, Fat, Fat

I just finished watching a very informative program on KET2 this evening - Frontline: "The Diet Wars". I then proceeded to my computer to go to PBS.org in order to view some of the transcript information. I highly recommend everyone to visit this site and get more familiar with the obesity epidemic we in this country are facing (myself included) and more importantly, the epidemic our children are facing.

Here is an excerpt from one of the pages (click here to view article):

How important is this as a public health epidemic? If we do nothing, what's going to happen?

The biggest thing that's going to happen is that diabetes rates are going to skyrocket. There was a projection published last summer by the CDC that suggested that for a child born in the year 2000, they faced a 50 percent lifetime risk of developing diabetes, so that means that one child in two, over their lifetime, would become diabetic.

Diabetes is a very, very serious disease. It has tremendous impact on life. It takes very, very careful management. It's an expensive disease. It is associated with cardiovascular risk, with blindness, with amputation, with renal failure, so it will definitely overwhelm our healthcare system. It's a disease that's chronic, so if you get it early, you'll live with it for a very long time. It's likely to be very expensive, but more importantly, it's likely to really compromise quality of life.


I have a friend whose 9 year old son has high cholesterol and her 4 year old daughter has cavities in her teeth. If she would get rid of the giant drawer in her kitchen full of cookies and chips maybe her kids would eat more of the meal the worked so hard to prepare each day. I am amazed by what the children around me eat on a daily basis. My nephew and niece (my brother's children - 9 and 6 years old) eat junk constantly. My nephew suffers from psoriasis all over his body and my niece is always sick and has allergies. When you go to their house and look in the refrigerator all you see is koolaid, bologna, and cheese and condiments in it. Everything they eat is in the pantry or the freezer - pre-cooked, processed junk.

I try my best with my own children to make sure they eat a proper diet and take their vitamins. They don't drink soft drinks or koolaide - it's mostly water (reverse osmosis), sport drink (non-preservative) in the summer, or milk (Horizon organic). No fast food or candy. Don't get me wrong - we do live in the world and indulge in the occasional sweet treats. If you have read any of my previous posts you will quickly learn about my "chocolate" weakness. But, I always make sure my kids have their supplements and meal drinks and eat something green - I'm almost a fanatic.

Back to the program. They mentioned at one point about the food guide pyramid and how it encourages the largest consumption from the bread, cereal, rice and pasta group and less dairy and meats. But how some are contradicting this. In one of the nutrition books I own, Prescription for Natural Cures, Doctors Balch and Stengler recommend to their patients, in line with modern nutrition research, the following:

Starting from the top of the pyramid (the smallest portions down to the bottom - the largest amount):

Dairy products - optional
Quality protein (fish, lean poultry, eggs) 2-4 servings
Whole grains (low glycemic) 3-5 servings/Legumes 2-3 servings
Healthful oils (Oils: olive, canola, flax, hemp) Nuts and seeds 3-4 servings
Vegetables 5-7 servings/Fruit 2-3 servings
Water 6-8 glasses (48-64 ounces)

The two favorite books in my "nutrition" library:

Prescription for Natural Cures and Prescription for Nutritional Healing

Sorry for the tangent but sometimes my true obsessions rear their ugly head every now and then and I tend to get on a rant.

I will just go ahead and admit it - I can talk all day long about God and His Word and nutrition. Man, glad I got that out!

Moving on...

I decided I was going to reveal my identity on this post due to the duress I have been under from a fellow blogger who I will NOT remain nameless - Susie!

So, without any further a due, here are several photo attempts I made this afternoon of myself with the nuggets (please disregard the minor blemish on my forehead and my stylish Kentucky Wildcat shirt - Go Cats!):

Psycho Pson - get off my head already!

It's funny, when I said "make a funny face" we all stick out our tongues.






P.S. I hope you're happy Susie - the double chin is in the blogworld now!

7 comments:

Anne said...

It's funny - you mention poop a lot. My hubby thinks I'm the only one in the world who talks about poop. My grandma always said you could tell a lot about a persons health by the poo. My son likes to eat cheese A LOT and he poops just fine as well - good consistency and color. My daughter on the other hand is poop challenged. It's an active effort to keep fiber in her. Just tonight she was having trouble and I had to fill her full of "crunchies" (her fiber crunch). I'm hoping for a good "out"come tomorrow.

Are YOU grossed out yet?

Suzy-Q said...

Y'all are my kinda gals! Not afraid of a little toilet talk.

Glad you're back in the blog world Anne....missed you.

I MUST GET A DIGITAL CAMERA!!

How do you get your kids motivated away from the computer/tv to exercise? Disguise it? Carly is over weight and it is hard to get her motivated to get physical. It's my fault because I don't make her. Any suggestions? FUn exercises?

Anne said...

Auntie J - I just chase them around the house with the flyswatter threatening to beat them - just kidding.

My son gets his exercise by jumping from furniture to furniture and TeeTee is right behind him.

On a serious note - just turn some music on and dance. My kids love for the stereo to be on and they just dance (I call it running and jumping and wrestling) but they have a great time whatever it is. I’ll have to try to get a video clip of it on my blog. I also try to be careful about the types of sugar/carbohydrates they consume. It's a constant battle with the "candy" that shows up in my son's pockets from the "candy-man" at church and what gets sent home from grandma's house. My kids are obsessed with it.

I have a "physical education" curriculum as well that came with a fun CD to exercise to. I need to make it one of my resolutions this year - use the curriculum.

~Jennifer said...

Hey Anne, you look beautiful (didn't even see the blemish) and so do your kids! We homeschool too.

I go through phases where I'm really good about eating and feeding my family healthfully and then I get lazy and we go through a streak of eating pizza and mac and cheese for dinner. I struggle everyday to do better.

Nice to meet you!

Anne said...

Jennifer - thanks for the visit. I always like to find new "homeschooling" pals. The diet issue is a struggle for me as well. With the homeschooling it's so hard to prepare a good meal at dinner with all the school work and regular house maintenance.

Susie - aint nothin' wrong with that babyfood idea. THAT was a lot of work. I didn't get fanatical about diet until my son was about 10 months old. Before that I was only fanatical about drinking water.

Okay ya'll, it's almost 3:00 in the afternoon here and I'm still in my jammies. I still need to get dinner ready and get everyone bathed to get to church on time tonight. I've been hangin' out here in the "dining room" watching the kids play outside and every now and then gathering up all the Christmas decor. AAHHHH - I need a bath.

Whistle Britches said...

Now, Auntie Joe, you know we could all use some exercise. Must be all your good cookin'.

Bryan said...
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