Study: Childhood Obesity Has Become A Global Epidemic

[Liesje]

As a college student who's paid for my own food (and everything) since age 17, my experience is that you CAN get healthy, or at least not UNhealthy, foods for a normal price, but we rarely get them because they spoil so quickly. I typically buy groceries once every two weeks. There's hardly any good raw fruits and veggies that last that long. I love berries, so I splurge on strawberries and raspberries even when they're not in season, but they have to all be eaten within two days.

And like yolland pointed out, MOST healthy foods cost more. I can get white bread for $0.69 but wheat will cost $1.50 or more. I can get frozen berries for $0.99, but a fresh pack of strawberries is about $3 or $2 when in-season. 8 measly oz. of raspberries are nearly $4! Meanwhile, I can get a whole Tuna helper dinner for $1.50 or Mac 'n cheese for $0.50 or less, Campbell's soups for $0.69.

And as for cooking, like my housemates and I say everynight, maybe we'll have time to cook when we're not full time students working 2-4 jobs a piece, not including our internships/practicums.

 

[anitram]

LivLuv is right on.

It may be easier to cook cheaper, nutritious meals when you are cooking for a family of 4, 5, etc. But when you are a single person or a student, it's really expensive to go buy 1 cucumber, 2 oranges, a head of Romaine, a squash, etc. These things spoil quickly so unless you'll be hauling ass to the grocery store to buy fruit and veggies every couple of days, it's really not feasible. And you come back from class or from the library at 7 pm, you haven't eaten since noon, nobody will sit there and make a veggie lasagna when you can have mac 'n cheese in less than 10 minutes. It's not just cost, I think a lot of people choose these meals with fillers because of convenience.

I lived overseas in a poor country when I was a child and don't really remember that many overweight kids. I think the main difference wasn't necessarily a reduced caloric load at lunch (because I remember a lot of pasta and rice, etc which is carb heavy), but snacks. Most kids these days come home from school and essentially eat non-stop until they go to bed. Chips, cookies, microwaveable popcorn, pop, crackers and so on. Food with no nutritional value and while it looks like 2 Oreos can't do too much damage, when you combine them with 4 Ritz cheddar sandwiches, 5 Teddy Grahams dipped in chocolate, 3 fruit gushers or fruit roll ups, it all adds up.

 

[Liesje]

And you come back from class or from the library at 7 pm, you haven't eaten since noon, nobody will sit there and make a veggie lasagna when you can have mac 'n cheese in less than 10 minutes. It's not just cost, I think a lot of people choose these meals with fillers because of convenience.

Like tonight, for example, I was in class all day until 9 frickin pm and then Phil was late getting me. I'm tired and stressed and all I want right now is to microwave a few frozen eggrolls and veg in front of the TV for just a few minutes before the nightly workout and then trying to get to sleep at a good time b/c I'm working 8-5 tomorrow, during which I get 1/2 hr unpaid break. Cooking? What's that? It's not that it's inconvenient, it's IMPOSSIBLE.

As for kids, I don't ever remember my dad's cooking being all that healthy (my mom doesn't cook). What I remember is that we didn't have options of what to eat and we spent all of our waking hours outdoors.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Mac n cheese - 75 cents
pasta boxes - One dollar
spaghetti sauce - one dollar


1 fresh cucumber 1.00
broccoli 1.50
package of strawberries 3.00
head of lettuce 2.00

The processed stuff has fillers in it and is cheap. white bread - 1.00 per loaf
100% whole wheat bread - 2.50 per loaf

Please teach me what you know Angela! (and don't insult me )

I wouldn't insult you, Anne!

I actually haven't done the maths on this example, but I'll work it out as I type, lol. A burger meal at McDonalds is um...$6? I think that's right. Now. If you buy:

6 pk hamburger buns = $2
500gm heart foundation mince = $6-$8
1kg bag of cholesterol free oven chips = $2.70
1.25L diet coke/diet pepsi = $1.80

total = $14.00 approx.
But you can make at least 4 healthy McProtest Healthy Meals! Which works out $3.50-$4.00 each. Maths was never my forte, but we can see in this one example. Now this is if someone insists on eating a burger with chips and a soft drink (which I think is unneccesary, the chips are not needed with a burger - we over eat thinking this practice is ok). The chips can be grilled on an oven grill plate and have no fat except for what they come in. I do these chips myself occasionally and it is my version of healthy junk food. Much nicer than take-away or very processed food, I reckon! Of course the meat can be cooked in olive oil, and the bun is most likely going to be free of the hideous preservatives you can find hidden in buns not bought with a nurtritional table on them.

Needless, I strongly disagree with anitram and livluv that cooking for a family is cheaper or easier. If you guys dont have time or energy now, dont think you will with 2 or more kids to chase after. If you think it is a different maths game with multiple people to feed in one sitting, then again it is not true. I could feed my family with the above for half the cost of take-away, but that food lasts only one meal. You could do exactly the same and freeze the meat and keep the buns and have it last 4 days. Probably not appetising 4 nights in a row, but still. If you are so exceptionally busy that cooking is the last thing you can manage at the end of a day, then may I suggest casseroles or stirfries?

500gm chuck steak
500 gm carrots, potato, peas, any old veges you like
beef stock/hot pot (etc) mix
-Divide by however much you eat, freeze, and you have dinner for a week. Cheap. No cooking, no excess fat or processed food.

Rice. Cheap as. A godsend to busy people, poor people, and health concious people.

I could go on and on, but I cant even remember the point I was trying to make so I'll shut it.

 

[ILuvLarryMullen]

I think that just cutting out soda alone could help a lot of kids. The amount of soda people drink has sky rocketed. When I was a kid the only time I got to have soda was during lunch on the weekend or if we went out to eat, now it seems like a lot of kids drink nothing but soda. It's not unusal for people to drink 3 or more sodas per day and each can of soda has like 150? calories, no nutritional value, and isn't even filling.

 

[Angela Harlem]

Oh, and Anne, I got given this book recently (which I'm going to give to my moderately intellectually disabled sister-in-law) on 3 ingredient recipes. They are all healthy except for the desserts. They are also exceptionally cheap to buy the ingredients for, and many you can plump up with things you already have in the kitchen.

And I remembered, with what you listed as examples like mac n cheese etc, you can get cheap quick things like noodles, rice based meals, pasta and stuff, for as cheap. It might take longer to prepare, but I fully believe it's possible!

 

[angelordevil]

Why is it that people always blame the corporations for these problems, it is as if people are all gaumless children who don't have any free will of their own. Price, demand and convenience are the reason that fast food gets such wide distribution and the corporations should not be punished for this.

I have to respectfully disagree. I made the mistake in an earlier thread of blaming the parents too much for their children's risque clothing choices, music, etc. After thinking about it a bit, I realized that parents can act as a buffer, but it's difficult, because they're under constant attack from so many forces. This is kind of similar. The kinds of foods we eat are choices that we make as individuals, yes, but they're also plotted at great length in the boardrooms of multinational corporations. These companies have a massive and unprecedented ability to infiltrate every sense and emotion known to humanity.

Sure, it's free will. So is taking cocaine. But, if that drug were available legally on every street corner after a hard day at the office, would it simply rest on the individual's shoulders to walk on by?

 

[Liesje]

I wouldn't insult you, Anne!

I actually haven't done the maths on this example, but I'll work it out as I type, lol. A burger meal at McDonalds is um...$6? I think that's right. Now. If you buy:

6 pk hamburger buns = $2
500gm heart foundation mince = $6-$8
1kg bag of cholesterol free oven chips = $2.70
1.25L diet coke/diet pepsi = $1.80

total = $14.00 approx.
But you can make at least 4 healthy McProtest Healthy Meals! Which works out $3.50-$4.00 each. Maths was never my forte, but we can see in this one example. Now this is if someone insists on eating a burger with chips and a soft drink (which I think is unneccesary, the chips are not needed with a burger - we over eat thinking this practice is ok). The chips can be grilled on an oven grill plate and have no fat except for what they come in. I do these chips myself occasionally and it is my version of healthy junk food. Much nicer than take-away or very processed food, I reckon! Of course the meat can be cooked in olive oil, and the bun is most likely going to be free of the hideous preservatives you can find hidden in buns not bought with a nurtritional table on them.

Needless, I strongly disagree with anitram and livluv that cooking for a family is cheaper or easier. If you guys dont have time or energy now, dont think you will with 2 or more kids to chase after. If you think it is a different maths game with multiple people to feed in one sitting, then again it is not true. I could feed my family with the above for half the cost of take-away, but that food lasts only one meal. You could do exactly the same and freeze the meat and keep the buns and have it last 4 days. Probably not appetising 4 nights in a row, but still. If you are so exceptionally busy that cooking is the last thing you can manage at the end of a day, then may I suggest casseroles or stirfries?

500gm chuck steak
500 gm carrots, potato, peas, any old veges you like
beef stock/hot pot (etc) mix
-Divide by however much you eat, freeze, and you have dinner for a week. Cheap. No cooking, no excess fat or processed food.

Rice. Cheap as. A godsend to busy people, poor people, and health concious people.

But this just proves the point. Why pay $14 to make healthy burgers when you can feed 6 people with a $1.99 box of Mac 'n cheese? Or three packs of Ramen for a total of $1.50. Or a Tuna Helper meal for $1.50 plus the can of tuna for $1. And as for family life being as busy as college, that also proves my point, that if college students can't find time to cook for themselves, how would they expect to have time to go shopping for healthy foods and cook it in a way that's healthy for their families every day? And $6 for a burger at McD's...no way! Also, aren't buns and rice full of carbs and doesn't boiling veggies (for the stew) ruin it's nutritional value? Anyway, our point about cooking for several being cheaper is that we're making two assumptions 1) that food is being bought for say 3-6 people and 2) the food is being bought about once a week. In college, you have a single person buying food once every 2-4 weeks. Lettuce and other greens, berries, tomatoes, even milk don't last that long. Like I said I can at the moment get 2lb of strawberries for $3 but the most I can eat in a day before getting sick is 1/4 lb and they all go bad after 2-3 days.

 

[Angela Harlem]

But this just proves the point. Why pay $14 to make healthy burgers when you can feed 6 people with a $1.99 box of Mac 'n cheese? Or three packs of Ramen for a total of $1.50. Or a Tuna Helper meal for $1.50 plus the can of tuna for $1. And as for family life being as busy as college, that also proves my point, that if college students can't find time to cook for themselves, how would they expect to have time to go shopping for healthy foods and cook it in a way that's healthy for their families every day? And $6 for a burger at McD's...no way! Also, aren't buns and rice full of carbs and doesn't boiling veggies (for the stew) ruin it's nutritional value? Anyway, our point about cooking for several being cheaper is that we're making two assumptions 1) that food is being bought for say 3-6 people and 2) the food is being bought about once a week. In college, you have a single person buying food once every 2-4 weeks. Lettuce and other greens, berries, tomatoes, even milk don't last that long. Like I said I can at the moment get 2lb of strawberries for $3 but the most I can eat in a day before getting sick is 1/4 lb and they all go bad after 2-3 days.

Er, no. It doesn't prove any point. Let me explain it further. If you want to compare healthy home cooked burgers to macaroni and cheese instead of a McDonalds burger meal equivilent, then let me throw in a $0.30 apple and win this one. I compared home cooked burgers to take-away burgers. Not one thing to something entirely unrelated. Your mac n cheese, though. You could buy a $1.99 box, or you could buy a $0.50 packet of pasta and make the cheese sauce with ingredients you already have in the cupboard. OR you could decide to do it healthier and skip the mac cheese entirely. I have no idea what a tuna helper meal is, but with a can of tuna, it is at least healthy.
As for having time, you have less I have found in my experience as a student and then being a housewife who works or doesn't still work when you are doing the family thing. Or maybe I was just a bad student, who knows, lol. One thing I knew though, I wanted to eat well and I wanted my family to, so I changed habits and made decisions to eat good food that is easy to cook. You just adjust life to fit it in. One thing I wanted to add is your comments about the stew or casserole. Veges for starters, go into them raw or snap frozen, never boiled first. And I personally never boil anything. I steam it which is the healthiest way I am aware of to eat vegetables without eating them raw. So I dont lose any nutrition. If someone did boil them before casseroling, then yeah, they'd lose the value.

Look, I could go on and on. But even shopping irregularly is something you can overcome. You might need to be dedicated and willing to find a market for your fresh food, or a willingness to alter your diet to get longer shelf life items which are still healthy and cheap, but it can be done.

 

[Liesje]

Er, no. It doesn't prove any point. Let me explain it further. If you want to compare healthy home cooked burgers to macaroni and cheese instead of a McDonalds burger meal equivilent, then let me throw in a $0.30 apple and win this one. I compared home cooked burgers to take-away burgers. Not one thing to something entirely unrelated.

OK, but we weren't talking about fast food bought per meal. I guess I'm just getting more and more confused.

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to cook healthy meals and plenty of places to buy the food, but that doesn't have any effect on the rate that food spoils. Not to mention, many foods aren't even available certain times of the year or if they are, are outrageously expensive and are half rotten by the time they get shelved. If I want food cheap and not in bulk or prepackaged, we have a local farmers market, but because it snows 8 months of the year, it's hardly ever open.

Not that this has much to do with fat kids and the shitty sludge they serve in school cafeterias...

 

[Angela Harlem]

sorry if I sounded rude in the above reply, btw. Just trying to feed one child and talk on the phone to a real estate agent whilst arguing with another child on yoghurt.

 

[redkat]

OK, but we weren't talking about fast food bought per meal. I guess I'm just getting more and more confused.

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to cook healthy meals and plenty of places to buy the food, but that doesn't have any effect on the rate that food spoils. Not to mention, many foods aren't even available certain times of the year or if they are, are outrageously expensive and are half rotten by the time they get shelved. If I want food cheap and not in bulk or prepackaged, we have a local farmers market, but because it snows 8 months of the year, it's hardly ever open.

Not that this has much to do with fat kids and the shitty sludge they serve in school cafeterias...

frozen fruit and veggies are cheaper and often better tasting than fresh. Doesn't help with salad though and I love salad

 

[Angela Harlem]

OK, but we weren't talking about fast food bought per meal. I guess I'm just getting more and more confused.

I'm sure there are plenty of ways to cook healthy meals and plenty of places to buy the food, but that doesn't have any effect on the rate that food spoils. Not to mention, many foods aren't even available certain times of the year or if they are, are outrageously expensive and are half rotten by the time they get shelved. If I want food cheap and not in bulk or prepackaged, we have a local farmers market, but because it snows 8 months of the year, it's hardly ever open.

Not that this has much to do with fat kids and the shitty sludge they serve in school cafeterias...

Yoghurt crisis sorted.

This did get way off topic of crap served in schools. Though I cant comment on that either as back when I was a young tacker the food was healthy. Dunno about now though. It's probably garbage, hence our increasing obesity rates in this country too.

 

[yolland]

Good advice Angela. And I agree with you that cooking for a family is not easier, except perhaps in the sense that--if you're lucky--you *might* have a little bit more to spend on food by that stage in your life than you had as the proverbial "starving" student.

When I was in college and grad school I ate a lot of brown rice; lentil, garbanzo and soy beans; canned fish (not tuna--too much mercury); mushrooms; broccoli; and dark greens (which last up to a week if you rinse and dry them the day you bring them home, then store them in either a plastic bag lined with paper towels, or even better, one of those reusable special bags for this purpose that you can buy cheaply at healthfood stores). Pasta, bread, and fruit I ate more occasionally. It wasn't the most varied diet, but it was highly nutritious and cheap. Often I'd make several nights' worth of food on my day off (when I had a day off!) in my old bought-secondhand crockpot, then freeze it for microwaving or a quick stove reheat later. Or I'd bake a large casserole and freeze portions of that. Stir-fries are also very quick, and don't need a lot of ingredients to taste good if you have the right condiments on hand. These may not be the most optimal cooking methods nutritionally but the result is still better for you than ramen noodles.

I suspect part of the problem for a lot of young people is that they've never really been taught to cook, and thus are kind of stumped about how to make a variety of good-tasting meals out of a small range of ingredients. All my siblings, male or female, and I were required to help my mother with everything from shopping to chopping to canning tomatoes to flavoring stews with the herbs she grew on the windowsill when we grew up. So we learned a lot about what to do in the kitchen. I think it also helped that she cooked from a consistent flavor palette (Greek) which gave us a firm grasp of how to flavor things, even if that was expanded on later in life (I also learned a lot from living with an Indian family when I studied abroad, and to this day we buy our spices in bulk at an Asian market because it's cheaper). We are making sure that our kids learn these same things--being able to cook for yourself is a basic life skill.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are admittedly not cheap, particularly for those of us who lives in more northerly climes. I guess the best strategy is to focus your spending on the most nutritious ones, like broccoli, mushrooms, dark greens and berries (berries freeze well too, BTW). And for 3 seasons of the year, you can often find these cheaper at farmers' markets or one of the new community supported agriculture (CSA) co-ops springing up around the US (see http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ for a directory).

Originally posted by anitram
I lived overseas in a poor country when I was a child and don't really remember that many overweight kids. I think the main difference wasn't necessarily a reduced caloric load at lunch (because I remember a lot of pasta and rice, etc which is carb heavy), but snacks. Most kids these days come home from school and essentially eat non-stop until they go to bed.

I agree with this too. We did always eat *one* afternoon snack when I was growing up, and our kids eat one too, but that's low-calorie, high-nutrient stuff like fruit and veggie sticks, maybe with a few nuts or dried fruits if they're really doing something active. The kids from New Orleans who stayed with us ate a LOT more snacks than that (despite being less active), and their snacks were mostly chip/cracker/cookie type things. Again, this is where I think advertising can hurt (even though it's still ultimately the parents' responsibility), because it just makes them want more, more, more of all the wrong things, rather than simply accepting what your parents offer you without a second thought.

 

[Liesje]

sorry if I sounded rude in the above reply, btw. Just trying to feed one child and talk on the phone to a real estate agent whilst arguing with another child on yoghurt.

It's fine. I agree that people in general (myself included) need to make better choices. All I'm saying is that when you're ONLY buying food for ONE person and you only get paid once every two weeks at best, buying healthy stuff is a waste of money because it all spoils within the first five days. I've tried several times with the same results. The only thing that keeps around here are grapefruits, which my fiance and housemate can't have because of their medications. Also, we have more house conflicts over fridge space than anything else so we can't buy a lot of fruits and veggies.

And I agree children can make it worse. The three month old I take care of refuses to drink from a bottle anymore and I don't have the goods if you get my drift, so most of the time I'm trying to keep her as quiet as possible and am lucky to even get a piece of candy in for breakfast.

 

[A_Wanderer]

So what do you think about cigarette ads? They have been banned because they made smoking attractive. Do you think they had any influence on our society to smoke? Over time, they were banned and replaced with non-smoking ads. When I grew up, ashtrays were common in everyone's homes. Now people who smoke are made to feel outcast and have a lot of rules to follow.

I believe the ads for junk food and video games are a huge factor.

If cigarette companies want to advertise then they should be able to do so, if a group does not want to carry those ads then they should be able to refuse.

I am not supportive of the way that smokers get overtaxed and pushed aside.

 

[fly so high!]

Is this purely a problem for parents to address? Or should schools and policymakers also be getting involved in recognition of the potential consequences for public health, as some of these doctors suggest? What sorts of measures should such institutions take? People complain in here a lot about the impact of violence on TV on their kids--what about the impacts in terms of food advertising and disinclination to pursue physical activity instead?

No its not purely a problem for the parents to address, its also the schools and government! Measures such as ensuring adequately nutritious meals are available in the school canteens,the govermant to put initiatives to encourage more physical activity via schools,mags and TV/radio will help! And definately food advertising needs to be monitored more,having PizzaHut,KFC,Macca's all being pumped into our kids heads from around 3pm in the afternoon! Not good enough,turn the channel or TV off!

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

NEW ORLEANS — Obese children as young as 10 had the arteries of 45-year-olds and other heart abnormalities that greatly raise their risk of heart disease, say doctors who used ultrasound tests to take a peek inside.

"As the old saying goes, you're as old as your arteries are," said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children's Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. "This is a wake-up call."

The studies were reported Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference.

About a third of American children are overweight and one-fifth are obese. Many parents think that "baby fat" will melt away as kids get older. But research increasingly shows that fat kids become fat adults, with higher risks for many health problems.

"Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents," said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.

Raghuveer wanted to see if early signs of damage could be documented. She and colleagues used painless ultrasound tests to measure the thickness of the wall of a major neck artery in 70 children, ages 10 to 16. Almost all had abnormal cholesterol and many were obese.

No one knows how thick a 10-year-old's artery should be, since they're not regularly checked for signs of heart disease, so researchers used tables for 45-year-olds, who often do get such exams.

The kids' "vascular age" was about 30 years older than their actual age, she found.


A separate study tied childhood obesity to abnormal enlargement of the left atrium, one of the chambers of the heart. Enlargement is a known risk factor for heart disease, stroke and heart rhythm problems.

Julian Ayer, a researcher at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Sydney Australia, did ultrasound exams on 991 seemingly healthy children ages 5 to 15. He saw a clear link between rising weight and size of the left atrium.

A third study by Dr. Walter Abhayaratna of Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, also used ultrasound tests and found impairment in the heart's ability to relax between beats in children who were overweight or obese.

The study involved the first 150 children participating in a larger community-based study.

Earlier research he helped conduct found more rigid arteries in such children _ a possible sign of plaque deposits starting to form.

"Even at this young age of 10, you can have children who have got arterial stiffness who are comparable to 30- and 40-year-olds," he said.

Dr. Michael Schloss, a New York University heart disease prevention specialist, said the evidence shows obesity is more than a cosmetic issue for children.

"If you've seen what's on the menu for most school lunches, these findings are no surprise," he said. "The time has come to seriously deal with the issue of childhood obesity and physical inactivity on a governmental and parental level."

 

[purpleoscar]

World's Fattest Countries - Forbes.com

There are currently 1.6 billion overweight adults in the world, according to the World Health Organization. That number is projected to grow by 40% over the next 10 years. The following list reflects the percentage of overweight adults aged 15 and over. These are individuals who have individual body mass indexes, which measures weight relative to height, greater than or equal to 25. Obese is defined as having a BMI greater than or equal to 30. Rank Country %

In bold are IMF advanced countries list

1. Nauru 94.5
2. Micronesia, Federated States of 91.1
3. Cook Islands 90.9
4. Tonga 90.8
5. Niue 81.7
6. Samoa 80.4
7. Palau 78.4
8. Kuwait 74.2
9. United States 74.1
10. Kiribati 73.6
11. Dominica 71.0
12. Barbados 69.7
13. Argentina 69.4
14. Egypt 69.4
15. Malta 68.7
16. Greece 68.5
17. New Zealand 68.4
18. United Arab Emirates 68.3
19. Mexico 68.1
20. Trinidad and Tobago 67.9
21. Australia 67.4
22. Belarus 66.8
23. Chile 65.3
24. Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) 65.2
25. Seychelles 64.6
26. Bahrain 64.1
27. Andorra 63.8
28. United Kingdom 63.8
29. Saudi Arabia 63.5
30. Monaco 62.4
31. Bolivia 62.2
32. San Marino 62.1
33. Guatemala 61.2
34. Mongolia 61.2
35. Canada 61.1
36. Qatar 61.0
37. Uruguay 60.9
38. Jordan 60.5
39. Bahamas 60.4
40. Iceland 60.4
41. Nicaragua 60.4
42. Cuba 60.1
43. Germany 60.1
44. Brunei Darussalam 59.8
45. Slovenia 59.8
46. Peru 59.6
47. Vanuatu 59.6
48. Finland 58.7
49. Jamaica 57.4
50. Israel 57.3
51. Saint Lucia 57.3
52. Austria 57.1
53. Azerbaijan 57.1
54. Turkey 56.8
55. Tuvalu 56.6
56. Dominican Republic 56.5
57. Slovakia 56.3
58. Cyprus 56.2
59. Saint Kitts and Nevis 56.1
60. Costa Rica 55.8
61. Colombia 55.6
62. Antigua and Barbuda 55.5
63. Switzerland 55.4
64. Montenegro 54.9
65. Serbia 54.9
66. Serbia and Montenegro (The former state union of) 54.9
67. Albania 54.8
68. Fiji 54.8
69. Bulgaria 54.2
70. Luxembourg 54.2
71. Croatia 53.9
72. Bosnia and Herzegovina 53.8
73. Portugal 53.8
74. Armenia 53.3
75. Grenada 53.3
76. South Africa 53.3
77. Iran (Islamic Republic of) 53.2
78. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 53.2
79. Lithuania 53.1
80. Lebanon 53.0
81. Czech Republic 52.9
82. Syrian Arab Republic 52.8
83. Spain 51.8
84. Hungary 51.6
85. Panama 51.4
86. Tunisia 51.0
87. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 50.6
88. Brazil 50.5
89. Belize 49.8
90. Sweden 49.7
91. Norway 49.1
92. Russian Federation 49.1
93. El Salvador 48.7
94. Lesotho 48.5
95. Suriname 47.8
96. Paraguay 47.7
97. Guyana 47.5
98. Poland 47.5
99. Latvia 47.3
100. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 47.2
101. Ecuador 47.1
102. Turkmenistan 46.8
103. Ireland 46.6
104. Belgium 46.3
105. Marshall Islands 46.2
106. Netherlands 46.0
107. Uzbekistan 46.0
108. Denmark 45.8
109. Mauritius 45.6
110. Oman 45.6
111. Italy 45.5
112. Iraq 45.4
113. Georgia 44.8
114. Ukraine 44.8
115. Solomon Islands 44.0
116. Botswana 43.6
117. Honduras 43.5
118. Equatorial Guinea 43.0
119. Morocco 42.9
120. Dem. Republic of Timor-Leste 42.7
121. Mauritania 42.5
122. Estonia 42.2
123. Republic of Korea 42.0
124. Swaziland 41.8
125. Kazakhstan 41.4
126. Republic of Moldova 41.1
127. Bhutan 40.9
128. France 40.1
129. Cameroon 39.9
130. Maldives 39.9
131. Algeria 39.8
132. Dem. People's Republic of Korea 39.4
133. Kyrgyzstan 39.2
134. Romania 39.1
135. Lao People's Democratic Republic 38.9
136. Cape Verde 38.2
137. Tajikistan 37.3
138. Gabon 36.5
139. Myanmar 36.3
140. Liberia 35.6
141. Sierra Leone 33.4
142. Haiti 32.8
143. Zimbabwe 32.1
144. Thailand 31.6
145. Papua New Guinea 30.2
146. Malaysia 29.9
147. Ghana 29.2
148. China 28.9
149. Benin 28.5
150. Comoros 28.0
151. Angola 27.5
152. Nigeria 27.1
153. Yemen 27.0
154. Senegal 26.4
155. Philippines 25.2
156. Djibouti 24.9
157. Mali 24.1
158. Togo 24.0
159. Guinea 23.5
160. Sudan 23.1
161. Cote d'Ivoire 22.9
162. Singapore 22.9
163. Japan 22.6
164. Namibia 22.5
165. Pakistan 22.2
166. Sao Tome and Principe 21.4
167. United Republic of Tanzania 21.2
168. Malawi 19.3
169. Congo 18.9
170. Niger 17.6
171. Madagascar 17.4
172. Mozambique 17.3
173. Guinea-Bissau 16.7
174. Gambia 16.6
175. Indonesia 16.2
176. India 16.0
177. Somalia 15.8
178. Chad 15.6
179. Afghanistan 15.1
180. Uganda 14.8
181. Kenya 14.3
182. Burkina Faso 14.1
183. Rwanda 13.7
184. Zambia 13.0
185. Burundi 12.9
186. Central African Republic 12.9
187. Cambodia 11.3
188. Dem. Republic of the Congo 9.1
189. Nepal 8.4
190. Sri Lanka 7.4
191. Viet Nam 6.4
192. Bangladesh 6.1
193. Ethiopia 5.6
194. Eritrea 4.4

Looks like Japan and Singapore are still doing good.

 

[phillyfan26]

My high school has attempted to go as healthy as it can. There is no soda being sold: beverages are water, Vitamin Water, milk, and G2. All of the sandwiches are cold deli meat sandwiches put together in front of you. There are a couple of alternative hot foods: pasta, pizza, and fries, and, every couple of weeks, some chicken fingers.

I personally do not purchase cafeteria food often. When the chicken fingers are there, I try to buy them if they're not already sold out, and, occasionally, I'll purchase a soft pretzel during my morning study hall (classes start at 7:30 and my lunch period is the last one, starting at quarter of 1).

I'm also substantially underweight (5'6", 120 pounds).

 

[angelordevil]

My high school has attempted to go as healthy as it can. There is no soda being sold: beverages are water, Vitamin Water, milk, and G2. All of the sandwiches are cold deli meat sandwiches put together in front of you. There are a couple of alternative hot foods: pasta, pizza, and fries, and, every couple of weeks, some chicken fingers.

I personally do not purchase cafeteria food often. When the chicken fingers are there, I try to buy them if they're not already sold out, and, occasionally, I'll purchase a soft pretzel during my morning study hall (classes start at 7:30 and my lunch period is the last one, starting at quarter of 1).

I'm also substantially underweight (5'6", 120 pounds).

It's great that your school is seemingly ahead of most, though there's room for improvement.

I read a story last week that really made me upset--a large school in Ontario, here in Canada, has actually removed all of its water fountains and replaced them with (what's argued) 'safer water,' in the form of bottled water machines. Machines that, coincedently, sell Pepsi-related products along with their own line of water.

 

[Angela Harlem]

I can't believe a school was allowed to remove the free water fountains, or bubblers as we call them. Was there a lot of outrage? Water is becoming as much of a policy issue as sun hats here in Australia. Students at my daughter's school are asked to bring in a bottle each day to refill and keep on their desks. To remove the bubblers and replace them with a company sponsored drink machine would be just asking for a lynching.

 

[angelordevil]

I can't believe a school was allowed to remove the free water fountains, or bubblers as we call them. Was there a lot of outrage? Water is becoming as much of a policy issue as sun hats here in Australia. Students at my daughter's school are asked to bring in a bottle each day to refill and keep on their desks. To remove the bubblers and replace them with a company sponsored drink machine would be just asking for a lynching.

Bubblers! Love that.

Yes, it's pretty ridiculous to remove them. The story actually came to light after the president of the student's union spoke up and said that it wasn't right--she saw straight through to the corporate motives. It touches on a whole slew of issues here in Canada: growing corporate influence on public institutions, water quality...recycling. On top of that, there's the fact that sugary drinks were also part of the machine's contents--a pretty blatant health issue.

We've also done something similar at work, where the old bubblers cute have been phased out, because of a general concern about the city's water quality. Instead of those, we're now left with water coolers in the various offices, where people can get a paper cup full and head back to their desks. The thing that puzzles me is that the city's water has been tested, and it actually tests as good or better than the bottled variety. Instead of going with that, we're wasting numerous plastic bottles, as well as exposing ourselves to the possibilities of plastic leeching--which has already been proven here in Canada, with certain types of containers.

I'm rambling here, and going off topic! I'm basically suggesting that it's up to us to look after our health. The corporations must also be held to task, on a much larger scale. Unfortunately, profits, ethics, and ultimately--consideration for the consumer's well-being--aren't always working in tandem.

 

[Angela Harlem]

There's an infantile logic in the term bubbler The water kind of balls up and tumbles out, bubbly like. When I was younger, I thought drinking fountains in the US were some kind of garden feature style fountain with soft drink or drinking water. I imagined great pretty fountains of drink, Willy Wonka style. Ah, they were nice thoughts

I don't get why anyone thinks ridding a school or workplace of these is a good idea, especially with everything you listed. It's just ridiculous and wasteful.

 

[BonosSaint]

When I was younger, I thought drinking fountains in the US were some kind of garden feature style fountain with soft drink or drinking water. I imagined great pretty fountains of drink, Willy Wonka style. .

If only.

 

[youtooellen]

I recently read a book called Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. She's a sociologist who experimented and participated as a lower income individual, and boy, the things that I found out in there.
Back to the topic though. One of the definite reasons for why obesity is such a large problem in our society is because of the money and time issues. No one wants to sit down and eat a healthy meal anymore. It's all about the drive-thrus. Something they can eat quickly in the car. And plus, if you want to eat an actual meal, it requires much more time, energy, and money.
Let's say you want to prepare a salad with vinegarette dressing. Well, the supplies you'd need to do this are obviously a knife, dressing (or whatever you want to use), a bowl, a fork, and so on. And if you want to spice it up a bit, toss in some chopped up tomatoes and whatnot.
But by the time you're done preparing the meal, you realize that you could have gone to the local McDonalds and bought a $1 cheeseburger and eaten it in at most 5 minutes. The money would be spent the same, the cheeseburger would require less energy. And in our lives today, it's all about the time that's moving quickly and how we need to rush everything.

That's just my opinion though. For my age, 19 years old, college kids don't care much for fruits and veggies anymore. They just want to go go go and eat while they move.

Not to mention soda and forms of caffeine. I'm a victim of that though... .
I drink at least 1 Mountain Dew or Red Bull a day. But I still drink the doctor's recommended amount of water each day. Does that balance me out? No, not exactly.
I've been told that I have this soda issue... please don't ride me about this. All in all, I firmly think that obesity is becoming a larger and larger issue, only because of what society is pushing us into. Parents have a lot to do with it.. but you gotta admit, it's hard to resist those graphic commercials with the greasy fries, burgers and whatnot..

 

[the iron horse]

-High Fruotose Corn Syrup

Do a search and read why this is one of the causes.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

Yes I don't think little girls need ShapeUps, especially since they don't work, and most importantly they are not appropriate for growing feet and bodies. We can target childhood obesity with regular sneakers and proper walking. Where are the ShapeUps for little boys? What is the boys-dressed-up-as-junk-food supposed to mean? Strange. She's got the bounce, she's looking good.

Yahoo.com

Do little girls really need Shape-up toning sneakers?


* by Lylah M. Alphonse, Shine Staff, on Tue May 10, 2011 2:54pm PDT

Studies already show that trendy toning shoes like Skechers Shape-ups—which have rounded or unstable soles that are supposed to help the wearer burn more calories by increasing "muscle activation"—don't really work. You might feel a bit of a burn while your body adjusts to your wonky balance, but you don't burn many more calories and you don't get more exercise just by wearing them.

But Skechers is still marketing the same type of toning shoe—and the same fitness claims. This time, however, they're not targeting women who want to look like Kim Kardashian in a sexy Super Bowl ad. They're targeting little girls.

The upbeat, animated commercials are airing on kid-centered TV stations such as Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. They show slim, confident girls rocking out in their Shape-ups and being followed around by surly, slack-jawed boys dressed up in junk-food costumes.

We're not sure what message they're trying to send. Shape-ups make hot dogs and soda unappealing? Toning shoes can keep you fit even if you indulge? Boys can eat and wear whatever they want, but girls should make sure they look perky, fit, and pretty? (Note: Skechers does not currently make Shape-ups for boys.) At any rate, given the sleek-and-slim tweens in the commercial and the snappy jingle—"Heidi's got new Shape-ups! Got everything a girl wants! She's got the height, got the bounce, yeah she's looking good and having fun, 'cause Heidi's got new Shape-ups!"—if the company claims to be taking aim at childhood obesity, they're courting the wrong kids.

The $50 to $75 price tag aside, some parents just aren't buying it. Over at Change.org, people are petitioning to have the kid-size toning sneakers pulled from the market.

"Women have plenty of time to be targeted for their weight throughout their lives," states the petition, which was launched by Augusta Christensen, who blogs at STFUSexists. "By not only marketing a shoe line to young girls, but also not even having an equivalent for boys, Skechers is sending a clear message to girls and women: You're never too young to start hating your body."

In response to the petition, Skechers sent the following comment from Leonard Armato, President of Skechers Fitness Group: "This person’s concerns about Shape-ups for Girls are unfounded and way off base. The whole message behind Shape-ups is to get moving, get exercise, and get fit. This is the same messaging being used by the First Lady’s Let’s Move initiative, which is aimed specifically at children. Please look this site over and ask yourself whether the person who started the petition might voice the exact same concerns about the Let’s Move messaging for children."

(Given that Let's Move involves nutrition education and exercise programs, doesn't attribute "looking good and having fun" to buying $75 shoes, and is not aimed exclusively at girls, we think that the probability of the petitioners accusing Michelle Obama of sexism is low.)

Last year, a research team from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, sponsored by the American Council of Exercise, tested different types of specialty shoes, including ones that promised to tone your leg muscles and burn calories. The bottom line? "There is simply no evidence to support the claims that these shoes will help wearers exercise more intensely, burn more calories or improve muscle strength and tone," the researchers concluded.

Skechers claims that their girls' toning sneakers "are designed for a wide variety of fitness activities," and the $50 Mary Jane style is "suitable for all day wear." But there are already lawsuits that claim wearing toning shoes for long periods of time or during actual athletic activity has caused problems. In February, "Good Morning America" featured a story about a 38-year-old waitress who says that she ended up with stress fractures in both hips after wearing Skechers Shape-ups to work for five months. And, according to the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine, there have been plenty of reports about adults with rolled ankles and other foot problems caused by wearing the shoes. Can you imagine the chaos in a gym class full of toning-sneaker wearing 10-year-olds?

We're all for encouraging kids to get in shape and fighting childhood obesity. But is marketing toning shoes to little girls really the answer?

YouTube - Shape ups for Girls

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

It really isn't difficult to eat healthy, and if done right it can be significantly cheaper as well. I can get buy grass fed beef, a huge bag of chicken breasts, and a ton of frozen vegetables for a fraction of the price of what I used to spend at the grocery store. Eating healthy doesn't have to mean going to whole foods or the tofuteria.

We have become a lazy, excuse ridden, soft, commercial society. That's why we're all fat.

 

[Canadiens1131]

I think that just cutting out soda alone could help a lot of kids. The amount of soda people drink has sky rocketed. When I was a kid the only time I got to have soda was during lunch on the weekend or if we went out to eat, now it seems like a lot of kids drink nothing but soda. It's not unusal for people to drink 3 or more sodas per day and each can of soda has like 150? calories, no nutritional value, and isn't even filling.

Drinks like cola and those Turkey Hill iced teas are nutrition black holes. There are parents and kids who think drinking two or three a day is no issue at all.

~

It really isn't difficult to eat healthy, and if done right it can be significantly cheaper as well. I can get buy grass fed beef, a huge bag of chicken breasts, and a ton of frozen vegetables for a fraction of the price of what I used to spend at the grocery store. Eating healthy doesn't have to mean going to whole foods or the tofuteria.

We have become a lazy, excuse ridden, soft, commercial society. That's why we're all fat.

I, like Headache, don't buy the argument that less time = can't cook at home or can't eat things you assemble yourself.

I'm a student/worker, and I make the choice to eat cold sandwiches in the evening over meals with long prep time most of the week. It doesn't even need to be cold...use the tools at your disposal. 10 minutes and you can have a bagel with melted cheddar cheese done under the broiler with a side apple/Gorgonzola salad. You can dedicate two hours on a Sunday to making two big, family-portion dishes and then freeze off the portions individually for the week to bring into work. You can freeze off fresh herbs for later use.

I'd argue that it's not lack of time more than the perceived accessibility and ease of faux healthy food (Subway). It's a lack of basic culinary knowledge and lazyness in the average joe.

Spend a few hours a week working in a scratch kitchen and you realize that it is very easy to eat simple, quick meals if you get home late in the evening.

Buy a basic spread of food items regularly that have a huge range of uses.

• Bread - keep one loaf out and freeze a few, they defrost at room temp in about an hour
• Lettuce - cut and wash the entire head at once in the sink, should stay crisp in a covered container w/ paper towel for most of a week
• Tomatoes - last a week
• Apples - lasts more than a week
• Oranges - lasts more than a week
• Tangerines - lasts more than a week
• Cold cuts for sandwiches
• Pork chops - extremely cheap in quantity, freeze them off
• Dry pasta - lasts months
• Pesto - make yourself or buy it premade, freeze in single portions using an ice cube tray for easy serving
• Jars of pasta sauce - use a lot less than you think per portion, they don't go nuts with it in Italy like the standard is in the U.S.

Not that hard if you're cooking for 1. Don't cook more often, cook smarter.