Obese Children Don't Want Surgery
Despite the well documented physical emotional toll that obesity takes on the self-esteem of children and teens - the majority of those surveyed would not want weight loss surgery.
Professor Paul Gateley, who leads the Carnegie Weight Management program, surveyed 100 clinically obese children (aged 8-17). Here is what he and his team found;
- 60% felt surgery was cheating.
- 71% felt weight loss surgery was dangerous.
- 61% believed there were easier ways to lose weight.
- 29% of the children saw eating too much junk food as the cause of their problem.
- 59% claimed that managing portion sizes was the main reason for their heavy weight.
- 60% feel that they get no support in overcoming their weight issues at school.
- 42% say they have been subjected to bullying.
- 58% think their body weight will prevent them from getting a boyfriend/girlfriend.
- A similar percentage worried that their weight would prevent them from pursuing their dream career.
What we can learn from this
Youth obesity is easily one of the most pressing health concerns of the developed and developing world. Understanding the fears, concerns and mindsets of these kids is crucial to developing successful interventions to reverse this trend.
I'll throw out these opinions;
It all starts at home: parents need to take control of their children's health by role-modeling healthy behaviours and providing a home environment whereby they set their children up for success. More often than not, obese children have obese children. This is an opportunity to get healthy as a family.
Government/school boards need to do their part: Providing healthy fare at schools and access to healthy foods for low income families is imperative.
On the education front, physical education should be a staple in all schools. Further, classes on living a healthy lifestyle should be included in the curriculum of schools. The fact that only 29% of children saw eating too much junk food as being responsible for their weight problem is surprising.
Reversing this worrying trend will be neither easy nor quick. Massive paradigm shifts take time, persistence and the dedication of many individuals and organizations banding together towards a common purpose.
Source: BBC News
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Funny how we accost government and parents as part of the community and talk about how they need to be resonsible, but say nothing about businesses that contribute to the promotion of an "obesity environment".
Research has shown [Nestle, M. (2006). Food marketing and childhood obesity-a matter of policy. The New England Journal of Medicine, 354(24), 2527-2529.] that marketing has heavily influenced kid's food preferences. Furthermore, if you look at any low-income neighborhood, you have to travel for miles sometimes to find whole foods. Government Officials AND Parents AND Corporations have conspired together to allow this to happen.
Our whole society is complicit in this. Those with more money and political power at this point have the greater amount of choice. This part of the population must begin to make better decisions. Those who don't have a lot of income or power must also make healthy choices, choose healthy things when these things are presented.
However, a TON of money has been spent to exploit the way the human brain works for profit. The power of this is undeniable. Just look at the engagement ring industry, Valentine's Day, and processed foods. It is not as simple as supply and demand anymore. It has been psychological manipulation --> demand --> manipulation of supply --> demand -->supply -->demand.
what do you guys think?
ReplyI agree! And your source (Marion Nestle) covered this wonderfully in "What to Eat" - she makes a very compelling argument for big food being complicit in this. Her ideas are actually quite good. On the marketing towards children side of things - she quotes a book many times which I ended up reading - "Comsuming Kids" by Susan Linn. One of the more salient arguments in this book is that child-targeted marketing undermines parental authority. It sends a message that children should be making the choices that the adults should be making. It paints "adult food" as boring, tasteless, bland while the "kid food" is exciting and tasty.
Probably should have mentioned it but there are posts-a-plenty here on whether or not and to what degree big food should take responsibility. I didn't want to get too sidetracked as the subject matter tends to shift focus away from the primary topic of the post
And while I agree that our whole society is complicit in this (and we need a societal shift in attitude) I stand by my contention that it starts at home. Parents still should have the most influence as to wheat their children eat and need to be responsible for both providing health/nourishing food as well as setting a good example themselves for their children to follow.
Thanks for your insights, Kwame!
ReplyJust to comment on the fact that a lot of ads make "adult food" boring and tasteless...I hate when ads do that! Like when they say foods are healthy like it's a really bad thing. When I was a kid, I used to ask my dad which foods were healthy at the store so we WOULD buy those ones. Or those ads that make you think vegetables are somehow demonic or something to kids. A lot of kids do actually LIKE veggies and those who don't should be encouraged to try them. I'd like to see a few ads with kids eating fruits and veggies and actually LIKING them...the closest I've seen is that Hidden Valley salad dressing one.
ReplyI didn't know that Trader Joes nuts were "adult" or "child" food. Food is food. I think marketing should be banned.
ReplyHa, it may as well have been banned in our house growing up. Dad did all the shopping and he never really watched TV, so he never knew what the coolest new foods were for kids. So all our begging was usually lost on him. But, he DID let us choose whichever yogurt flavor we wanted as long as it was the lowfat kind and every week we each got to try a new piece of fruit from the produce section. That's how I discovered I loved mango and pomegranates.
ReplyHer other book "Food Politics" goes more into the politcal aspects of food and it's avalibilty. "What to Eat" isn't as good as her first one.
ReplyThanks for the heads up Angie! Haven't read food politics but hope to one day.
ReplyI agree that targeted marketing is used in the food industry, as it is in every commodity on the market. However, I'll stop before calling it manipulation. You still have a choice on whether to buy healthy cereal A or colorful, sugary cereal B. As adults, we have control over our brains and can recognize (or should be able to) when we're being fed a line ('cereal B is part of a complete breakfast'). Children on the other hand, it's a different story. Despite marketing ads and eye-catching packaging, parents need to guide them into making healthy choices. I agree with the article: combating childhood obesity starts at home with the parents, and maybe educating them on healthy eating. Secondary to that is healthy offerings in the school cafeteria.
As for the poorer areas not having access to whole foods, it'd be great to see programs set up to bring in farmers markets once a week into these areas. Of course either the prices would have to be lowered or subsidized (I'm such a socialist!). I'd be willing to see my tax dollars pay for that in combination with education.
ReplyGreat idea on bringing in the farmers markets to the lower income areas. Or at least allow food stamps to be used at the markets.
ReplyAgreed! We have recently had Farmers Markets set up in a lower socioeconomic area of Sydney called Redfern. It's an area of Sydney that has a lot of low income housing. The markets have been a huge success! For the famers who bring their food to the city aswell as the locals who have access to fresh, healthy food. I would love to see more of these set up.
ReplyIt really saddens me that people are even considering weight loss surgery as a viable option for obese kids. Kids are young; they have their entire lives ahead of them and most of them haven't experienced life enough to know what their lives could be like if they simply changed their lifestyles. Most obese kids get that way because their parents give in to them and buy them junk foods and don't encourage them to be active. Speaking for myself, I was a fat teenager but I would never have considered weight loss surgery as an option. Truthfully, I had never really tried seriously to lose weight in the past and my parents never helped the situation. When I got to college and discovered nutrition and how fun exercise could be, I lost the weight on my own and have kept it off for 8 years without messing with my body. IMHO, weight loss surgery should be reserved as a last option for people who truly have exhausted all their other options. Let's not forget that it IS surgery and there can always be complications from it.
ReplyI too am glad that the children in the survey were sensibly enough to know that surgery was too much of a drastic step. With the right help and support hopefully these kids will lose weight the old fashioned way with diet and exercise.
Reply"Obese Children Don't Want Surgery"
>> Duh... their children. Another Krispy Kreme doughnut please!
ReplyI had eye surgery for a lazy eye when I was 8. The concept of having surgery at all, even that minor little outpatient procedure, scared me poopless as a little kid. Imagine your parents suggesting major intestinal rerouting to you as an 8 year old kid...who WOULDN'T be terrified? Besides, most kids wouldn't know how to work with a GB procedure anyway...aren't there all sorts of dietary rules you have to follow after you have that surgery done?
ReplyThe only time I would consider recommending these types of surgeries in "kids" is if they were already showing serious body structure damage that was not reversible without immediate intervention.
ReplyI think all have made great points here. It is a straight forward problem but it is complex on how to get the work done to correct this due to all of the above comments.
As I always say though, parents need to take more responsibility & look in the mirror too when they are upset or complain why their kids are overweight.
ReplyI disagree slightly with Kwame's response, above. As a parent, I think that while the government should have a role in my child's nutritional welfare, its role should be strictly limited to ensuring a fair and informative marketplace to allow me to make the best choices.
It is my responsibilty, like that of any other parent, to assure that my child gets proper nutrition - by educating myself on the available choices and picking the best ones.
ReplyHa! At least kids have some sense of "cheating" still.
I think this article is great, most adults take the easy way out with surgery. The last thing we need is kids getting this kind of surgery early and thinking any kind of cosmetic surgery is OK as they grow older.
ReplyI definitely don't agree with weight loss surgery on a developing body. Kids can start out overweight and then change their habits.
I have a couple of concerns with the aftermath of offering bariatric surgery for kids:
1) This will become yet another stopgap solution that we obsess over, while taking attention away from a solvable problem.
2) Some parents will actually encourage their children to gain more weight to qualify for the surgery as an easy fix. This WILL happen.
Reply