Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Obesity Ads (Read 1741 times)

    If it's true that billboards and ads are the answer to the problem, it's a sad commentary on what people pay attention to... It is interesting to think that someone would be more responsive to an ad than to their own bodies.

     

    It depends on what norms people become accustomed to (I don't have this excuse--until recently, my parents were in better shape than I was).  It is sad, indeed, how blinded we can be to things that we experience on a day to day basis. 

     

    I'm not sure what the answer to the problem is.  Adjusting someone's body image is no small task.

    "When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem." 
    Emil Zatopek


    Feeling the growl again

       

      The other day somebody described my son as being like "a concentration camp victim".

       

      After having explained why I might find that description offensive.... I thought about what they said.  I decided that he is not underweight - but that the "name caller" just has a skewed idea of what "normal" is.

       

      He is perhaps a little on the light side, but is very healthy.  The fact that you can see somebody's ribs does not make them unhealthy. 

       

      Whah??? Unless you've been starving him since I last saw him, that's assinine.

       

      Regarding the 1950s pics...I read a couple books about enlistees in WWII and it gave their stats when they enlisted.  True, people were a bit shorter back then, but even the ones that were of similar height to people now were a LOT lighter than we would expect today.  It was shocking.  And a lot of these were young men who grew up doing a significant amount of manual labor (ie decent muscle development).

      "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

       

      I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

       


      A Saucy Wench

        I'm not terribly disturbed by the ads contributing to "stigma".  Really?  Have they not been around kids?   Kids don't sugarcoat ANYTHING and are cruel beyond cruel.   My friend's 2nd grade daughter has already had to deal with one pal wanting to exclude a second pal at recess because she is "fat" .  Kids know.  Even if their perception is skewed by what is normal, kids know .  Parents deny.

         

        I think part of the problem lies in how many people really have no clue WHAT to do about it.   The ads say wake up and do something about it.  OK.  But knowing something needs to be done and knowing what to do are totally different things.  Especially since the people who study it still have no idea what the best approach is.  

         

        The article Jeff linked points out part of the problem.  Diets make kids fatter in general.  Someone linked a quote in another thread a few weeks ago that talked about kids responding better to relearning hunger cues rather than nutrition interference. 

         

        Very few people have a good idea on what to do to help adults, let alone what to do to help kids without interfering with proper growth and development.

         

        Toss in parents emotional issues and holy hell.   Toss in a massive lack of affordable resources - most of the success stories get one on one help - you think there is that much help out there?.  Toss in lack of access to decent food in many inner cities.  Toss in single parent homes and long working hours.  It doenst take that much time to prepare a healthy meal once you get ahead of the game but when you are behind the game the learning curve is brutal.  Especially if your kids fight the food.  It is exhausting.

         

        So I get what bothers me is the guilt with lack of solution.   Knowledge is power?  But you have to wade through a lot of crap to figure it out.   And kids are not just mini -adults.  I shudder to think of some of the diet info out on the net and some parent going ok!  Kid is going on a "insert radical diet" today!

        I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

         

        "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

        Purdey


        Self anointed title

          Whah??? Unless you've been starving him since I last saw him, that's assinine.

           

           

          He is a bit slimmer.  He doesn't have a big appetite and does a lot of running around and gymnastics.  He just has bundles of energy and needs to release it.  He will do laps and laps around the house.  I think he is well suited to multi lap ultras.  If the boy can keep the same figure he has now he is going to be a great runner.

           

           

          jEfFgObLuE


          I've got a fever...

             

            We had fast food, TV, and unwillingness to exercise back [in the 60's and 70's], too. 

             

            We had all of those things back in the day, that's true.  But...

             

            • We have way more fast food options, both in variety and quantity.  Used to be you sometimes had to drive a couple towns over for certain fast food, not a couple blocks.
            • Sure we had TV.  5 or 6 channels, not hundreds.  And we didn't have the internet, not to mention smart phones and video games.  You can't discount the impact of the variety of content in giving kids more reason to stay inside.
            • Yeah, it was hard to get people to exercise.  But not hard to get them to play.  We had fewer indoor distractions, so we played outside, whether it was a pick-up game of baseball, football, hide-and-seek, or just goofing around.  But it was all very and active and physical without feeling like exercise because it was play.  My parents always had to call me inside at night because I would be out playing with other neighborhood kids.  I also remember riding my bike all over town, not to exercise, but to get somewhere before I was old enough to drive.

            As a society, we move far less, and eat far more.  And the proliferation of soft drinks, sport drinks, energy drinks, and just about every other kind of drink is a stealth way that children today injest way more calories than we did in our youth.  I remember soft drinks being kind of a treat; now, you're looking at hundreds of extra calories everyday from all of this stuff.  

             

            No easy solutions besides needing to move more and eat less.  But I do think it's harder today than in the past because of some of the things above.  I know now that it can be a challenge to get my kids off the Wii or TV and outside to play, and I have no doubt my parents would have struggled with me if I had similar options.

            On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office.  But you will wish that you'd spent more time running.  Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.

              After having explained why I might find that description offensive.... I thought about what they said.  I decided that he is not underweight - but that the "name caller" just has a skewed idea of what "normal" is.

               

              He is perhaps a little on the light side, but is very healthy.  The fact that you can see somebody's ribs does not make them unhealthy. 

               

              This was me growing up.  Kids are cruel and a lot will be said in a lifetime about a person's physique.  Throw in the glasses I wore at the time, it wasn't any better.  I tried football in 8th grade and after not getting to play one down all season, that was it for that sport.  Later in the school year, I found I was pretty good at track and kept it to that.  Although I thought I was a hurdler and a 200m guy.  Yeah, right!  Good thing I didn't stick with that thinking.  I topped out in the mid-140's @ 6' in HS.  Sure I got picked on during the high school years but I just chalked it up to insecurities others had.

               

              There's nothing wrong with being lean and healthy and being able to see your ribs.  The challenge is to keep the noise around you out and not let those comments bother you.


              Why is it sideways?

                 

                I think part of the problem lies in how many people really have no clue WHAT to do about it.   The ads say wake up and do something about it.  OK.  But knowing something needs to be done and knowing what to do are totally different things.  Especially since the people who study it still have no idea what the best approach is.  

                 

                ...

                 

                So I get what bothers me is the guilt with lack of solution.   Knowledge is power?  But you have to wade through a lot of crap to figure it out.   And kids are not just mini -adults.  I shudder to think of some of the diet info out on the net and some parent going ok!  Kid is going on a "insert radical diet" today!

                 

                Excellent point. I wonder if the ads might not be so effective with currently obese families and kids, but perhaps they target prospective or future parents.

                 

                I think that's the idea behind the drug ads that these are modeled on. I don't know if a billboard would help someone in the throes of a meth addiction, but maybe it would keep some folks from trying meth.

                  We had all of those things back in the day, that's true.  But...

                   

                  • We have way more fast food options, both in variety and quantity.  Used to be you sometimes had to drive a couple towns over for certain fast food, not a couple blocks.
                  • Sure we had TV.  5 or 6 channels, not hundreds.  And we didn't have the internet, not to mention smart phones and video games.  You can't discount the impact of the variety of content in giving kids more reason to stay inside.
                  • Yeah, it was hard to get people to exercise.  But not hard to get them to play.  We had fewer indoor distractions, so we played outside, whether it was a pick-up game of baseball, football, hide-and-seek, or just goofing around.  But it was all very and active and physical without feeling like exercise because it was play.  My parents always had to call me inside at night because I would be out playing with other neighborhood kids.  I also remember riding my bike all over town, not to exercise, but to get somewhere before I was old enough to drive.

                  As a society, we move far less, and eat far more.  And the proliferation of soft drinks, sport drinks, energy drinks, and just about every other kind of drink is a stealth way that children today injest way more calories than we did in our youth.  I remember soft drinks being kind of a treat; now, you're looking at hundreds of extra calories everyday from all of this stuff.  

                   

                  No easy solutions besides needing to move more and eat less.  But I do think it's harder today than in the past because of some of the things above.  I know now that it can be a challenge to get my kids off the Wii or TV and outside to play, and I have no doubt my parents would have struggled with me if I had similar options.

                   

                  I agree with all this, but it's still hard for me to completely reconcile that the entire basis and root of obesity is too much food/too little activity. I understand that it causes obesity. I guess what remains puzzling to me is how, in a pretty shockingly short span of time, our society has, in general, come to the point of either not giving a shit about being fat or refusing to acknowledge it.

                   

                   


                  A Saucy Wench

                    More activity doesnt necessarily help.  People are AFRAID to let their kids play.  If you take your eyes off your kid for one second you are accused of being neglectful.  I used to ride my bike for miles by age 8-9.  I would play outside by myself for hours or go to the park with friends with barely a shout to let my parents know where I was going.  Now my neighbors are so shocked that I let my kids play in our front yard or ride their bikes on the sidewalk ON OUR STREET without supervision that they will actually come outside and sit and watch my kids for me.  Or they knock on the door to let me know my kids are outside like they somehow snuck out.  The park is 2 blocks from my house.  Nobody EVER sends their kids to the park to play alone.   I cant even imagine what it would be like to live someplace that actually was somewhat dangerous. 

                     

                    If you want your kids to be active now you have to enroll them in activities (because that is where all the other kids are so there is nobody left to just freaking play with).  And the activities have to accomodate working families so you are at soccer practice all evening trying to figure out how you are going to get home at 7 make dinner and get your kids in bed by 8.  

                     

                    There are a lot of factors that come in to play and I disagree that "not giving a shit" or "refusal to acknowledge" are in the top 2.

                    I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                     

                    "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

                      There are a lot of factors that come in to play and I disagree that "not giving a shit" or "refusal to acknowledge" are in the top 2.

                       

                      Oh, I definitely don't think these are reasons why people are fat...I'm saying that I can't figure out how our society got to this mindset.

                       

                      On the other hand, I may be precariously close to namby-pambily analyzing the psyche of obesity. The fact is, I've yelled, "Stop analyzing them and kick their asses!" while accidentally watching Biggest Loser.

                       

                       


                      Feeling the growl again

                        More activity doesnt necessarily help.  People are AFRAID to let their kids play.  If you take your eyes off your kid for one second you are accused of being neglectful.  I used to ride my bike for miles by age 8-9.  I would play outside by myself for hours or go to the park with friends with barely a shout to let my parents know where I was going.  Now my neighbors are so shocked that I let my kids play in our front yard or ride their bikes on the sidewalk ON OUR STREET without supervision that they will actually come outside and sit and watch my kids for me.  Or they knock on the door to let me know my kids are outside like they somehow snuck out.  The park is 2 blocks from my house.  Nobody EVER sends their kids to the park to play alone.   I cant even imagine what it would be like to live someplace that actually was somewhat dangerous. 

                         

                         

                        I think this is a big contributer.  I know quite a few people whose kids hardly go outside in the summer because the parents are afraid not to have an eye on them.  Hell, they treat them that way clear through college sometimes, it seems.  I can't remember the last time I saw a group of unleashed 8-12 year olds roaming a neighborhood playing.  I grew up in a more rural area, but around age 7-8 I was biking 2 miles to play at friends' houses....it was not unusual and lots of others did it...nobody does that now even around there.

                         

                        Society is just reinforcing this through laws, leave a 10-yr-old unattended for a few minutes and technically you could be prosecuted.

                        "If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does.  There's your pep talk for today.  Go Run." -- Slo_Hand

                         

                        I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills

                         

                        LedLincoln


                        not bad for mile 25

                          There was plenty of unhealthy, greasy food in the 60s, but I think the main difference today is that marketing has grown so much more sophisticated and powerful.


                          Prince of Fatness

                            Oh, I definitely don't think these are reasons why people are fat...I'm saying that I can't figure out how our society got to this mindset.

                             

                            I think that technology has something to do with it, in that there is less disconnect.  To Globby's point, things are a lot different, and just from my observation it seemed to grow at an exponential rate, especially in the last 20 years or so.

                             

                            And I'm not just talking about kids.  Parents are always connected, too.  Work is a good example.  There is less disconnect time, given the mobile devices, VPN access, etc.  For many it's become an expectation that you are always available, even when on vacations.  I love the things that technology offers us but I think that the lack (or less amount) of down time is a significant contributor to health problems, including obesity.  In this regard it is way different than it was even 20 years ago.  To me it feels like it almost happened overnight.

                            Not at it at all. 


                            #artbydmcbride

                              I ran past a park I used to play at as a child, and stopped to use the water fountain on Saturday.  It used to be packed with kids when I went there.   Now its deserted, and the activity office was locked up and so were the bathrooms.  Sad    Cut backs in the city budget, or no point in staffing if no one goes there?

                               

                              Runners run

                                There was plenty of unhealthy, greasy food in the 60s, but I think the main difference today is that marketing has grown so much more sophisticated and powerful.

                                 

                                Fast food and processed meals may look pretty much the same as they did in the 60's but I will place my bets that it is far from it's original recipe. I read somewhere that taco bell meat is about 2% beef and they are working toward a completely "green beef." The things they can do with food these days is almost limitless and it's just good business for manufacturers to use the cheapest alternatives available.