With very few exceptions, when you see an obese child you can point a finger directly at the parent. I have a three year old daughter and its extremely challenging to not cave in and give her everything she asks for in life. Either she's asking so nicely you want to reward her or she is acting so deplorably that you want to succumb to her just to get her to quite/calm down. Luckily, our daughter thinks that yogurt is a "treat" and that raisins are "candy." Being a good parent is a lot of work and like any job, there are ways you can take short cuts. Feeding your kid crappy food is one way you could take a major short-cut. I can't imagine how much time we would save if we didn't make her food from scratch. Basically when you see an obese child your looking at a lazy parent.
Oh man, I have a cousin who is obese, and so is his wife. They have two daughters, 5 and 7. I can already see it in the 7 year old, and it makes me want to scream at them. Kids get habituated to this shit before they can even talk. The sensation of eating too much sugar is want more powerful than words. I don't think she stands a chance. For now, her sister is of normal weight, and I hope it stays that way. But, frankly, I fear the worst. It's sad to watch it happen from the ground up. Most fat people you meet have been fat far longer than you've known them. Watching an innocent child go from being a baby to a toddler to a pudgy little kid is kind of heartbreaking when you care about that person.
With obesity on the rise and the recently approved welfare cuts, I think it prudent to propose a federal feral children initiative. Children in danger of becoming obese at a young age will be released into the wilds of our great nation and left to fend for themselves. Of course, they'll be radio tagged and collected before their capacity for languages dwindles into true mental retardation, and reintroduced to society at large. I realize that this is at best, a modest proposal, but I believe that at the present time, our political leaders might be open to this suggestion, or one like it. Seriously though, obesity really does need to be nipped in the bud.
Obesity is at once simple and complex. It's simple, because each of use chooses what to eat and how much to exercise. But it's obviously so much more than that. I think it starts with our food and farm policies, and goes from there all the way to the way kids are raised to be scared to leave the house anymore. And probably a lot in between. It's funny. My brother and I were raised the same, ate the same things, played the same sports (hockey, tennis, swimming, golf--can you guess what race we are?!), and have the same education. Being only a year apart, we had an almost identical upbringing. But in our adulthoods we've completely diverged. He eats junk food and doesn't exercise, and I pretty much eat healthy(ish), while exercising almost every day. We're both in our thirties, and our physiques, as you can imagine, are quite a bit different by now. Which is odd, because he was always a way better athlete than me growing up. In fact, maybe that's why I am the way I am; I always felt like I had to keep up (I'm about 4" shorter than him, 6'0" vs 5'8", a big difference, and something I've always been self conscious of), so I never gave up. Whereas in his case, he always was the leader and everything came naturally to him. My point is that even all things being equal, the psychology of the individual plays into it a lot. It's not all government failure and corporate greed (although I would certainly argue that that's the biggest component). A great place to start to combat obesity is to flip the subsidies that farmers receive. Subsidize the fuck out of vegetables, subsidize fruits a tiny bit less, and do everything humanly possible to disincentivize people from eating super calorie dense garbage.
I do agree and I think that parts of the issue are deeply ingrained in our brains and bodies. In the scope of things, we've only overcome the issue of providing ourselves with renewable and constant nourishment very recently. Perhaps with your background, you know more about this than me, but it seems like our basic need for calories has evolved into a want for calories, which is as you say, easily capitalized on. Similarly, we have more opportunity to be lazy, because we are by-and-large "safe" or at least safe from predators and roving bands of similarly hungry humans looking to ensure their own survival. So, yeah I think a lot of it is psychological, but it seems like it comes from many levels of the psyche. Yeah, I've heard many anecdotes similar to this and also read a few articles that seem to point to success as something that is most often achieved by people who earn it rather than those who are naturally talented. The US is kind of odd in that people are expected to work hard, but they also expect instant gratification. I think that's another thing that we need to address as a society.In fact, maybe that's why I am the way I am; I always felt like I had to keep up (I'm about 4" shorter than him, 6'0" vs 5'8", a big difference, and something I've always been self conscious of), so I never gave up. Whereas in his case, he always was the leader and everything came naturally to him.
My mom has been obese as long as I can remember, and even in the morbid category at one point (but had gastric bypass surgery and that brought her back down to simply obese.) However, me and my sister were never fat when we were < 18. That didn't happen until we got older. I was able to reverse it before it got too bad, but my sister just got out of control. I think in some cases, even if the obese parent manages to keep their kids a healthy weight, the kids still see how they eat and such and end up getting fat as an adult (particularly if emotional eating is the problem.)
That makes sense. I have many of the same habits as my father, both good and bad. It's pretty remarkable how influential our parents are on us, even those that chose to consciously reject or rebel are affected by the habits of their parents. I'm glad you were able to avoid obesity, I find that like any vice healthy eating is all about avoiding situations that present bad options. Something I've been bad at of late. I keep toiling with the idea of becoming a vegetarian. My wife is and I've dabbled in the past. Anyways, good luck to you and your mom and sister.
Though I can't speak from direct experience (no kids), what you're saying makes sense and seems to be backed by the article. The bigger issue, in my mind, is whether the responsibility shifts to the individual at a certain age. If you're in high school/college/post-graduation, does the onus shift to the individual to lose weight? I tend to think not. Obviously, there are individuals who manage to lose weight, but I'm not sure that should be the expectation. I think it lines up much the same way poverty does: a kid born in poverty is much more inclined to be poor as an adult.