Tag Archives: physical activity

Mom Chronicles 7-Year-Old Daughter’s “Obesity” Battle in Vogue

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Photo of Dara Lynn Weiss and Daughter Bea
Let’s talk about fat, shall we?  In fact, let’s just throw caution to the wind and talk about the potential damage parents can do to their children in the name of curtailing the national trend toward childhood obesity.

Or we could just talk about what a crazy bitch Dara-Lynn Weiss, who recently wrote a piece for Vogue focused on the alleged need for her 7-year-old daughter’s need to lose weight, is.

Incidentally, her daughter Bea was 4’4” and weighed 93 pounds.  She is now sixteen pounds lighter.

And, in case I haven’t already mentioned it, seven.

According to Weiss, Bea’s diet was recommended by her pediatrician, who felt that “she was clinically obese and could be at risk for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes.”

Just for shits and giggles, I put Bea’s stats into the BMI calculator at the National Heart Lung Institute.  It came out as normal. While, to be completely fair, the CDC has a pediatric BMI calculator that does classify Bea as “overweight” considering her age, I think there’s more than meets the eye here.

To wit, here’s what Weiss had to say about Bea’s dietary habits … and her own actions undertaken as…

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Another Reason to Breastfeed … Or is It Just More Propaganda?

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When you hear the phrase “a woman’s right to choose,” there’s generally a quick synapse pop to the word “abortion.” However, I feel that the push to force women to breastfeed gives new meaning to the idea of choice … and it’s a meaning that does not reflect well on the medical profession.

Anyway, there’s a new study out that gives yet another enticing reason to breastfeed—it evidently lowers the risk of developing Type II Diabetes (the one that’s linked to obesity) later in life.

From Bloomberg Businessweek:

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied more than 2,200 women aged 40 to 78. They found that 27 percent of mothers who didn’t breast-feed developed type 2 diabetes, almost double the rate among women who breast-fed or never gave birth.

The researchers say the differences between the groups held up even after they adjusted the statistics for factors such as age, race, levels of physical activity and body-mass index.

“Diet and exercise are widely known to impact the risk of type 2 diabetes, but few people realize that breast-feeding also reduces mothers’ risk of developing the disease later in life by decreasing maternal belly fat,” said Dr. Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, an assistant professor of medicine, epidemiology, and obstetrics, gynecology …

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McDonald’s Happy Meals Being Blamed for Increase in Childhood Obesity, Have Some Parents Very Unhappy

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I’m the first to admit that the trip to McDonald’s for a Happy Meal has been a not uncommon experience for both of my daughters. I’m very well aware that they are not the most nutritionally sound dinner options, but once in a while the little flimsy cardboard box containing McNuggets, fries, and a toy is just the way to go. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, however, is coming down hard on Happy Meals, taking the fast food giant to task for “predatory marketing practices” by using cheap plastic toys to get kids eating fatty junk.

California’s Santa Clara County has already taken the first step, actually banning toys from the Happy Meal package. This is in the name of combating childhood obesity, a cause that First Lady Michelle Obama has faced head on. As an increase in obesity rates continue, the fast food industry is facing growing pressure.

From Foster’s:

In New Hampshire, 33 percent of third-graders are overweight or obese, according to a recent state Department of Health and Human Services survey. It’s part of a rising trend of childhood obesity in the state fueled by unhealthy eating habits — including fast food — and a lack of exercise, said Lisa Bujno, bureau chief of DHHS’s Division of Public Health.

She said McDonald’s isn’t all to blame.

“An occasional Happy Meal isn’t going to be a problem,” Bujno said. “It all goes back to what you take in and what you expend for energy … It’s about choices.”

You know, I can’t help but feel that the focus is on the path of least resistance here. It’s a lot easier to point the finger at Mickey D’s or BK for foisting junk food on our children, but I very strongly believe that the bigger emphasis should be on increasing physical activity.

I offer as an example my younger daughter. She is picky to the extreme and adamantly refused to eat anything but pizza, fried chicken tenders, and cheese for the first half of her life. She’s six now and has expanded her repertoire to cookies, chips, macaroni and cheese, and tuna fish sandwiches. Oh, and Happy Meals.

Before you come down on me too hard here, please know that there are veritable tons of fruits, vegetables, protein-heavy snacks, and yogurt around. This child’s older sister would rather have blueberries than chocolate and actually seeks out broccoli. Furthermore, the strictly enforced expectation is that she has to eat a bite of everything at the dinner table. I keep hoping that her dietary horizons will broaden, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The thing is, …

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