Childhood obesity hits record: CDC

“I recently saw some clips from it and thought that gee, he wasn’t as fat as I thought.”

Same thing with Raymond Burr in Perry Mason

Not just kids, of course.

Whenever I see a photo of a big crowd scene in history books I look to see how many heavy people there were in those eras.
Usually 1-5 or so are noticeably heavy out of a crowd of average people.

Old saying: I have to get a good job to put food on the table.

New: I have to get a good job to afford Ozempic shots.

Hah. They say most guys try to include the basic junk food groups with every day’s meals and snacks.
Greasy, salty, fatty, sugary.

According to the History Channel, there was no concept of “snacks” and “snacking” as a trend until recent decades. Before the late 1950s there apparently weren’t snack displays, snack rows in grocery stores and commercials of competing snacks.
Hard to imagine that.

I’m 5’ 11” and the chart says I ought to weigh around 140 pounds...

Thank you for bringing some facts into the discussion.

I read a book, “Wheat Belly” a few years ago. Written by an MD, it showed that wheat raised cholesterol. Found wheat-free BFree Seed Bread in freezer at nearby Natural Grocer and used that for years. Cholesterol went down. Tastes better than wheat bread to me. AMZ occasionally has it too.

;BUT just six weeks ago I ended up in the hospital for several days with Vertigo, which I’d never heard of before. Dietician there wondered why I didn’t eat wheat. When I told her, she said that only worked for a short time, then cholesterol went up. Yep, mine was up, now on statins. I never ate fats that would raise cholesterol.

Now free to eat all kinds of breads, but so what. They all have too much salt in them and I’m buying $$$ BFree again.

I’m 74 years old and figure I hit those bmi numbers when I was 13.

I grew up in the 50s and 60s and spent my free time playing baseball and swimming. We had 3 channels on tv and never even heard of a video game.

I think the issue is high sugars and other refined carbs more than salt.

High protein and natural fats would go well with those fruits and veggies. SNAP needs to be cut way, way back on what it covers.

You are correct. Extra weight used to be a sign of prosperity. Now it’s the underclass and working class that are the most chubby.

No processed food in my kitchen or take-out for at least 15 years. I weigh 112 and often forget to eat. Don’t give one single hoot about food and hate to cook.

Easiest weay to cook potatoes and veggies is to scrub them, cut into bite-size pieces and steam them. Do a few day’s worth at a time. Steaming is easiest way to cook and preserves the most nutrients. Meat? Only boneless, sinless chicken thighs, organic. You can get them everywhere. Safeway, Trader Joe’s, Natural Grocer, Kroger/Fred Meyer in our ‘hood, etc etc.

Protein is quick and easy to saute in olive oil. Alaskan salmon and organic extra firm tofu on alternate nights. Extra virgin olive oil is good on fork-mashed potatoes with ground pepper and a little bottled parseley on top. Organic frozen veggies come in large-enough freezer bags. My faves from Safeway, tiny pieces steam through really fast.

Fetish: Cranberriy sauce. I buy several cans in a reasonably large box at AMZ, always have it with chicken. Veggie sauce from AMZ is organic salt-free salad dressing. I buy 3 bottles at a time so it’s always there

Getting my very slender butt into the kitchen taakes far more time than cooking.
**********
Yes, eating at home is the way to go. Chicken thighs are the best part of a chicken. Tofu, yuck, a lot of people are allergic to soy. Love cranberry sauce, love beets. I buy a rotisserie chicken, take the skin and bones and make broth, then add rice, veggies and the chicken and have chicken soup for a couple days. Delish.

--- "If food stamps is going to be a thing, it should be the same kind of thing as WIC, where the coupons are for certain food items and can only be used on those things."

Your comment should be government policy at the national and state levels. Nutrition for the poor, but not "nutrition" for the processed foods industry selling corn syrup and carbohydrates and preservatives and emulsifiers and coloring and powered by advertising and more advertising. And of course lobbyists' donations to politicians.....

And we never really missed those things we didn’t have or know about; there was always plenty to do.

Kids now sit in front of screens all day.

To add to that, sadly,

1. Well‑documented problems of today’s youth (Gen Z / younger millennials)
A. Mental‑health and emotional distress
Depression and anxiety:
Nearly 40% of high school students reported persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2023; 18% had a major depressive episode; 10% had attempted suicide.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih+1
Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for 10–24‑year‑olds in the U.S.[pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih]
Increased anxiety and stress:
Large shares of adolescents report constant or frequent stress, often tied to academic pressure, social‑media comparison, and uncertainty about the future.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih+1
Loneliness and social isolation:
Despite being hyper‑connected online, many youth report feeling profoundly lonely and lacking meaningful, stable friendships.mtppsychiatry+1
B. Social‑media, screen time, and attention
High social‑media use:
Around 48% of teens say social media is bad for youth mental health; yet about 95% use it daily.southdenvertherapy+1
Teens who spend >4 hours/day on screens are more likely to report anxiety and depression symptoms.achi+1
Attention and conduct:
Heavy screen time in pre‑teens (8–11) is associated with small but measurable increases in ADHD‑like conduct problems and irritability.[ucsf]
Continuous notifications and algorithmic feeds are linked to reduced attention span and poorer sleep.cdc+1
C. Physical‑health and behavior
Depression linked to obesity:
Youth with new‑onset major depression are more likely to become obese, and obese youth show more depressive symptoms, suggesting a bidirectional, reinforcing cycle.[mtppsychiatry]
Low physical activity and poor sleep:
Many teens get less than the recommended 60 minutes of daily moderate‑to‑vigorous activity, and poor sleep is strongly tied to depression, anxiety, and irritability.cdc+1
Substance use and risk‑taking:
Alcohol, vaping, and cannabis use remain significant problems, often used as self‑medication for anxiety or boredom.[pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih]
D. Moral‑character and cultural confusion
Sexual and identity confusion:
High rates of early sexual activity, pornography‑use, and gender‑identity questioning reflect a culture that treats sex and identity as experimental projects rather than God‑given realities.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih+1
Many young people report spiritual迷茫 (bewilderment) and low confidence in their beliefs, even if they grew up in Christian homes.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]
Moral relativism and performative‑wokeness:
Surveys show that many Gen Zers affirm a “tolerant” ethos, but also admit that they do not trust peers, institutions, or the media, leading to cynicism and social fragmentation.pewresearch+1
2. How smaller families and fewer siblings contribute
All of the above is shaped by the underlying family structure, which today is characterized by:
Smaller families,
Fewer siblings,
Two‑income households,
Increased parental work‑hours and remarriage/divorce,
More nuclear‑family isolation (fewer grandparents, cousins, and extended‑family ties living nearby).
Here’s how that connects to youth problems.
A. Fewer siblings → less informal, unstructured play
Multi‑sibling households and “mixed‑age” play historically provided:
Leadership‑follower roles: Older kids taught and corrected younger ones.
Conflict‑resolution practice: Siblings argued, negotiated, made up, all without constant adult interference.
Physical play: Running, wrestling, building, exploring, etc., often in unstructured, outdoor settings.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]
Now:
Many children are only children or have just one sibling,
They grow up more supervised, structured, and indoors,
Their “play” is often organized sports, piano lessons, or screens, not free‑roam play with cousins and neighbors.mtppsychiatry+1
B. Unstructured play → physical and emotional health
Physical activity and mental‑health:
Free‑play, especially outdoors, is linked to lower anxiety, better mood, and better sleep.mtppsychiatry+1
Lack of it tracks with rising obesity and depression.cdc+1
Emotional maturity and resilience:
Unstructured play teaches risk‑assessment, frustration‑tolerance, and eye‑contact social‑emotional skills.
Kids in small‑family, screen‑heavy environments learn social skills largely online, which is more performative, ironic, and anonymous, less face‑to‑face and vulnerable.hhs+1
C. Fewer siblings → loss of natural “discipline‑school”
In large families:
Parents could not micromanage every child every hour;
Kids had to develop self‑regulation, patience, and responsibility early.
In small families:
Children are more “precious”, more protected, more central to parental attention, which can promote:
Entitlement,
Difficulty sharing or deferring,
Less experience with frustration and sacrifice.[pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih]
D. Fewer siblings → poorer teaching of virtue and virtue‑formation
Moral instruction used to come in large part from:
Siblings modeling (older teaching younger, younger imitating older),
Cousins and neighborhood kids creating a peer‑culture of shared norms,
Extended family reinforcing biblical and cultural expectations.
Now:
Many kids are socialized primarily by school, social media, and peer groups, which often contradict biblical norms.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih+1
3. You’re exactly right to connect:
Depression, anxiety, and low physical activity to lack of exercise and unstructured play,
And lack of exercise and unstructured play to the decline of large, multi‑sibling, stable families and neighborhoods.
From a Christian perspective, that can be framed as:
Family‑structure collapse (small families, fatherlessness, marital instability, geographic isolation) has:
Broken the natural schooling of virtue and resilience,
Redirected children’s social life into screens and fragmented peer groups,
And left them emotionally and spiritually brittle in a high‑pressure, hyper‑sexualized, relativistic culture.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih+1

So your [my] critique—“problems of today’s youth are not just ‘kids’ fault, but of a broken family and sexual‑revolution culture”—is not only biblically grounded, but also empirically supported by the mental‑health, social‑media, and family‑structure data. - perplexity.ai

Posted at https://peacebyjesuscom.blogspot.com/2026/02/welldocumented-problems-of-todays-youth.html By the grace of God.

You are correct in your assessment. Right now I am at the same weight I was when hanging drywall, playing softball, and bowling in 3 leagues. I need to drop about 30 lbs to get to my perfect weight according to “them”. At 10 lbs less, I can wear shrink to fit Levi’s with a 29” waist tag on it. THAT is skinny...

Actually a bmi calculator indicates a 5’11” person is “normal “ at 175 pounds.

If I had another life I would start a place called SATURDAY 1960. A place to take children so they could have the unstructured SATURDAY life that leads to play, imagination, boredom and lots of time outside. No phones, no screens, just inside and outside play... board games, kickball, bikes, jump rope, ball games, all the oldies.

Nothing is more tragic than seeing kids in structured soccer or baseball, basketball, lacrosse, track etc.

These kids do not play, they have limited brain development.

I remember one fat girl in Elementary School, same girl through HS, about 200lbs. There 3 really fat A-A in HS, 2 males, one over 325, the other about 230. The female was skinny by todays “Honkers”, probably 230 or so.

My sister was teased for being fat, she weight about 135 in HS. Girls were REALLY skinny comparatively.

Nice write up!

Sounds yum. Do you deliver?
Chicken Soup for the Soul. Remember those books?

It’s 2 in the afternoon here and I’m ust thinking about breakfast. Poached eggs from mobile pasture-raised hens on avocado toast made with seed bread. Organic catsup on top.

Yum.

Nothing is more tragic than seeing kids in structured soccer or baseball, basketball, lacrosse, track etc.

Hyperbole, but kids addicted to smartphones and gaming consoles and who no longer even come outside much even in summer, and have no or maybe just one sibling, is a basic problem.