Good point about shrimp being inexpensive there. And yes it is a great diet meal.
Don't agree with the HFCS theory--you'd have to disprove the sheer lack of exercise first. Kids don't have playgrounds anymore because of lawsuits. Someone on FR was telling me about how some kids can't even have friends over anymore because if something happened to the friend, the parents would be hit with lawsuits. Kids aren't allowed to be kids. Etc etc.
Just a lack of exercise alone doesn't cause young kids to be a type 2 diabetic or obese. Lack of exercise is a factor but the diet changed with the advent of the food guide pyramid. Fat became anathema and carbohydrates were the healthiest foods you could eat, so they said. The food companies took out the fat and added HFCS to *everything* to add back flavor and volume.
The thing is a constant consumption of HFCS causes the pancreas to continuously release insulin and insulin is a fat storing hormone.
I will give you an example from my family about simply changing diet can control the insulin spikes and assist with weight loss. My brother's blood sugar spiked to over 550 and nothing was bringing it down. I told him to give strict Atkins induction a chance and he did because he did not want to be hospitalized. Within two weeks his blood sugar levels were in the normal range, and he's lost almost sixty pounds in the last 3 months.
I know many many other diabetics who have gotten their blood sugar levels back to normal by getting off of refined carbs, primarily HFCS and white flour, and they are losing weight in the process. There is a correlation to the rapid rise in obesity with the use of the food guide pyramid and the massive use of HFCS.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4808249/
http://www.iotf.org/media/syrup.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8003-2003Mar10?language=printer
http://www.diabetic-help.com/study_blames_corn_syrup_for_rise.htm