Posted on 07/27/2009 9:00:00 AM PDT by AJKauf
In aisle six there’s a man wheeling a grocery cart filled with prepackaged and ready-to-make food: TV dinners, frozen breakfasts, macaroni and cheese, and similar items. The cart is also overflowing with sugary cereals and a variety of soda. The man weighs about 400 pounds. With him is his son. The boy is about 12-years-old and weighs close to 200 pounds. He’s pointing to things he wants — Pop-Tarts, Oreos, Rice Krispies Treats — and the father is throwing everything the kid asks for into the cart.
“That’s child abuse,” I think to myself. “That man is endangering the welfare of his child. He should be arrested.”
Of course, I was speaking hyperbolically. You can’t really arrest someone for what they choose to feed their child, right?
Now it seems as if my hyperbole wasn’t so outlandish after all. A South Carolina woman was arrested for criminal child neglect because her 14-year-old son, Alexander Draper, weighs 555 pounds.
When the boy’s mother, Jerri Gray, was asked for an explanation as to how her son got so dangerously obese, she said, “Well, a lot of times it had to do with lifestyle. A lot of times I had to work full time second shift or full time, third shift. And I wasn’t home a lot.” She explained that she would often purchase fast food for Alexander because she didn’t have time to cook due to work.
It’s easy to call the mother out on this. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Why in the world wouldn’t you have taught your eldest daughter to cook? Doesn’t seem right.
Exactly and dumbing it down by claiming that all calories are the same and burn the same isn't going to help anyone lose weight.
She should have taken the kid to a doctor 200 or 300 pounds ago to find out if he had a metabolic, hormonal or other medical issue. That's why I see this case as a sign of child neglect.
Unfortunately, there are two things at play here. The first is the advent of electronic entertainment that prevents kids from doing physical activity. Everyone knows that this is a problem and many parents don’t take the time or effort to encourage their kids to do anything else.
The second problem is high fructose corn syrup. For all the the propaganda about how this is just another sweetener with equivalent calories to sugar—which is absolutely true at face value—what is neglected is how your body processes these different sugars. The body developed over time to use fruit sugar to build up liver glycogen stores and put the rest toward fat storage. Fruit was only available in the late summer and fall, and the body adapted to use this abundant energy supply to get us through the lean months of the winter. Sucrose (vegetable/table sugars), on the other hand, are used by the body first and foremost as immediate energy and to rebuild muscle glycogen stores before being shuffled off to the liver and eventually to fat storage.
I do a lot of weightlifting, and I can tell you from first hand experience that I can tell the difference within an hour of drinking a post workout protein shake if I put in a handful of frozen berries or if I put in 40g of table sugar. If I put in the table sugar I can almost feel my muscles drink it up. If I put in fruit instead I feel lethargic and my muscles hurt like hell the next day. If any of you lift weights you can do this test yourself. There is a great deal of scientific research on this phenomenon available online, though most is focused on the refueling stages of cyclic ketogenic diets. Even outside of those diets, however, our bodies still use these different fuels in different ways.
With the advent of high fructose corn syrup being added to nearly any and all products you can buy in most grocery stores, is it any wonder our kids (and adults) are finding it easier to pack on the pounds than generations past? Add in the lack of emphasis on physical activity and it’s a perfect storm for obesity.
Anyone here with weight problems should simply attempt to find alternative products without HFCS and avoid excessive amounts of fruit and see what happens. Give it two months and I can almost guarantee you’ll see weight come off without even trying unless you are just gorging yourself on food.
Exactly. That's why the simplistic "calories in, calories out" mantra doesn't work. Our bodies will use and burn 80 calories of fruit, meat, vegetables and HFCS in totally different ways.
Yes, fiber passes through the body and isn't utilized. So, really, those calories are meaningless. When someone eats 5,000 calories in a normal day but only burns 3,000 in a normal day, that person is going to get fat. The source of those calories doesn't matter unless you think any person with a brain is going consume thousands of calories a day from fiber. Of course, then they're going to have much more pressing issues than any potential weight gain.
I'm willing to bet that obese people don't get a lot of their total daily calories from fiber. You?
Does being this dense come naturally to you or do you have to work at it?
Ah, I see now. You don't have enough understanding of the topic to even grasp what I've said on this thread. You're dense because you want to be and because you can't help it. Bummer.
My oldest daughter didn't want to learn. She had no interest & refused to help with preparing food. So she cleaned the kitchen after dinner. There was no point in fighting with her. She can cook quite well now. Why force the issue? I had enough to do with 5 teenagers then fight with her. However my boys all can cook, sew & clean. The middle one enjoys cooking & never minds making dinner.
exactly pandy.. all the childen in our neighborhood were out sunrise to sunset.. coming home briefly for meals & we ran & played..
the ones who now are into TV, computers etc were the ones that always had their noses in books. Now that isn’t all bad. I regret I was not a reader.. but I just had too much energy & really hated sitting at all..
of course this was the dark ages when mom’s were home with us and the TV just wasn’t on day & night.
I am saving for a horse for Sassy. She doesn't want presents this year she wants riding lessons or money lol. So when we can finally get out of NJ & buy a few acres she will have her horse. Fine by me. A horse will keep her busy & away from boys. At least it worked for me way back when ...lmao.
But the mental illness I was referring to was the enablers. These Moms who think feeding equates to love and the more you feed your precious, the more you must love him apparently even if it kills him.
I’ve actually done my research, have you? I don’t think so.
I actually wanted to learn but my grandmother couldn’t be bothered.
That is a shame. I learned to make noodles from my Baba & the memories are priceless.
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