“These extreme cases are not the rule, they’re the exception and they’re being used to put over the idea of gov’t intervention by shaming parents if their child is fat.”
Precisely.
Hard cases make bad law. Especially hard, extremely rare cases (How many 500lb kids has anyone here seen?).
Have you been to Alabama lately?
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.