Weaning Them Off Soda/Maine

The Bangor Daily News ^ | 5 July 2002 | who knows!

[SheLion]

A group of dedicated health specialists met again this week to fine-tune its plan to encourage every school in Maine to get rid of sodas, chips and other non-nutritional items.

They have put together an information packet warning against soda and chips as major causes of a current epidemic of obesity and tooth decay throughout the country but especially in Maine. The packet includes research articles and fact sheets designed to persuade students, parents, teachers and school administrators that the campaign is one tangible, practical means of improving health and heading off future disease. The committee has met with vending machine companies and obtained assurances of cooperation.

The next step will be to develop a strategy presentation for individual school districts. Pilot projects in several Maine communities are scheduled to start March 1, 2003, After evaluation of the results, the statewide campaign is slated for the school year starting in September 2004.

One question that arose in this week’s meeting was how best to get the students to realize that it is up to them to control their own diet and escape from the vending-machine monopolies in many schools that promote consumption of the big-name drinks that are heavy on sugar and caffeine.

A nutritionist suggested permitting a choice between healthful and unhealthful items. Others believe that, if given a choice, many students will take the junk.

Another question is how the vending companies may respond to the campaign. Milk and plain water must be carefully defined or some vendor may come up with a pricey new variation. How about Coke-flavored milk?

The committee is preparing for the day when it will seek wider publicity. It is drafting model news stories and news releases. One suggestion, unanimously approved, was that they drop the technical term “dental caries” in their fact sheets and refer simply to plain old “tooth decay.” That was a step in the right direction.

[LynnHam]

The soft drink mfg's are big supporters to state rep's so they allow COKE & PEPSI to install the vending machines...another reason for homeschooling...old saying you are what you eat and drink...no soft drinks in my house...eliminate sugar and fat from diet and watch the pounds fall off, sleep improve and look and feel younger with plenty of exercise for you and the kids...that is the ticket and you can forget about the doctors' bills and prescription drugs...

I worry about the smoking nazi's starting on the junk food... but at the same time there were no vending machines in my school days... most of the kids there were not overweight!!!

[Salgak]

Nice try. You first linked obesity with heath care SYSTEM problems, then when called on it, swapped it to health problems. So much for your argument, after a bait-and-switch. . .

At least with your handle, there's Truth in Advertising. Now, kindly return to DU where your kind of logic is accepted.

[liberallarry]

Obesity and poor health may have a certain corelation

True. It's a statistical correlation. But a very significant one. Ignore it at your peril.

I think this whole "terrible problem" with obeisity is one of those things that has been terribly overplayed...

If you've been around awhile the problem is hard to miss...:)

And as far as our health care system "failing", Larry, if liberals like you would work to get the damn government out of health care, you'd soon see that our "failing" system is pretty robust

I'm on the Board of Directors of a small rural hospital...struggling first-hand with the failing health care system. I don't think you know what you're talking about...although your argument has some merit. The health care system is failing because modern health care is terribly expensive. Most people can't afford it and never will. The government attempt to deal with that is floundering. They're dropping out now and the result is ever more people are without care. No one knows the solution but I think we are going to have to find an entirely different approach.

By the way, physicians returning from Cuba tell me they deliver care as good as ours at 1% of the cost. That ought to make your blood boil.

First of all, government should not be supplying food to anybody for any reason and second, I'm all for abolishing the public school system anyway and hope that the one good thing to come out of Maine governor King's (ironic name)crackpot laptop computer scheme for kids will, after they become computer literate, wake them up to the fact that they don't need the damn state for any purpose but road repair.

???

But of course, getting the goobers in goobermint out of anything wouldn't appeal to a nannie statist like you, would it?

HeHeHeHeHe.....

[kellynla]

Don't quite understand your worry about the "smoking nazis" ? Most people weren't overweight because they most likely were being fed good healthy food...if you raise children without feeding them junk food, soft drinks and sugar they most likely will not have the urge to eat and drink such things...the salt and sugar is addictive hence what you don't ingest you don't acquire an addiction to...same with smokes...the tobacco industry got all of us who were in the armed services addicted to cigs by furnishing them in the "C" rations...once addicted they had a customer for life or at least they thought until those of us who quit before we died of them...(my father & oldest brother weren't so lucky)have nothing against those who want to smoke just don't blow it in my face or ask me to pay higher insurance premiums to pay for the higher cost of hospital care for the one lung, yellow teeth, cancer stix hacking morons

[liberallarry]

I left out a couple of steps...figuring you could fill them in. I was wrong.

Obesity leads to health problems.
Health problems lead to health care.
Health care leads to the Health care system.
If the health care system is breaking down at the same time that obesity is leading to an increased number of health problems, that's not good.

Get it? Or is even that too complicated?

[discostu]

Our average age and average height continue to climb. This means we're HEALTHIER. The "obesity problem" is people fudging with numbers until everybody but Calista Flockhart is classified "obese". Abandon your ideological blinders.

[luckystarmom]

Actually, I think there shouldn't be soda machines in schools.

I think the schools should promote healthy foods.

I think that parents have a right to figure out if a child has soda or not, but the parents can't monitor what goes on at a school.

[luckystarmom]

Do you think children can practice self-control?????

Adults yes,children no.

[Salgak]

Again, nice tap dance. Your original post linked obesity to health care system failure. You then claimed the link was obesity. Now you require a causal chain to be accepted.

There IS a reason for health care system failure. It's called "Government". . . .

[metesky]

You're holding Cuba up as a model for how anything should be run, just about says it all about you, Larry.

If you're really involved in health care and are over a certain age, remember how (relatively) cheap health care was before the gub'mint got involved?

[luckystarmom]

You did read that right. It would definitely be a different issue if they were banning soda altogether in the school. They are not. They are just not selling it.

I believe in parental control of kids. Unfortunately, I do not know of too many kids that would pick milk over soda if offered to them when their parents are not around.

[liberallarry]

Just teach kids to keep their hands out of the cookie jar and to excercise for a whopping half an hour a day and, chances are, they'll never be fat.

I'd like to agree with that...because that's exactly what's worked for me during a reasonably long life. But I don't think it's that simple. Some people (far more than .05%) are prone to getting fat. They have to work harder at keeping fit. Then - an obvious observation - it's a lot easier to avoid the cookie jar if it's not constantly put in front of you. I'm now an old man and have more of a tendency to put on weight than I did in youth or middle age. I deal with it by not keeping sweets in the house - I indulge when I go out. But that's an old man's wisdom. Nearly impossible for kids.

[ECM]

Are you kidding?! Kids can't practice self-control? Now I've heard it all...

How about this: where are the kids getting the money to buy junk? Could it be from their helpful, non-disciplinary, parents? Maybe packing his or her lunch and not giving them any cash might help curb this if they have such a "self-control" problem.

Believe me, if they can stay thin till (roughly) juior high, they'll probably stay that way. Not too many people want to date the fat kid, right?

This is nothign but an excuse, anyway--teach your kids to not eat everything they see, have them excercise a little and, voila!, no more epidemic of obesity.

That wasn't so hard, was it?

[liberallarry]

No. Look around you...and if you're old enough remember how it used to be. Many factors go into longevity. On balance the populace can be getting healthier...and fat people can be living longer. None of that negates the argument that being obese is not healthy.

[kellynla]

Healthy people don't need "health care" or doctors, drugs and hospitals (of course there is the exception but certainly not the rule) so don't blame the government for your poor health care...you and others who think that there is not a connection between weight, fitness, excercise, diet, sleep and health have a lot to learn... the best health care is preventive care

[liberallarry]

Ok. Try looking at it this way.

My argument is that obesity among kids is a growing problem and we should do more than we do to combate it. Obesity leads to increased health problems which will be increasingly difficult to deal with as our health care system fails.

I'm sure you understand that...and understood it when I first stated it. Deal with it. Who cares whether my phraseology will pass an English grammar test? Or whether a logician will pass me on clarity?

[KantianBurke]

Regardless of your arguments, your attempts to hold up the Cuban healthcare system as something to be emulated demonstrate just how muh of an idiot you are. Shame on you.

[LynnHam]

my father & oldest brother weren't so lucky)have nothing against those who want to smoke just don't blow it in my face or ask me to pay higher insurance premiums to pay for the higher cost of hospital care for the one lung, yellow teeth, cancer stix hacking morons

I am a former smoker. I started smoking when I was 16 stopped when I was 45. It was my choice to start and my choice to stop. The smoking nazi's are only interested in their choice not mine or your fathers or your brothers or yours. It's called freedom of choice .

[discostu]

I have looked around me. You know what I see? I see a society where the average person has a membership in a health club, they might not use it but they have it. A see a society that's getting taller, which has always been a sign of good nutrition no matter how you slice it. I see a society that's living longer and having fun doing.

Let's stick to your original premise here Larry, let's not obfuscate things with semi-related arguements. Your original posit was that we have an obesity problem in this country. Whether or not obesity is unhealthy has NOTHING to do with your original posit. Do we have an "obesity problem" in this country? No. The average weight is staying in line with the average height, the reason we have more people being labeled "obese" has nothing to do with any weight problem the nation has, it relates entirely to the fact that the medical crowd keeps moving the bar down to include more and more people.

Your other posit was that our health system is collapsing. Again BS, if we're living longer the health system must be doing OK. Actually if one accepts your first posit when you combine that with the fact that we're living longer it completely disproves your second posit. How could a nation have an obesity problem and be living longer unless the health system kicked ass?

Is obesity a problem for the obeses (I'm talking real obese people, not 6'3" muscle men who way over 215... yes according the our "experts" they are now obese, the new scale doesn't take into account things like body fat percentage, it's a flat scale based on height, same scale for both genders too)? Of course. Does that mean we have an obesity problem in this countr? Of course not. There's always going to be obese people, just like there's always going to be anorexics. The question is what's happening to the majority. And according to every number published the majority are fine.

[kayak]

;-)