Obesity

A headline from the AP reads:

"Heavy Kids Face Big Stigma"

The article went on to lament how serious a problem obesity is for American youth. It all comes back to parenting. What are these kids eating day in and day out? How many hours are they passing in front of the television or computer? The article reports that, by 2010, about one-half of North American youth will be obese. This is staggering and embarrassing. And, to be blunt, America is gaining a much-deserved reputation for being a nation of roly-polies. In Italy, I rarely saw an overweight person and when I did, he/she was more often than not, American. I'm reluctant to signal out those areas where I believe Europeans understand things better than we do, but this one's a no-brainer.

I would venture to say that the problem doesn't lie in laziness per se, but in the quality and quantity of food in America. The diet in this nation is abysmal, portions are gargantuan and kids are brought up to believe it's alright to gorge themselves. We hear repeated complaints about the rising costs of health care. No doubt, these costs would fall sharply if we would only learned how to take better care of ourselves.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/177292