Shower thoughts … So many factors at play here. Fast food/junk food companies having more $$$ to influence policy-making. Lack of education for both parents and children. Not enough importance placed on health in schools.
How would you realistically “solve” obesity?
Not just education of parents. They need time too. Time to cook proper food, time to source it, time toplan meals. I was a stay at home Mum and my kids ate the most incredibly balanced and nutritious food. I went back to work and they get beans on toast easily twice a week for dinner. But also juice. The amount of parents/grandparents who still try to give my kids juice every 5 seconds “because it’s healthy” is insane so yeah, I’d start with a big PR campaign about how great water is for kids then vote for politicians who want to encourage genuine work/life balance
Nutrition education as a whole. With social media “science” being so prevalent & the general distrust for actual science/governing bodies, this is a ridiculous uphill battle.
Change the US work culture so that we aren’t expected to be workaholics, and work life balance is actually accepted so that we have time to take care of ourselves & our kids. See above, ridiculous uphill battle.
Figure out a way to eliminate food deserts, where dollar stores and fast food are some people’s only source of food.
Something I’ve not seen mentioned yet is mental health support. I think various disorders, trauma and maladaptive coping skills would be behind a lot of obesity, especially those who are morbidly obese.
Obesity strongly correlates with lower socioeconomic status. So there’s huge structural stuff to solve. Yes, education on healthy eating, including culturally appropriate healthy eating! Most available education revolves around Western foods.
But time, access to healthy food options, the resources and space to prepare meals, all play into it too.
Great question, especially given the added details of the policy influence and lack of education. However, it does make me sad to think that the only real solution will come through a massively negative situation. For instance climate change making it impossible to grow the base crop ingredients for the junk food or a nuclear war causing the same. We live in a strange world where people claim to believe in faiths that teach love and care for others, yet that tends to stop when there’s a chance to make money.
Portion control, exercise and limited screen time. Most adults don’t need three square meals a day. Eating one nutritionally dense meal a day is much better than eating three crappy ones. Saves you money to on all the health and dental issues that obesity causes. Drive your car less hang out your laundry.
Redefinition of what is in fact healthy. If you stick to whole food ans not transformed one, it is a good start ! Inflammation reduction too, so no vegetable oil like canola. Stick to olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil.. butter is good too. Lots of eggs, fish, fresh vegetables, fruits in little quantity, good fats, a moderate amount of carbonhydrate and a BIG amount of fiber. So education is mainly what could help.
If the parents have a healthy diet and lifestyle, their children will learn to have a healthy diet and lifestyle. My mom has always tried to be healthy and my dad has not. I have followed in my mom’s footsteps and my siblings have followed my dad’s
Allowing your kids to come in the kitchen with you and show them options when you have time so later they know how to make better choices. I think as children they have the advantage over most adults because they don’t crave the bad stuff yet they only know it just taste good. With that in mind teaching them ahead of time doesn’t stop them but it does place a tool belt in their care that can now help discern what are better options when forming meals.
Stop subsidizing unhealthy processed food, start subsiding healthy fresh food.
Make life less stressful and more equal for the average person. People are too worried about how to pay their bills and too busy working and making ends meet to be able to cook healthy meals and exercise. If we had a society will less inequality and a better life over all for the average person, people would be able to take care of their health better. It’s not about education, the obesity epidemic is a byproduct of other structural problems we have in society. Raising the minimum wage, addressing the gap between the rich and poor, investing more in public goods, like gyms and playgrounds that don’t require money to use, addressing the broken healthcare system. Making a work life for the average person that gives them time to cook and exercise. This is what fixes the problem, it’s not an individual personal responsibility problem, it’s a byproduct of a society that treats the average like shit, imo.
Better parenting, do what my folks did and make sure we ate right and treats were treats not our daily consumption. We didn’t get gallons of sugary sodas or Twinkies. Don’t reward your kids with snacks and food. Parents need to be involved. Sometimes obesity is a metabolism problem but generally, it’s feeding crap to kids to keep them quiet. Doesn’t help that some parents Cheetos addicts.
Stop going out for fast food. Spend a couple extra dollars on smoothies and more healthful options. Stop consuming trash and they’ll stop selling it. Let fast food die. Go by your local mom and pop shop that has some fresh produce if you’re not gonna cook for yourself.Also buy a box of fruit. Sure you could spend $6 on lunch at Taco Bell or you could spend $6 on a box of pre cut pineapple from Walmart that’ll make you feel like a brand new person.
The problem will continue until there’s a convenient, non-invasive solution.
Here are my premises:
Damn.
I think I only need those two.
It doesn’t matter that much if fast food/junk food companies have money to influence policy. People like the food and they will keep buying and eating it no matter what. Yes, I’m sure education will help but just people are going to do what they want to do no matter how many times you tell them it’s bad for them. Humans don’t always do what’s best for them even if you explain it to them.
You don’t, big pharma makes too much money off keeping people sick. They probably started fast food and made it addicted as hell on purpose. Add a dash of half decent marketing aimed at the poor and working class and bam. $$$.
Tax sugar and corn syrup in foods. My proposal was 1 cent per gram of sugar per serving. Use the money to pay for nutrition training and diabetes treatment. Maybe offset some insulin costs. Basically a can of coke with 26 grams of sugar will cost 26 cents more. A case of 12, an extra $3.12. We lost weight in Europe without changing our eating habits because they use less sugar in everything. We came back to the US and everything was more sweet.
1 - Remove the government guidelines for anything relating to diet and nutrition. The only “guide” there should be is “eat real food”.
2 - Hold everyone responsible for their life and their health. In countries that have free health care, it should be cut off if you’re the one causing the issues and refuse to actually take action. Hell, we could make it harsher and just flat out refuse to waste time on anyone refusing to change in response to their self inflicted issues regardless of what health care they’re under.
3 - Tax and be strict on fake foods and food products that are highly highly processed. No, we’re not gonna class your local loaf as highly processed, we all know what we mean by processed. Stop strong arming the farmers that produce our nutrient rich meats, fruits, eggs, milk, veg.
4 - Stop allowing companies to manipulate the “science” and remove epidemiology as “high quality” evidence.
5 - Acknowledge that calories in, calories out won’t make you healthy.
6 - Restore the nuclear family/communities. Broken/together family’s influence long term health. Not to mention that being together, being family, we can communicate properly, think and aspire to be more than a couch blob. Think of countries that do well in health, it’s not just the food but where and who they eat with.
7 - Take a knife to social media… but that’s its own bag of worms.
We did perfectly fine before the corporate/government guidelines. Then “coincidently” Coca Cola, McDonalds, Beyond Meat, WEF, etc gained a bit of power and influence, suddenly we’re all fat or stupid.
Education. Start with improving parent’s knowledge of how certain foods and quantities affect their children’s health. I really think this will have the best outcome over improving food available in schools and changing how companies are allowed to market food. My parents learned the health benefits and risks of certain foods before I was born, and mostly only bought healthy foods for me growing up. They passed on that knowledge, which has helped me make good eating decisions throughout my life. It really is about education.
I know this is a nutrition sub, but exercise. My kid gets a single day of gym at school. Fortunately, we can afford the time and money to get him into sports clubs, go to the park, and we have a backyard that the kids can play on. But a lot of people don’t have the time/money to do those things. And as an adult I struggle with exercise because I didn’t learn to work it into my life as a kid or find a form that I enjoyed while I still had the energy to try ten different types.
I see all these comments about time and parents working…I have 9 kids. My wife and i decided to have her leave her job at Duke Med and stay home and homeschool the kids so they can get a proper education and have a solid family background.Before you jump and scream I am rich…. I am not. My wife made more money than I did and we decided we didnt need all the fancy bs the Jones’ had and would rather break the cycle of unhealthy living and divorce rates in our families. I am a chef/f&b director and she is an incredible wife and mom and we are happy as heck we made that choice most days:) none of our kids are over weight, the oldest 3 graduated hs a year early with 1 year of college courses completed when they did.Not tooting my own horn here one bit, just cannot see how someone else can teach my children better than my wife and I can.Lastly, its not the guvmnt job to raise kids. It’s the parents job and we need to get people back to the family values of yesteryear… but I really think that is a pipe dream. I grew up dirt poor as my sister always says in the city of New Orleans before all the hate starts rolling up in the comments.
In the United states, the FDA needs to start outlawing the same ingredients that many EU countries do in their food. Synthetics and chemicals going in our food that are creating; unnatural dopamine responses, causing cancer, behavioral issues, etc. the list goes on.
The most important things for preventing obesity are healthy eating behaviors, regular physical activity, and reduced sedentary activity, like watching TV or playing computer games. Parents should promote a Healthy Lifestyle on their on example. Try to go family sports together and children will get interested in it.