Why do kids become overweight and maybe even obese?

Ask:

Hey,
Does anyone know what kids eat to become fat.
I am a 13 year old and have been wondering this.
Lots of kids nowadays become overweight really quickly.
This has happened to my little brother.
So can someone please tell me the diet.
I want to encourage my brother to stop eating what he does.

Answers:

Answer 1:

Obesity in children can be caused by a poor diet, lack of exercise and other things like…were they breast fed or not? For each month of being breast fed, a kid will have 10% less chance of becoming overweight. Breast feed your baby for at least 10 months and he/she will NEVER become overweight, no matter what he/she eats. I have two kids and it’s like they cannot make fat reserves. They’re thin, muscular, very active and eat tons and tons of food, some of it fast food junk.

A newborn baby will control the flow of milk from a breast but not from a bottle. I’ve seen babies been forced to finish a bottle and I thought…here’s a future “I have a weight problem” person. I think it’s sad when a society find it acceptable for mothers to not be able to care for their babies because they have to go back to work.

On top of that, the crappy American school diet does not help children develop good eating habits and taste buds so they end up eating crappy food all day long. When kids are served pizzas, French fries and God knows what else and then are left to themselves to make nutritional choices…not good. I’m not even going into the controversial subject of vending machines on school grounds.
My kids went through the American school menu hell (which was even worse, a few years ago, they’re trying to improve), and they did not enjoy it. Luckily I was there to provide good breakfasts and dinners but kids coming home and being served more fried food are doomed.
Kids at school should be served a healthy menu and it would be that or nothing else, like in French schools. A good, tasty, varied menu to which they will look forward to, especially on ice-cream day.
Here are some samples, about 2 weeks worth of French school menus (you’ll notice there’s no pizza, French fries, hot dog or fried fish in there…). I omitted the crêpes, quiche, sauté de lapin, choucroute, paupiettes, cordon bleu, far breton to make it more simple.

Salade verte et cœur de palmier – Saumon en sauce / Pommes vapeur – Fromage – Gâteau
(lettuce salad with heart of palm – salmon/steamed potato – cheese – cake)

Concombres vinaigrette – Sauté de dinde / Petits pois – Yaourt
(cucumber salad – turkey/peas – yogurt)

Betteraves – Rôti de porc / Gratin dauphinois – Poire
(beets – pork/mashed potatoes – pear)

Carottes râpées – Poule au riz – Pommes au four – Salade de fruits
(shredded carrots salad – chicken with rice/roasted potato) – fruit salad)

Potage aux carottes – Sauté de porc / Haricots blancs sauce tomate – Raisin
(carrots soup – pork/white beans with tomato sauce – grapes)

Potage aux poireaux – Salade d’endives – Spaghettis bolognaises – Fromage – Compote
(leek soup – spaghettis in tomato sauce – cheese – applesauce)

Saucisson sec – Œuf dur sauce blanche / Epinards – Fromage – Kiwi
(dry sausage – hard boiled egg in white sauce/spinach – cheese – Kiwi)

Salade verte et maïs – Filet de poisson / Choux-fleurs – Fromage – Crème Vanille
(lettuce and corn – fish/cauliflower – cheese – vanilla cream)

Salade d’endives – Mijoté de bœuf aux légumes – Glace
(endive salad – beef stew with vegetables – Ice-cream)

Soupe aux légumes – Veau Marengo / Carottes – Fromage – Clémentine
(vegetable soup – veal stew/mushrooms & tomatoes/carrots – cheese –clementine)

If you’re 13, then your little brother is very young. He cannot cook yet so he depends on other people to cook for him. Those people should offer him healthy food and not just stop at the fast food restaurant and pick up something.

Also, physical activity used to be normal for kids. When I was a kid, I was always outside running around and biking a lot and did not need my mother’s supervision. Nowadays, kids stay home in front of a computer or a TV. If your brother cannot go outside and run around (because it’s not safe anymore), then he needs planned, supervised physical activities, like playing soccer or going to martial arts classes.

My neighbors’ kids are always outside (summers, winters, all year long), playing in the yard, jumping on the trampoline, using the swings, sliding on that thingy their father built between the hill and the tree house (which he also built), bicycling, going to the pool, martial arts sports, dancing. The mother has to carpool everyone everywhere. Luckily she does not have to work so she can chauffeur.

Maybe learn to cook and feed your little brother proper food and then take him outside and play ball with him.

Answer 2:

This is an excellent question, David! It’s also sort of involved. I think one of the main reasons is kids today are not as active as they were when their parents were kids. We used to be able to go ride our bikes all over, skate, stay on the afterschool playground and play sports, etc. We didn’t have things like Nintendo, XBox, computers, etc. There’s a lot more sitting around with these sorts of activities.

Also, most moms stayed home, and most families were not single parent households. So, with moms staying at home, they had the time to cook meals. Nowadays, fast food is common. Back when I was a kid it was a rare treat. We only went to McDonalds once in a while – like once every 3 months. And the foods we are were in much smaller portions. There was no supersize this, and supersize that. Cupcakes and muffins were probably 1/2 the size they are today. I don’t know how the portion sizes grew so much! It’s easy to get adjusted to eating bigger portions, and a lot harder to go in reverse and eat smaller meals.

And then there’s the issue of why people eat. I think for many people they eat when they’re stressed or anxious. Today things seem to be so much more stressful. Geez, you can’t even go to the market or anywhere without your cell phone going off. We never had cell phones when I was a kid, actually I take that back…they were so large they filled a big box in the trunks of rich peoples cars!

I hope some of this helps. Probably the best thing you can do is to do stuff with your brother. Sports and stuff. And since he’s younger, give him a break and let him win once in a while. You know what I mean? ;o) Otherwise he’ll get discouraged and not want to play, and the goal is to get him more active so he burns off calories, gets stronger physically, and doesn’t have the time to be eating cookies while on the computer.

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