It Isn't All About What You Eat--Childhood Obesity
 

From the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:


"Air pollution can make your children fat.


That was just one of the more surprising findings of a decade-long public health study by Frederica Perera, an environmental health researcher at Columbia University and one of five winners of this year’s Heinz Awards.
Dr. Perera’s research tracked the pre- and post-natal health of 720 mother-child pairs in New York City.


"She found that in addition to causing infant mortality, low birth weight, allergies, asthma, slower brain development and respiratory illnesses, there is also a correlation between exposure to air pollutants and childhood obesity.


“Exposure to endocrine disruptors in the air can alter the normal hormonal signalling and affect growth and development, so there is a tendency for some children to become more obese," Dr. Perera said.


“We are concerned about pre-natal exposures because they can cause greater absorption and retention of toxics in the developing child,” she said. “Because such children have immature biological defenses against exposures, chronic diseases that affect someone later in life can be seeded.”


I am looking for a link to further information. But I'm interested to know it's not all about diet. Or genetics, or what one can do about reversing them.

I think it has a lot to do with the way technology has changed our lifestyles. When I was a child we ate meals at (basically) set times, helped with the dishes and then went out to play with our friends. We played street hockey, jumped rope, skated for hours up and down the street, rode our bikes to the store or for fun, raced each other up and down our small side street - at the same time we were expected to help with the house and yard work.

By comparison look at the difference in our grand children's lives. Eat whenever they see something they want, most households have both parents working so there is not too much supervision at home. In most homes the TV is on all day, the children have cell phones, ipads, computers, electronic toys. You rarely, if ever, see children out playing, climbing trees, running and jumping around. As for doing dishes, load the dish washer!

It is quite normal nowadays for us to have people mow our lawns and weed our yards, we pay someone to do our housework, we get pre-cooked foods for supper, our pantries are loaded with scrumptious snacks and we eat out or send out for food. I know from my own experience that my children pay to go to a gym to keep slim .............. unheard of in my day! But, times have changed and with it obesity. I am not saying one way is any better than the other, just a fact of life and I have no idea where it will all end.

Why does this not surprise me? I am happy to see that there is research being done on more fronts than the obvious. There has been so much change in our atmosphere and soil and so much pollution in the air and airwaves that affect our bodies, that it is no wonder that we are experiencing so many health challenges. It takes many generations to evolve a human system to handle these changes that have happened so quickly, in relative terms. "Progress" keeps outpacing our ability to cope. And we can't go backwards, in science.
Whether we understand it or not, we are all vibrating molecules that are affected by EVERYTHING and we need to stay mindful of ALL the influences and how they interact with us and with each other. It really is too much for me to get my head around for too long. So I just keep doing the best I can and reaching for my pretzels! But that's on another thread.

LW888

Here are some reasons why I (condescendingly) think kids are overweight.

They are no longer safe to go where they wish and play out of a caregivers observation.

They are more interested in techy things that they sit and play at then climbing and running and playing with other kids.

Their early eating habits are not monitored by someone who loves them and they are not ummm directed towards good things for them to eat by their parents because from infancy they are in day care. One disapproving parent is worth a platoon of excellent day care workers when it comes to influencing.

Hardly anyone cooks like they used to. Lot of easy things to prepare or buy are placed in front of kids these days.

There many other reasons why the children are having a difficult time.
Here is a snipit from a book recently published.

If our grandparents could walk through our super markets today, do you think they would wonder about the many boxes and cans lining the store shelves? I can just imagine my grandmother’s reaction as I explain what they contain. I would tell her that this is progress; but there is little good I could say beyond that. Processed foods today have so many additives, chemicals and preservatives that it is hard to keep abreast of the latest. Even if she could understand these additives to the foods, she would certainly ask “Why so many?”
The books title is " HIS Foods" and is available from Amazon.
Its filled with very useful information.

I agree with all of your reasons, although I would say that today's mom's have made strides in watching what they feed their babies and children until they get to the horrendous cafeterias choices at school. Strides have been made in educating mom's.

My point, though, is that there are some causes beyond our control regardless of diet and exercise and more education. There are those who feel diet and exercise are the answer to everything weight related. But it probably isn't as simple as that in many cases.

Smoking compared to air polution:
 

At first you may think this is unrelated or changing the subject but it's not.
Air pollution of course is bad and I have always maintained that to be at one's healthiest one needs to get as many things right as possible, including buckling up when driving and getting a good nights sleep. Everything counts for something.

To hint that some people think eating the right diet is all that counts is to misunderstand and mischaracterize. Those who are concerned about proper nutrition are usually concerned about ALL aspects of things that have an effect on one's health.

How does this relate to smokers? An observational study (The Okinawa Program) showed that elderly smokers in Okinawa were usually not as adversely affected by smoking as American smokers. They often maintained good health and longevity despite smoking. (This thread is about children not the elderly but the principle is the same, so hold on.) What was the difference? Why did smokers in Okinawa do better? The theory is that because they ate a diet high in antioxidants their system stayed clean or was kept clean.

When people are exposed to air pollution, a healthy diet becomes more important than ever for cell rebuilding and repair and to help eliminate toxins. To be exposed to air pollution together with a poor diet is to compound the problem and obesity may become more certain.

I almost forgot: Someone will always say it's genetic but that's wrong. Second generation Japanese-Americans have the same rates of degenerative diseases as the rest of the American population.

The intent of my posting the article is to point out that there is not a mega-cure for everything with diet. It doesn't seem to matter what diet you're on if air pollution is causing the obesity. Of course teaching children to eat right is an important component of raising a healthy child, but it is not the cure-all that some people propose it is. There are other factors that impact health, and preaching otherwise is a disservice.

We're not talking about "everything" and I'm not sure what you mean by "mega-cure". Your interpretation of what I said is that diet is a mega-cure for everything?

How do you know for sure that air pollution causes obesity? Dr. Perera stated that there is a correlation between air pollutants and childhood obesity. She tracked 720 mother-child pairs. Then she said "there is a tendency for some children to become more obese." It doesn't sound very definite to say "there is a tendency". Nothing was said about the study having a control group for comparison purposes.


If you want to maintain a civil discussion, I think it's counterproductive to keep using the word preaching. It's offensive. Suppose I took the opposite point of view that you are preaching about the evils of air pollution?

That's interesting. Thanks for citing the book title.

Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina must have terrible air pollution as these are the most obese states in the US, with Florida not far behind. Do you see a pattern developing here.

On the other hand, Colorado, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut have the lowest rates of obesity.

The air quality in The Villages must be awful.

Children... children!:1rotfl:

You can do that if you like. I stand by what I've said, even if I don't know how to take answers and split them into sentences and try to drag down every single sentence with sermon-like bullet points. And there is nothing different in Dr. Perera's approach than there is in the approaches of most of the books and studies you've talked about.

I could site many would-haves, should-haves, and likelys in your former posts. So why is it not okay all of a sudden?

It Isn't All About What You Eat--Childhood Obesity
 

Good for you to stand up for your opinion.

Most people do not want to be told what they should or shouldn't eat

Hugs Jeanne. You nailed it.

I usually enjoy a good debate but this one has gone on for years now.

Years.

AND yesterday I called a bunch of nice vegetarian's annoying. That isn't nice or fair. It's the harping by just ONE that grinds me down.

Gracie, For the periods of my life that I didn't eat meat, I always said: I'm not a vegetarian. I just don't eat meat. I didn't want to be associated with the preachy type or the over the wall type. There are good vegetarians and there are bad ones just like every other group. I've always heard there is nothing worse than a ex-smoker. Well, not so sure now.

Genetics does not have to do with the general overall health of a particular race of people.It has to do with the genes that you inherited from your parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on down the line.

Asian people do not all have the same genes.

While there are diseases that are more prevalent or less prevalent in some races than other's, that has nothing to do with genetics.

The fact that Africans are more prone to sickle cell anemia is not due to genetics. The fact that a person has blind hair and blues eyes and is predisposed to heart disease is due to genetics.