Fit 4 Fun Fitness WorkNotes Update Fat Facts and Fables

Update Fat Facts and Fables (Instructions)

Fat Facts, Future, Fiction, Fantasy, and Fables

This summer I had the opportunity to teach summer school for the 
fifth time.  It is always rewarding to see students over the past summers.  
I get excited to see these young men and women become more mature and 
eventually taller than me!  This summer however, brought something 
different.  Children came to visit me not just taller, but much heavier than 
the summer before.  Some of the eight- and nine-year-olds looked more like 
teenagers and many of them were even bigger than me.  This change concerned 
me.
	Obesity is a disease that has spread like wildfire throughout our 
society.  In 1977, the national average caloric intake was 3300 calories a 
day.  It has skyrocketed to include 500 more calories a day in just the last 
twenty years.  A typical fast food meal at Mc Donald’s has more than tripled 
in total calories.  A serving of fries alone has nearly doubled in their 
total caloric intake for a meal.  Meals eaten away from home have gone up 
20% in the last twenty years.  Sweets and desserts make up 25% of Americans’ 
diets.  Salt and fruit-flavored drinks make up another 5% of all the 
calories consumed in the U.S.  Fast food consumption of fat has become an 
acceptable social activity. 
	The number of new food choices that are not healthy has grown at an 
enormous rate.  Since the 1970’s, condiments climbed to include two thousand 
more choices and bakery foods now include one thousand more items. Fruit and 
vegetable choices have only grown to 250 more options. A typical fast food 
meal is 1600 calories.  That is 80% of adult’s caloric intake for one day.  
Junk food is one third of the United States diet.  The arches of McDonalds 
and Ronald McDonald are more familiar icons than the Christian cross. 
	In 2000, Americans spent 100 million dollars on fast food.  More 
money is spent on fast food than on higher education, computers, movies, 
periodicals, and music.  The typical American purchases 90% of the annual 
thirty pounds of French fries from fast food restaurants.  Health problems 
arising from health problems cost twice as much as the costs for the total 
fast food industry.
	High fructose syrup was invented because of the national food 
shortage in the early 1970’s.  Soda manufactures quickly joined those using 
the syrup since replacing sugar with the syrup saved them nearly 20% of 
their profits.  Palm oil, a saturated fat, was a product manufactured in the 
1970’s to also combat the crisis.  This saturated fat made food last longer, 
could be grown year round, and was inexpensive to manufacture.  Weight gain 
has been contributed to high fructose drinks and saturated fat.  These 
synthetic ingredients originally created to combat the food crisis have 
contributed the obesity of Americans.  
 	Another problem with obesity is that it has become an acceptable 
disease in our society.  Children in particular have been gravely affected 
by this behavior and attitude.  Terms for clothing changed in the early 
1990’s:. Levi’s were replaced by the easy fitting, loose and baggy jeans; 
sizes became inflated.  	Socioeconomic levels of obesity changed as 
well.  The richest of the 1970’s were the most overweight.  In the 21st 
century, this statistic has flipped and now the lowest economic population 
has the highest rate of obesity. 
	In 1992, 24% of the newest diabetes two cases were children.  It has 
almost doubled to 45% in 1999.  One in ten healthcare visits is for 
diabetes.  Children also suffer from an increase in other health issues 
relating to obesity like sleep apnea, hypertension, and arthritis of the 
knee and sight problems.  Skin problems in skin folds are another problem 
overweight children encounter.  Fifteen percent of all children ages 6-19 
are overweight and that figure has tripled in the last thirty years.  
Furthermore, 70-80% of overweight children become overweight adults.  Obese 
parents are 60-70% more likely to have obese children.  Parents who are not 
overweight have a 70% chance of helping their children avoid obesity.  
Trainers and teachers must turn the tide and encourage good health.  
	What can teachers and personal trainers do to turn the tide of 
obesity?  First, they must model a healthy lifestyle.  If you expect kids to 
eat healthy, you must do it yourself.  They must integrate healthy habits 
into the classroom or the physical education setting.  This can be done in a 
variety of ways.  Leaders must show how to live a healthy lifestyle by 
giving children practical ways to integrate exercise in their daily lives 
and demonstrate the way to eat right.  Nutritionists are wonderful guests 
who can provide tips for living and eating right.  Many grocery stores offer 
tours complete with registered dieticians.  If children are overweight, 
intense education is necessary.  Students who learned through positive 
nutrition education to follow good eating habits between the ages of 6-12 
were less overweight just ten years later.  Teach children to divide foods 
into green, yellow, and red colors.  Food labeled green, vegetables and 
fruits, may be eaten in any amount.  Yellow foods, complex carbohydrates 
such as potatoes and pasta, may be eaten in moderation.  Red light foods, 
sugary and fatty foods, provide only empty calories and should be kept to a 
minimum.   
	Children and adults should take responsibility for how much they 
exercise and what types of food they eat.  Children must be taught to eat 
only when they are hungry and not to use food as a comfort or reward.  
Encourage children and their parents to have small meals every four hours, 
make eating times enjoyable, and not eat in front of the television.  
Discuss the pyramid and healthy snacks. 
	The cafeteria must be freed from poor food choices.  When teachers 
notice the garbage on the menu or the availability of vending machines, they 
should express their feelings about these poor food choices.  School 
cafeterias can offer discounts on fruits and vegetables as healthier food 
alternatives.  One high school in Minnesota did that and they saw an 
increase of 400% in their sales of healthy alternatives.  Vending machines 
should replace fatty and sugary drinks with healthier food; students will 
eventually stop buying junk and will choose healthier alternatives.  
Students must be offered healthy snacks frequently—as often as two or three 
times a day.  
	Students must have active activities instead of mindless exposure to 
the television.  Currently, children watch an average of 26 hours a week or 
one month of television every year.  It was found 17% of weight problems, 
15% of raised blood cholesterol, 17% of smoking, and 15% of poor 
cardiovascular fitness could be linked to excessive TV viewing.  In 
childhood and adolescence, the typical American child spends more time 
watching TV than any other activity except sleep outside of school.  
Children, who watch less than an hour of television a day, typically have 
the lowest BMI.  
	Teachers and trainers must fight for daily recess and physical 
education.  Every child must have a minimum of 60 minutes of exercise 
everyday since only 10% of all children walk to school.  Some easy ideas for 
adding moderate exercise include playing tag, dance, jump rope, riding a 
bike, roller skating, or taking part in an after-school or community 
physical education program.   Small changes can result in big changes for 
our youth of tomorrow.
	
References

Critser, Greg.  Fat land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the 
World, Boston: Houghlin Mifflin Co., 2003.

Cutting Kid’s TV  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3896093.stm

Freedman, Marjorie and Nikita Katz.  Wide Bodies: Children, Obesity and 
Diabetes. Arizona: Institute for Natural Resources, 2003.

Henneberry, Laurie. Helping Kids Reach Their Personal Best. n.l.: Hope 
Children’s Hospital, 2004.

“School for Obese to open up in California.” Health News 29 Jun. 2004.

“Refined Sugar and its Effect on Appetite.” Health Science E-Alert 22 Jun. 
2004.

Investigation Reports the Super Size Generation. A&E, New York. 2001.

Study Links Tantrums and Child Obesity. NBC5. 11 July 2004 
<http://www.nbc5.com>.

Nelson, Sandra. “Students Need More Physical Education.” Sun News 11 Jun., 
2004.

Obesity and Children: Helping Your Child Keep a Healthy Weight 
http://familydoctor.org/344.xml

“Junk Food One-Third of U.S. Diet, Study Finds.” Reuters Health 2 Jun. 2004.

Norton, Amy. “School Nutrition Programs Can Work.” Reuter’s Health. 23 Dec. 
2003.

Patton, Jeanie. Training the Elementary School Child.  Ft. Lauderdale: 
Exercise ETC, 2004.

Patton, Jeanie. Training the Middle School Child. Ft. Lauderdale: Exercise 
ETC, 2004.

Patton, Jeanie. Understanding Children and Adolescents. Ft. Lauderdale: 
Exercise ETC, 2004.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Random House, 2001.

Stringer, Heather. “Super Sized Kids”. Nursing Week 30 Jun. 2004.

Ten Ways to Teach Kid’s Effective Exercise
http://www.acefitness.org/updateable/update_display.cfm?pageID=405

<table width="234" border="1">
  <tr>
    <td><div align="center">Reduce your <a 
href="http://www.healthline.com/channel/heart-disease.html">risk of heart 
disease</a> by <a 
href="http://www.benefitsof.info/benefits-of-exercise.php">exercising</a> and 
a <a href="http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/diet">healthy 
diet</a>. This is the key to a <a 
href="http://healthlink.mcw.edu/heart-disease/index.html">healthy heart</a>. 
</div></td>
  </tr>
</table>

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Fit 4 Fun Fitness

Update Fat Facts and Fables (Instructions)

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