Generation Y Children Considered Fatter and Less Healthy
Teaching Tubbiness
Are schools finally seeing the light about heavy kids?
They call the last full generation of Americans to reach mature adulthood, those born between 1964 and 1981, Generation X. Although the name doesn’t really intuitively imply anything (unlike Baby Boomers, which connotes a specific trend in our country’s birth history), it’s supposed to signify the first generation under the Stars and Stripes that aren’t necessarily destined – for political or economic reasons – to be more prosperous than their parents.
After that came Generation Y, and to be quite candid with you, I have no idea what their claim to fame is, even though many of them are all legally adults now. I don’t know what the current crop of American youth will be called, but I do know what their generational identity will be: They’ll be the first generation to be not only fatter and less healthythan their parents, but fatter than the same generation in every other civilized country in the world.
Of course, this is because of what we’re TEACHING THEM TO EAT.
From the ludicrously carb-heavy Food Pyramid to the endless loop of soda-pop and candy commercials during Saturday morning cartoons to the drive-thru propensity of their parents, American kids these days don’t stand a chance of NOT being artery-clogged, diabetic blimps as adults. And with few exceptions, some of the worst nutritional guidance these kids get is at school.
But apparently, not all educators are blind to the fact that their young charges are getting fatter and less healthy by the year – in some districts, they’re trying to buck this trend. In the past, I’ve written about school systems in places like Philadelphia and New York that seem to be taking baby steps toward helping kids make smart dietary choices by doing things like outlawing candy machines or soda pop (Daily Dose, 3/4/04).
And now, I’m reading an Associated Press article about a Buffalo, N.Y. school district that in January will start offering kids small rewards like bracelets or key chains for making wise food choices. This sounds encouraging, even though the article doesn’t really define what those “healthy” choices are. This worries me a bit, as I’d like to see kids eating more meats, full-fat dairy products, and healthy fruits (not sugary grapes or oranges). And what do school dieticians know about nutrition anyway? They were all taught the revered (and now defunct) food pyramid!
But I guess just about anything’s better than the pizza, lasagna, macaroni and cheese, desserts, candy machines, Coke machines, and on and on these kids are typically surrounded by.
If I could write the script, though, I’d have more schools doing what one brave principal in Connecticut did recently
Let them eat cake – NO!
When you think of gutsy school principals, you most likely think of inner-city schools in poor neighborhoods, where educators roll up their sleeves to fight drugs and crime by both force and example.
But according to a recent AP article, one Connecticut school principal is suffering the wrath of not only students, but teachers and parents – even the Mayor – for his “tough love” stance. What’s he cracking down on, you’re asking? Weapons and drugs? Is it rap music? Cell phones? Improper dress? Nope
It’s cupcakes.
In a move to try and do his part to curb childhood obesity, Meadowside Elementary Principal Robert Davis has come under fire for banning cupcakes and other baked goods – both those sold in school and those brought to class by kids celebrating each other’s birthdays. Instead, the educator has substituted games and crafts for the confections.
But parents in the district have complained about the Draconian measure – at least one irate father calling the school’s officials the “fat police.” He maintains that such treats should be allowed in school for special events.
Apparently, there’s been enough of an uproar to get the town’s Mayor involved, according to the article. Of course, he straddled the fence, saying he sympathizes with the school’s attempts to guide kids to healthier eating habits, but that cupcakes should remain.
And we wonder why our kids are getting fatter?
Defending Principals AND principles,
William Campbell Douglass MD, II
