Fat is Out, Thin Healthy is In

Fat is Out, Thin Healthy is In

How does it feel to be called fat or obese? I’m guessing at this point you’re not really happy. Why would anybody be happy to be called fat or obese. Now, how does it feel to be living in one of the fattest countries in the world? According to www.Forbes.com we are the ninth fattest country in the world.

Childhood obesity is a growing problem and has been for the last 20 years. Childhood obesity This strikes me as a huge national epidemic. In 1997 the World Health Organization, or the WHO, formally recognized obesity as a global epidemic. According to an article written by Pam Belluck in the New York Times,” the rapid rise n childhood obesity, if left unchecked, could shorten life spans by as much as five years”(“Children’s Life Expectancy”). In the same article Belluck states that “obesity is already shortening average life spans by a greater rate than accidents, homicides and suicides combined”(“Children’s Life Expectancy”). Childhood obesity has several short term as well as long term effects such as: low self-esteem, diabetes, heart disease, gastrointestinal, endocrine or certain orthopedic problems. With obesity being such a growing problem, I believe it is everyone’s responsibility to step in and try to fix this issue. Being a chef, I love using the freshest ingredients, and trying to use what’s seasonal. My goal in life is eventually to open a catering business that also gives cooking lessons to families and kids, and teach families that cooking is fun and healthier. Cooking using fresh ingredients and getting away from processed foods is to me, the best way to conquer childhood obesity.

Your basic box of Kraft macaroni and cheese consists of ten ingredients that I can’t even pronounce, and something called cheese culture. When I think of macaroni and cheese, I think the three most important ingredients are milk, cheese, and pasta. The last two ingredients in Kraft macaroni and cheese are powdered milk and the cheese culture. Cheese culture is the yellow powder cheese product in the box of macaroni. In doing research on cheese culture, I could not find any ingredients as to what is in the powder. Everywhere I looked, the websites would tell me that Kraft keeps this one of their many corporate secrets. Cheese that has a shelf life of a few years, in my opinion, is not something I want to be eating.

How often do you randomly stick something into your mouth, not knowing anything about what you’re eating?  Everyday people are eating things that would make my dog cringe, and she licks her own butt. Processed foods are a staple in almost every household. Processed foods are not all necessarily bad for you. Several foods, like milk, are processed so that they are healthier for the public as a whole. But most processed foods contain a high number of food additives. The use of preservatives in food, which are added to sustain a longer shelf life, have been shown to cause severe health issues. Much of the processed food school cafeterias use to serve school lunches is processed because it is cheap to make and buy. I am not the only person who believes that school cafeterias need an overhaul. The most current campaign to change and reform school cafeterias is being lead by Jamie Oliver.

Jamie Oliver is a British chef who is trying to start a nation wide food revolution in the United States. His philosophy is that every child has the right to a healthy school lunch, which is full of unneeded sugars and chemicals. He is trying to urge the FDA to change their regulations on school lunches. The focus on school lunches has never had so much attention with new organizations and nation wide programs that intend to change the ways schools look at food.

In “Cultivating Failure” in the Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan talks about how schools that have introduced school gardens are actually ruining children and making them concentrate on other fields outside of reading, writing and arithmetic. After reading her article, you can tell she did a lot of research, but I argue with her expertise in children and students learning habits. I am an elementary education major and know the importance of challenging children’s minds with hands on activities and changing their surroundings. Students, especially young students, need different teaching styles because not all students learn the same. Some students are primarily auditory learners, some are visual, and some are didactic learners. Not only do you learn important lessons in horticulture, but science teachers also can talk about cellular growth, health teachers can talk about the nutritional value of fresh vegetables, and history teachers can teach about how we went from small local farms to huge mass producing farms.

My thought on fixing the obesity problem in America starts at home. Schools that are pushing for fresh, non-processed foods is a huge start to fixing the problem, but how many meals do children eat at home? A majority of meals that kids eat are eaten elsewhere. Parents need to start doing their part in fixing the obesity problem.  Parents need to get away from convenience and processed just to get some food on the table and learn that even a fresh healthy meal doesn’t take that much time to make. Parents alone can not fix the problem but with the help of schools showing the children how to eat fresh, children might actually make a great decision when it comes to eating junk or something healthy.

--Jeremy Martin