STUFF YOURSELF
“Interaction over food is the single most important feature of socializing,” says Sidney Mintz, professor of anthropology at Johns Hopkins University. “The food becomes the carriage that conveys feelings back and forth.”[i] I believe that what we eat is only one factor in the obesity epidemic that our children are inheriting. “By the time children go to middle school,” says anthropologist Marquisa LaVelle of the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, “many families have basically stopped eating together.“i So children by the time they are in middle school and are able to feed themselves had better have good eating habits. Our government has not made it any easier for families and schools to make healthy decisions. Speaking about the Farm Bill passed by Congress in 2007, Michael Pollan had this to say: “We would not need all these nutrition programs if the commodity title didn’t do such a good job making junk food and fast food so ubiquitous and cheap. Food stamps are crucial, surely, but they will be spent on processed rather than real food as long as the commodity title makes calories of fat and sugar the best deal in the supermarket.”[ii] How we socialize children about food and what it can and cannot do, what food is and what food is not, is at the root of passing on obesity to our children.
I would like to propose a program to be implemented in the public schools. I would call this program “STUFF YOURSELF!” or “Stuff It!” for short. Worldwide, a billion people are now overweight or obese, including 22 million children under the age of 5.In the United States, 64.5 percent of adults and 15 percent of children ages 6 to 19 are overweight.[iii] This is because they are not eating good food, nor are they absorbing useful information about that food and/or activity. For this program to be successful it needs a square meal approach. At the center of the meal is a safe school. Delivering this meal are trustworthy teachers. Also on the plate are balanced portions of Problem/Solution Identification and Goal Setting/Achievement Strategies. “Stuff Yourself” would emphasize what needs to be put into a growing mind and body.
“Obese children reported scores [on a quality of life survey] that were as bad as cancer patients in each and every domain of life,” says Jeffrey Schwimmer, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Diego. “We were surprised it was that bad.”[iv] Although we could argue about which came first, the obesity or the negative self image, we still have a health issue that must be addressed. Why are our children eating themselves to death and shortening their lives? According to Joanna Poppink, a Los Angeles therapist specializing in eating disorders “People don’t have eating disorders because of food. They binge, starve, compulsively eat and purge as a way of self medicating themselves. There are feelings they cannot bear to experience. Often they don’t even know this. But when they eat to the point of emotional numbness, starve to an ethereal high, fill themselves up and get rid of it through vomiting or laxatives or excessive exercise, they are fighting off a terrible despair.” [v] I believe that if we address the issues that drive the unhealthy habits we will see healthier, better developed children. Improve children’s lives and you improve their health.
I would use as my template for “Stuff Yourself!” the common sense found in Dieting for Dummies by Jane Kirby. She lays it out very simply. She encourages healthy food eaten in a healthy environment. Healthy food would be information about all food, not demonizing one type of food over another. Food phobias and stigmas are how we got unhealthy eating habits in the first place. Healthy environments would mean eating sitting down, and perhaps around a dinner table without a television going. Too often we don’t just eat. We watch television and eat or read and eat instead of eat with our friends and family while enjoying their company. She would request that parents and teachers be credible examples and to never use food as reward or punishment. Lastly she would ask that we listen to a child about how they are feeling.[vi] I would add in my program an emphasis on academics to complement the body portion. Stuff your head with knowledge and stuff your body with health and you’ll be a success.
Adults have to model better behavior. These children are attempting to solve a problem through food that cannot be addressed through eating. Children will learn from adults they trust in a safe environment in which tough feelings can be addressed. A child in this environment will plan for the future and set goals. With the support of family and teachers they can achieve anything. Although this might seem on the surface a fairly complex problem, a simple look at basic behavior around socialized eating offers some extremely simple solutions. Are we willing to implement them? The solution doesn’t require much money nor training programs to implement, but these concepts must be engrained in our children. Gently. Like we would want them delivered to ourselves, because that’s where we have to start, after all. After we get our fill of information and have changed ourselves, we will be ready to: STUFF OUR CHILDREN WITH EXCELLENCE!
[i]Time Magazine: Why We Eat; Kluger, Gorman and Park; June 07, 2004 from: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994388,00.html
[ii] New York Times: Weed it and Reap; Pollan, Michael, Novemeber 4, 2007. From: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04pollan.html?scp=10&sq=Michael%20Pollan&st=cse
[iii] New York Times: Why We Eat (and Eat and Eat); O’Grady, Denise; November 26, 2002 from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE1D81E39F935A15752C1A9649C8B63
[iv] Psychology Today: Sadness and Overeating; Lawson, Willow; May 30, 2003 from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030530-000001.html
[v] Joanna Poppink, M.F.C.C., licensed by the State of California in 1980, is a Marriage, Family, Child Counselor (License #15563) from: http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/eating/other/basics.html
[vi] Dieting for Dummies 2nd Edition; Kirby, Jane RD (2003) from the chapter: Honor Your Child’s Body
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