Feb
11
2011
Well, there it is my friends. The reports are finally out-over a half billion of us-that’s right us-the people and residents of planet Earth, are obese. And this represents a doubling since 1980. These studies, led by researcher Majid Ezzati of the Imperial College of London and Harvard University, were published recently in the Lancet journal. And you know what happens with 500 million people with obesity? You are right again-a rise in the secondary medical problems that result from the obesity like heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Can you imagine a rising population of people with heart problems and diabetes? Our medical system will be overloaded with new patients. Not to mention-seeing many young obese individuals that develop secondary problems earlier and prior to adulthood. It’s catastrophic. What can be done? Cutting portion sizes and increasing exercise will help. Our medical treatment for elevated blood pressure and high cholesterol is getting better. But that won’t stop the tidal wave of kids and adults that will develop these problems. Maybe we should all feel better that we can treat these secondary problems effectively. But we really need to focus on primary prevention. We need to start the nutrition and fitness education at an early- preschool age and continue this until adult hood. We need to teach our young generation of kids how to eat, what to eat that ...
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Feb
17
2010
Let’s all say, “finally!” Yes, it has happened. The White House, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are targeting the epidemic of childhood obesity. You read it here, in The Nerdel News, a statement by President Barack Obama forming a taskforce headed by Michelle, to “solve the problem of obesity among our Nation’s children within a generation.” As you all know, The Nerdel News and I have been way ahead of this issue as have many other nutrition and fitness experts. Increase in portion sizes, lack of substantial exercise, more availability of high fat, high carbohydrate and calorie dense foods to our younger folks, more devotion to technology and less to play time are just some of the problems. When schools say that exercise time is walking to the cafeteria, I have a problem with that. We all know the statistics-30 percent of our kids are either overweight or obese. These kids will grow up to be overweight, unhealthy adults if we don’t do something about it. So what can we do? A. Increase exercise time for our kids-make it mandatory in schools. B. Review the school lunch and breakfast programs for portion size and content- make them healthy! C. make an incentive program for parents to get their kids (and themselves) in shape-either tax credits or food credits. Why not! We gave money to banks and insurance companies ...
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Jan
06
2010
By Graehm Gray
Editor- In- Chief
I was surfing the news channels this past long New Year’s weekend and catching up on my huge stack of news papers and magazines and came across several stories about the Department of Education (DOE) in New York, banning bake sales in schools in an attempt to decrease obesity. At first, it seemed to make sense. I thought that there must be millions of kids eating cake and cookies at these sales. I read the entire memo issued June 29, 2009, in accordance with the polices and initiatives of the New York DOE’s Wellness Policy to “improve the quality and nutritional value of foods and beverages that are available for children.” New York, already one of the first states to display calorie and nutritional values of foods on sale to the public and in restaurants and eliminate trans fats, may be on the cutting edge with this latest move to blunt the obesity epidemic, an epidemic that has yet to have any viable solutions. Or are they?
Okay, so you “it’s my right to eat whatever I want, whenever I want” followers are already lining up to say this is yet another unconstitutional action. Aren’t bakes sales a part of our culture? Bakes sales raise money for good causes at County Fairs, religious centers and the Great American Bake Sale sponsored by the Share Our Strength ...
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