The Fat of the Land
So, what do you think about being fat?
It’s in the news all the time lately. By the way, the next time someone tells you that all Utahns are fat, you might want to remind them that Utah is the ninth slimmest state in the Union according to the Center for Disease Control.
Anyway, the New York Times just had a huge article in it’s weekly magazine about school lunches and obesity in kids. There are schools in San Francisco where the kids eat only organic foods and grow their own gardens during class time so that they’ll feel connected to the earth. It probably is a good idea, but doesn’t it have that touchy-feely, typical California over-reaction thing going on?
Organic is a big issue but also low fat. The kids in my Sunday School class are of the opinion that they would eat school lunch if it was nutritious, a salad bar, for example. At least they were enthusiastic for a minute, and then they remembered that it was geeky to eat school lunch and changed their minds. Therein lies one problem—geekiness. Eating lunch at school has always been the territory of the band kids. Of course, these are seniors who have a low tolerance for geeky—getting in your car and driving away for lunch is cooler. But so is being slim—Taco Bell notwithstanding.
One extensive program has taken the foods currently served in schools, those already packaged, only-need-to-be-preheated foods ordered each school year for the next year’s menu, and tried to work with those. Apparently it’s hard to even order low-fat foods in this category. But these people lobbied and worked and figured out menus that were as well rounded as they could get them, BUT, still, in the one program that’s been evaluated these kids didn’t actually lose weight either!
I think they didn’t because I think the reason those kids are fat is that their moms are afraid to send them outside to play and they don’t have time to take them themselves because they’re working to be able to afford their one bedroom apartment. One of the most interesting things about the CDC rankings is that people with lower incomes rank higher in weight everywhere. The poorer states ranked as fatter. That’s probably one reason Utah ranks so low, because for the most part, our state is economically stable. Maybe we don’t have the highest paying jobs in the country, but we have lots of jobs and not too many layoffs.
Isn’t it interesting that the lower your income, the more likely you are to be overweight? It’s sort of the opposite of what you think would be true, and somewhat a sign of our times. One of our kids worked for a year with mentally ill out patients living in Tooele. They were all on a very fixed, very low income yet almost all of them smoked and had cable TV. TV gave them something to do and smoking gave them a connection with the cool people they saw on TV.
It’s important to try and take care of ourselves and maintain our good health. I, in fact, have just joined Weight Watchers because I’m hoping that paying the money will make me feel guilty and help me through the five o’clock hour when I have no dinner made. But I also wish we could change our society so that people felt safe and connected with being who they are, where everyone had the time and means to eat nutritiously and exercise a little outside without worrying about being mugged.
I guess Miss Universe and me have that in common. All we want is, “World Peace, Bob.”
It’s in the news all the time lately. By the way, the next time someone tells you that all Utahns are fat, you might want to remind them that Utah is the ninth slimmest state in the Union according to the Center for Disease Control.
Anyway, the New York Times just had a huge article in it’s weekly magazine about school lunches and obesity in kids. There are schools in San Francisco where the kids eat only organic foods and grow their own gardens during class time so that they’ll feel connected to the earth. It probably is a good idea, but doesn’t it have that touchy-feely, typical California over-reaction thing going on?
Organic is a big issue but also low fat. The kids in my Sunday School class are of the opinion that they would eat school lunch if it was nutritious, a salad bar, for example. At least they were enthusiastic for a minute, and then they remembered that it was geeky to eat school lunch and changed their minds. Therein lies one problem—geekiness. Eating lunch at school has always been the territory of the band kids. Of course, these are seniors who have a low tolerance for geeky—getting in your car and driving away for lunch is cooler. But so is being slim—Taco Bell notwithstanding.
One extensive program has taken the foods currently served in schools, those already packaged, only-need-to-be-preheated foods ordered each school year for the next year’s menu, and tried to work with those. Apparently it’s hard to even order low-fat foods in this category. But these people lobbied and worked and figured out menus that were as well rounded as they could get them, BUT, still, in the one program that’s been evaluated these kids didn’t actually lose weight either!
I think they didn’t because I think the reason those kids are fat is that their moms are afraid to send them outside to play and they don’t have time to take them themselves because they’re working to be able to afford their one bedroom apartment. One of the most interesting things about the CDC rankings is that people with lower incomes rank higher in weight everywhere. The poorer states ranked as fatter. That’s probably one reason Utah ranks so low, because for the most part, our state is economically stable. Maybe we don’t have the highest paying jobs in the country, but we have lots of jobs and not too many layoffs.
Isn’t it interesting that the lower your income, the more likely you are to be overweight? It’s sort of the opposite of what you think would be true, and somewhat a sign of our times. One of our kids worked for a year with mentally ill out patients living in Tooele. They were all on a very fixed, very low income yet almost all of them smoked and had cable TV. TV gave them something to do and smoking gave them a connection with the cool people they saw on TV.
It’s important to try and take care of ourselves and maintain our good health. I, in fact, have just joined Weight Watchers because I’m hoping that paying the money will make me feel guilty and help me through the five o’clock hour when I have no dinner made. But I also wish we could change our society so that people felt safe and connected with being who they are, where everyone had the time and means to eat nutritiously and exercise a little outside without worrying about being mugged.
I guess Miss Universe and me have that in common. All we want is, “World Peace, Bob.”
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