Our Kids Are Too Fat!! by Rambling Raven

 I was an active kid. My friends and I often played for hours outdoors. We engaged ourselves in such activities as: Hide-n-Seek, Hopscotch, and Double-dutch (I couldn’t jump or turn but I tried my best every time), and Follow the Leader. We raced one another on foot or with our big wheels, skateboards and bikes. We were even creative, as most children are, and created our own games to play, especially when the weather was too inclement to go outside. As children we were also heavy junk food eaters. My sweet tooth was notorious and I paid for it with many visits to the dentist. And I must admit that no one could cook like my grandmother, who spoiled me with rich homemade southern dishes. Every kid I knew back then had either a southern cook for a grandmother or a mother who was just as handy around the kitchen and we ate good hearty meals.

With all the junk and southern food, I don’t recall too many overweight or obese children. We were all healthy looking children but we were not physically out of shape. I didn’t have to deal with that issue until I became an adult and realized that I couldn’t continue to eat the way I did as a kid. And over the last decade of so I have been fighting the battle of the bulge, sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t. Now, as an educator I am shocked to see numerous children who can not walk up a few flight of stairs without becoming winded. Every school year I have children who bring back physicals where the doctors have classified them as overweight or obese. I even know of a fourth grader who has high blood pressure. What are we doing to our children?

I know that kids are no longer as active as they once were. The most physical activity many get is in a gym class, and with budget cuts that may be only once a week. Children are geared towards being coach potatoes these days. They are targeted by video game makers, online social networks and television. Not to mention the millions of dollars the food industry spends to entice our children with slick ads for processed sugary foods.

I often look at many of the extremely overweight children I come in contact with on a daily basis and wonder where the nutrients were. When I speak to my students regarding nutrition most don’t know anything about healthy choices. I learned that many don’t eat fresh vegetables and fruit daily and soda pop is often drunk more than water. Many of my students are often given money to go to the local fast food restaurants at least twice a week. Few children I see are involved in a sport or any physical activity at all outside of school. A typical day usually consists of school and home where they are allowed to zone out in front of the television for hours. The sad fact is that the parents of these students are often as overweight as the children.

How do we get our children back to a healthy state? They have developed habits that will cut their lives short or at the very least will lead to a life riddled with diseases. Education is the key but children don’t often make these choices alone. Parents are often as ill informed about nutrition as the children are. The Black community is ravaged by heart diseases and diabetes. How do we turn this around? Eating healthy is often considered a pricey way to eat but we spend a lot of money on our children’s sneakers and game systems. Why can’t we sink some of that money into healthier food choices? In the end the price of our children’s health outweighs the monetary sacrifices. If we don’t  change habit now the cost of health will be must greater in the end.

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