WASHINGTON — The White House, led by Michelle Obama, announced a sweeping initiative on Tuesday aimed at revamping the way American children eat and play — reshaping school lunches, playgrounds and even medical checkups — with the goal of eliminating childhood obesity within a generation.
The “Let’s Move” campaign, nearly a year in the making, is Mrs. Obama’s official debut in a high-profile policy role, and she has already lined up an array of partners in government, medicine, science, business, education and athletics who are pledging to work together to get children off their couches and consuming fresher, healthier food.
Sounds really good, doesn't it? I mean, what could possibly be wrong with a push for healthier kids, right? I mean, letting your child eat so much they balloon up and become overweight is a recipe for disaster, opening them up to increased risk for cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Except for one slight issue: The metrics are flawed. They're using BMI only to determine whether kids are fit or fat, and result in outcomes like this:
According to the BMI index, she's overweight.
You tell me on what planet that's considered overweight. If anything, my little girl could use a sandwich or two still; a consequence of being a picky eater who does not get special dinners cooked for her (she eats what we eat or she goes hungry; that was the rule in my house growing up and I managed to survive to adulthood). Yet according to the BMI index sent home by the school nurse (in accordance with state law IIRC), she's considered overweight.
Great. What we really need in this country is a mandatory program by which children's body image will be judged by a flawed metric, resulting in kids being unfairly tagged as "overweight" when they are clearly not. Any bets on whether the truly at-risk kids - the ones that weigh more than the teachers - will get similar notices? Or will they be classified separately, as kids who have "eating disorders" so that the schools can hire "food management counselors"?
All I know is that I'll be damned before my little girl thinks that there's anything wrong with her weight...
That is all.
13 comments:
Anybody with any sense knew that the BMI scale was screwed up beyond repair when it started saying that NBA players are overweight.
The army uses the same metric... when I went through MEPS they told me I was borderline obese; I'm 5'7" and at the time weighed 171 with visible stomach muscles from a collegiate career on the crew team.
As if a guy that rowed for 4 years at the NCAA level is obese!
Totally agree.
Both my girls are "overweight" based on BMI too. The reason is they're MUSCULAR. They both swim and do Little Athletics as well as cycling and horse riding.
I totally support efforts to get kids moving and eating healthy food - but um, hey, isn't that the job of PARENTS????
Jay,
I'll be the cynic here . . . there's another (unstated) reason why The First Lady is heading up this campaign . . . control. This is just another means to have the tentacles of Obamunism grasp control over another aspect of our lives. F*cking Obamunists pigs.
- Brad
Not to mention McDonald's has deep pockets.
Think "tobacco company billion$" here...
The precedent was set back in the Clinton administration - if we can't outright make what you sell illegal, we're going to tax or otherwise harass your business to the point of extinction.
They'll be more than happy to go after fatty foods with the same zeal they went after cigarettes...
I'm thinking Michelle Obama would be considered overweight according to the BMI scale ..
I swear I remember BMI getting publicly discredited when the Wii Fit started calling kids fat all the time. Did the entire public just forget that whole thing?
I figured out that BMI was a crock way back in middle school, when I was told by the school I was overweight ("obese" wasn't in common usage then) even though I was the thinnest kid in my class and was constantly ridiculed by the other kids for being too skinny.
It seems like most generic metrics they use are disconnected with reality. The height/weight tables are a good example. It seems like 99% of the time I look at those for someone, the weight is says they should be for their height would actually be too low to be healthy for the actual person. Really, to determine a person's healthy weight, you need to look at the specific person - height, weight, bone structure, activity level and type (someone who lifts weights regularly can be healthy at a higher weight than someone with the exact same build who does aerobics, or someone who is sedentary). None of these nationwide guidelines account for any activity or muscle density factors, so none of them can be truly useful, and they have great potential to be emotionally and psychologically damaging because they are not appropriate for everyone (or even for most people, it seems).
No shit! There was a writeup in the latest Sports Illustrated about Lindsey Vonn, the Olympic skier. A highly trained athlete, who if you do the BMI index thing on her height and weight is OBESE. BMI=bowell movement info.
But, but, but ......
It's a threat to National Security!
BabyGirl G is a threat to National Security. Oh yeah, so are little Reputo 1, 2, 3, and 4 but that has nothing to do with their explosives making abilities, I swear.
And for the 20th time, my name is not Muhammed!
The BMI index was created using the average weight of Europeans back in the the early to mid 1800s. People were a LOT smaller back then, due to poorer nutrition. They weren't as tall or as muscular as people are today. As a result, the BMI index is completely flawed.
A better measure is body fat percentage, but apparently going with that takes too much effort.
I believe that I read somewhere taht the BMI formula actually came about in much teh same way as the infamous "hockey-stick" temperature graph. That is it was created to produce a specific outcome.
Family friend was complaining about the same thing. Her daughter is 12/13 (I forget, but Mom will soon be needing a shotgun methinks) and tall and thin. And she got the "Your Daughter is Obese" letter from school.
Mom even let me pick her up (she's all of 5'3", and very slender, but DAMN Mom and daughter are both VERY densely built) I think Mom said she was about 120, which I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't picked her up.
Back when I was working on the salmon farm, I was working long hours of hard physical labor. Didn't have a lunch break, so I'd just get a spare 10 mins to bolt down a sandwich which would keep me going. I'd be too tired when I got home to eat more than a simple meal. I had washboard abs, and kickass popeye forearms, and very little jiggle on my frame. I'm 6'0", and I tipped the scales back then at 175. According to the BMI, that's JUST on the healthy side. A little more weight and I'd be "Overweight".
That whole system is 100% Bravo Sierra!
If someone is stupid enough to say Babygirl G is "obese", let me know. I have brothers and sisters all over that will swear you were with them all that week... ;)
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