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School Children Are Now Too Fat to Fit In Class Chairs
A recent survey of 750 Australian schools has revealed that on average children have grown too large for their chairs and desks. From the article: "The Education Department said schools were running healthy eating programs. 'The department takes the issue of childhood obesity seriously and works with a number of agencies to address the issue,' a spokesman said. 'We have a number of initiatives to support school communities as well as promote healthy eating.' He said parents needed to enforce the message about healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle at home."
More like Double Stuff.
What, all of them?
No, just some of them. And when I was that young, we had kids too fat for the desks, too.
And that article even admits they were teaching class for 5th and 6th grades in desks made for 3rd graders.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Glad they are fixing the real problem by ordering some chunky desks.
activestudios web design
"We have a number of initiatives to support school communities". Looks like they'll need some more if they want to support these students weighty dilemma.
activestudios web design
We should send some of our used desks from American schools to them, now that our larger ones have arrived.
For conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it
Have you considered buying your groceries at a grocery store?
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
Who ate all the pies?
Who ate all the pies?
You fat bastard!
You fat bastard!
You ate all the pies!
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Previous story: Aussie Kids Foil Finger Scanner With Gummi Bears
This story: [Australian] School Children Are Now Too Fat to Fit In Class Chairs
Coming up: Australian Kids Fingers Too Fat to Fit In Class Scanners
Probably from all those Gummi Bears.
You're not looking hard enough.
Cheap crap that makes them money and makes you sick will be pushed in front of your face.
Healthy stuff that doesn't make anyone a ton of money will be hidden behind the crap.
Go shop at Trader Joe's or Wild By Nature or Whole Foods or a farmer's market.
Hint: If there is a McDonald's under the same roof you are in the wrong place.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Physical activity (i.e. not just playing in computer/cellphone or watching tv) is an important factor... and they are in te right place to promote or enforce them.
It seems, and this is my opinion, that high frucose corn syrup and other "sweeteners" they use these days are more the problem. We need to get back to putting sugar in our junk food.
While it's up to us to monitor what we and our kids (if it applies to you) eat, but it's pretty hard to avoid HFCS in stuff, since it's in almost everything that used to have sugar in it.
Of course, the companies that use it don't care, since it's cheaper then sugar, and since they are corporations and only care about squeezing every extra profit they can.
So, we need to not only monitor what we are eating, we need to hold the companies accountable for the crap they are using in their products also.
Of course, that will never happen until after the revolution...
Be seeing you...
Um, there are a lot of quite successful selling breakfast cereals that are just fine as far as "healthy" goes. For example, Wheat Chex.
Sure, it's not uber-whole-grain-all-natural-extra-fiber, but there's nothing wrong with it. And, you can get store-brand equivalents that are cheaper and pretty much exactly the same.
Half the battle with weight is realizing that dieting isn't something that is prescribed to be applied only for the duration while you're obese. Most people (often myself included) hear the word diet and immediately think of it as being something of a temporary nature. "Oh, I'm currently on a diet." "I need to diet for X." The cultural definition of "dieting" is, well, wrong. The word diet comes from the Greek word diaita which means "a way of life" or "a way of living".
Food dieting must be permanent, or else it is doomed to failure as soon as it is believed to be no longer necessary. The problem comes in by the fact that, due to the cultural misnomer of "dieting", diets are used and advertised as a temporary fix. "Diet for X period of time, then you'll be fine" and thus are by their nature/design not sustainable. Who can eat Jenny Craig food for the rest of their life (diaita)?
What is needed, and what doctors/scientists are realizing, is that the obesity epidemic requires an entirely different relationship with food for the rest of your life. You have to change your relationship with food in a way that is still enjoyable to you for it to be sustainable and healthy.
For my house, this means things like the following:
* Meals themselves are balanced. Less meat, decent-sized portions, more greens, etc.
* Junk food (chips, cookies, ice cream, soda, snacks, etc.) are treated as luxury items. We never go to the store and allow ourselves to say, "Oh, we're out of [JUNK_FOOD_ITEM]. Let's get some more." Instead was ask, "When was the last time we had X. It's been a while, so let's get some."
* We eat when we're hungry. In between meal snacks are at a minimum. And for our kids, we enforce the, "Well, if you're hungry you should have eaten more during the previous meal. You'll have to wait for the next meal."
There's a lot of good research in the last few years around obesity as we're understanding brains and genetics more that shows that it is better treated as an addiction rather than a disease (google David Kessler; former FDA commisioner).
Faith is a willingness to accept something w/o complete proof and to act on it. Reason allows you to correct that faith.
A Princeton study found some evidence. Here's an article about it:
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/91/22K07/
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
Doesn't make anyone but Trader Joe's or Wild By Nature or Whole Foods a ton of money, you mean.
I don't know if the situation is the same as in the United States, but it could be a matter of accessibility. Not everyone has even a regular grocery store close enough to them. A convenience store may be it. That often means they have a very poor selection of healthy foods available, and it's cheaper to buy the unhealthy stuff. Just what are you supposed to do if you don't have a car, the bus doesn't pass near a grocery store, and it's too many miles to walk while carrying groceries home. I know that happens in inner cities in the United States. Not sure about Australia.
That said, lots of kids could use to get outside more to just play.
Australia needs Rowdy Roddy Piper!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwJJ3yBsvAw
For now...
Nothing wrong with it? That is the nutritional equivalent of two tablespoons of sugar, with a tiny bit of incomplete protein mixed in. How is that in any way healthy?
Doing a bit of quick research I found:
Considerations
Wheat Chex contain 5 g of sugar per serving, which is equivalent to about 1.2 tsp. The American Heart Association recommends consuming just 6 tsp. of added sugar daily if you are a woman and 9 if you are a man. The sugars in Wheat Chex come from sugar, which is the second ingredient, and molasses, which is the fourth ingredient. The wheat variety of Chex is not gluten-free. The corn, rice, honey-nut, chocolate and cinnamon versions are, however.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/277650-wheat-chex-cereal-nutrition-information/#ixzz13h64D000
here. That's 5g per 38g serving. I'd bet that a lot of people eating it because it's a "healthy option" put a bit of sugar on the top as well. Where I live we have cereals packed with sugar all the way over to cereals with plain old wheat and nothing added at all.
Of course, I don't believe that the US has no popular options for a plain, boring, tamper free cereal but you really do have to read the labels, whatever you buy.
If by "healthy" you mean the crap that's marketed as "organic", then you have the situation completely reversed. Marking your food "organic" is the newest way to make ass-loads of money without making any significant changes to the way you do business.
News for Nerds, Size does Matter!
Seriously, as someone who has kept relatively healthy over the years it astonishes me how some people let themselves go. I'm not talking about the guy who weighs 200-300 lbs that can still walk up stairs without collapse but people in their 20's and 30's on obesity scooters and toilets for people who weigh up to 2000 lbs.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Replace the chairs with treadmills.
The Internet has given stupid people the resources of intelligent people.
or is it an abrogation of parental responsibility?
The new right fascists are bilingual. They speak English and Bullshit.
Please, someone help me out with this. From TFA
So they aren't fat but risked weight problems. Where does the weight (and weight problems) comes from if they aren't fat?
And what the heck means "looking older than their age" and how's that a problem?!
You don't know what you don't know.
Wheat Chex contain 5 g of sugar per serving, which is equivalent to about 1.2 tsp.
That math seems so wrong, since 5 grams is less than 1/5 (specifically, 0.176) of a ounce. I can't believe that a singe ounce of sugar is 6.8 tsp, or more than 2 tablespoons.
However, I've been wrong before...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Australia is a federation and education is a state power, so it would be rather useful to specify in the summary which Department of Education, given that there are 9 of them (one for each state and territory and the federal government). The article clearly states that it's the NSW Department.
I did not find the school chars very uncomfortable but they did not really fit. The only problem I had with size was with the bus seats, so little leg room, it was actually painful.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Hopefully one of them will jump at the opportunity of actually PANTENTING their absurdity, thus lowering the number of idiots spreading BS around the world.
One can dream...
That math seems so wrong, since 5 grams is less than 1/5 (specifically, 0.176) of a ounce. I can't believe that a singe ounce of sugar is 6.8 tsp, or more than 2 tablespoons.
However, I've been wrong before...
Because I was curious, I measured, and 1 tablespoon of ordinary sugar weighs about 12 grams.
Which is 1/2 ounce, and also means that a tsp = 4g.
I bow to physical reality...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I can't help but wonder if this is related to the previous idle story about Australian schoolchildren defeating fingerprint readers with gummy bears. Perhaps the circumvention wasn't intentional, but merely residue off these fatties' fingers...
I am not trying to be intentionally argumentative, but people worry much too much about weight. Us fatties will live the longest and have the best chance of surviving the upcoming global famine. People overeat because it is instinctual, and ensures the best chance of survival.
I know plenty of 'fit' people who are withing their BMI, yet can't seem to do a push up. Friggin David Letterman, had a quintuple bypass surgery, and he is skinny as f&*, and jogs all the time.
Everyone is going to die, so why worry. Just buy bigger chairs.
The accessibility issue is why I'm volunteering here (in Pittsburgh) with a nonprofit agency that includes an urban ag initiative. I work at the "farm" (a reclaimed baseball field) every week, and there's a farmer's market that's paired with the local food bank for greater selection than we can produce (trucked in from local farmers), and the ability to take food stamps and WIC. The project is still in its infancy and doesn't get many customers, but we're in an area where the nearest "grocery store" that isn't a corner booze and cig place is at least 5 miles away down the highway; not a good walk by any means, so we're hoping word spreads that there are veggies to be had closer to home.
We're in a "food desert", and the people here show it. Surprisingly, there are no gardens except the ones started by the ag project (I suspect people here are so worn down they think a garden would be too much effort). When we moved into our home here the yard was full of snack wrappers (twinkies, chocolate chip "granola" bars) that I assume were tossed by the prior resident's kids, but there wasn't a single orange peel or apple core on the lot. In one of our cupboards we found a crumpled McDonald's bag. The kitchen was coated with grease (literally - I had to soak the cupboard doors and shelves in industrial de-greaser!), and I had to clean the phone number for Pizza Hut off the wall in the living room.
If any of this surprises you, you don't realize how poorly most Americans eat, especially when they are living in an area that is both low-income and far from any walkable grocery stores. Pizza hut costs more than I'd ever pay for regular meals, but if they deliver and the other choices are walking five miles to the nearest store (and doing so while trying to find free childcare and/or taking your kids with you!) or paying for a bus and then trying to budget and squeeze your shopping bags into a bus seat, getting home and spending another half hour in the kitchen cooking... sure, that's the healthy option, but how many people have the opportunity and motivation to choose it?
I doubt Australia faces the exact same issues as the urban US, but I'm sure their problems are similar enough, when it comes to the reasons behind child obesity.
Then again, if the desks are really too small is it fair to call the kids fat? I suspect these desks are still being made to fit the 1940's "average", when people were still building basements for 5'4" tall adults (I hate old house basements!). Maybe the measurements need to be adjusted for today's average healthy build and if the "fat" kids -still- don't fit, then we can start blaming their size.