childhood obesity

We have school groups in our Gymnastics Club every day. For recreational gymnastics. The number of overweight and obese children is shocking.

Kottke linked to an important Daily Beast article:

Ten years after his seminal book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser reflects on how little has changed in the production, safety, and consumption in America—but why he’s still hopeful.

Every day about 65 million people eat at a McDonald’s restaurant somewhere in the world, more than ever before. The annual revenues of America’s fast-food industry, adjusted for inflation, have risen by about 20 percent since 2001. …

About two thirds of the adults in the United States are obese or overweight. The obesity rate among preschoolers has doubled in the past 30 years. The rate among children aged 6 to 11 has tripled. And by some odd coincidence, the annual cost of the nation’s obesity epidemic — about $168 billion, as calculated by researchers at Emory University — is the same as the amount of money Americans spent on fast food in 2011. …

Still a Fast-Food Nation: Eric Schlosser Reflects on 10 Years Later

If you’ve never read Fast Food Nation, the Kindle edition is only $3.99.

It’s not easy being an obese child, as 3yr-old Leslie Downes found out in 1935.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

(via Kottke)

Certainly school kids need to exercise more. Eat less. But how’s that going to happen?

I’m not optimistic for the future. 😦