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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children?s Health
Also Included In: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness;??Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 26 Aug 2011 ? 7:00 PDT
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The founder of Britain?s top weight loss organization has called a book about the story of a short overweight girl who diets and becomes the school soccer star ?an outrage?.
The book, Maggie Goes on a Diet, written and self-published by Paul Kramer, is aimed at pre-teens with ?Maggie?, the character, portrayed as a chubby, round jumper-wearing cartoon figure with orange pigtails holding up a tiny pink dress and looking wistfully at a skinny version of herself in the mirror. The book has just been unveiled on Amazon and is soon to be made available from other booksellers.
Alison Wetton, CEO of All About Weight, labels the book as a:
?Dangerous weapon promoting the message of body dissatisfaction among a highly vulnerable age group.
This is the wrong way to spread the message despite acknowledging children?s needs for more encouragement to be active and eat healthily. In her view it would simply encourage youngsters to concentrate on their body image, which is linked to a variety of appalling consequences like depression, eating disorders and bullying.?
Her weight loss organization does not cater for children because Wetton believes that prescribed diets for youngsters have a negative psychological effect, labeling the children as ?fat?. She says, ?The way we help with childhood obesity is by changing adults? attitudes to eating, and hope parents will adapt and extend the healthy eating habits they learn on their All About Weight plan to the whole family.?
Alison added that consultants/mentors in her weight loss organization also encourage members to exercise as much as possible according to their ability; another benefit they could pass on to their children.
She concluded by saying:
?Losing weight is as much a process of education as it is a matter of will-power. Prevention is better than cure, and if we bring our children up with a healthy attitude to food and exercise, and teach them why it is the best way to live, we won?t have any Maggies looking sadly at themselves in the mirror!?
Written by Petra Rattue
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
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Trickle-down healthy eating
posted by Michael on 26 Aug 2011 at 7:42 am
From the article: ?Wetton believes that prescribed diets for youngsters have a negative psychological effect, labeling the children as ?fat?. She says, ?The way we help with childhood obesity is by changing adults? attitudes to eating, and hope parents will adapt and extend the healthy eating habits they learn on their All About Weight plan to the whole family.?
Sounds like Trickle-Down healthy eating. Likely as efficient and effective as trickle-down economics. If she doesn?t want to label the children as fat, perhaps she would prefer the medical term: morbidly obese.
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My experience ? being overweight as a child
posted by Dan on 26 Aug 2011 at 8:25 am
As a kid, I was healthy and active. But as I got around 8 years old I started gaining weight. One day at the store buying clothes for school, my mother had to take me to the ?Husky? section to find clothes that fit. I was so embarrased that I was ?husky? that I started cutting back on twinkies and candy bars. By the next year I didn?t need ?husky? clothes any more. I have maintained a healthy weight the rest of my life (I?m 36 now). If there had not been a negative stigma with being ?husky? perhaps I would not have made the effort to stay a healthy weight. Kids are not as emotionally fragile as some adults would like to think. Sometimes a wake up call is what they need. Not every kid is on the verge of having an eating disorder. If ?Maggie? wants to play soccer, she probably needs to be a healthy weight.
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Kinder gentler approach to discipline
posted by NewsRaker on 26 Aug 2011 at 9:02 am
How about instead of saying ?You?re fat so I am putting you on a diet.?, we use terms like ?You have these nutritional goals.?? A parent telling their child they are fat is required, their peers will let them know? assuming the parents let it get to that point first. What is happening in developed countries is, the age of obesity is steadily going down. and the percent of obesity at High school graduation is rediculously high.
The danger is not in making kids feel fat, it?s in making kids think that eating junk is OK.
Good practice is to enable kids to make their own decisions. They need the tools and knowledge to make their eating decisions. Sugar and Fat are powerful endorphin sources to compete with. it needs equal cause and effect competition.
Weight loss ?solutions? are a huge business. Most of it is useless. Let?s put them out of business by establishing better (best) practices from day 1. And do what it takes when the trickle-down theory doesn?t work. It won?t. Look at the data we have now.
We have spent enough time (decades) treating obesity as something we should accept like it?s a diability. It is not (in most cases). No science here, but I bet its more than a hundred times easier to start eating right at 5 then 50.
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Dangerous, really? Poor body image, kids
posted by karen kearney on 26 Aug 2011 at 9:14 am
While it is true that adults ?should? be bringing their children up with healthy eating habits and lifestyle, the reality remains that the majority of obese and overweight children are dealing with poor body image already. These children are depressed already. The book will give them information they don?t get from their parents, and hope that they can be healthy and able to participate in more physical activities. I don?t believe that children need to diet at all. They do need to eat differently and if living in a home that does not have an abundance of fresh healthy food available, then this book will encourage them to make smart choices wherever possible. This is not about accepting a big nose or a crocked smile or a deformed leg. It is about health and a long disease free life and feeling good about themselves. I see nothing wrong with that.
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Only a symptom ? obesity problem getting worse
posted by Dr. J on 26 Aug 2011 at 9:18 am
This is only a symptom of societies disordered relationship with food. Interesting that the next article on this site is about how the obesity epidemic is entering its fourth decade and continues to get worse (as we argue about perspectives). Time to actually do something concrete about it, don?t you think?
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Part of the problem?not part of the answer
posted by Dr RL on 26 Aug 2011 at 11:31 am
Alison Wetton shows that she and others like her are part of the problem. Imagine saying that focusing on weight problems will have ?appalling consequences.? Imagine that what Wetton wishes is that no sense of pride, or pride of self should be instilled in children; instead its ?I?m OK/You?re Ok? which is to say that children should not be taught to be disciplined internally by self-awareness but instead free to be fat/obese just because its easier.
No wonder the world is in the shape it is.
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Article source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/233430.php
Source: http://www.childrenhealthwizard.com/new-childrens-book-labeled-dangerous-by-diet-guru
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