Strollerderby : diet and exercise

6 Reasons Why it Sucks to Be a Kid Today

Cole Gamble — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Rebecca Kelly feels very sorry for today's youth. We had it better. According to her, "back in the good old days, being a kid was awesome, but now today's youth is choking on yuppified bulls*** like organic nonsense, parental controls, and more."

1) Food is No Fun

When we were kids we had lunches packed with Fruit By the Foot, Teddy Grahams, and Squeeze Its. Now kids get organic crap like fruit leathers, vegetable-flavored “chips” that have the texture of packing cellophane, and sugar-free, 100% juice. What ever happened to “3% juice” juice that you could squeeze out of a cartoon face? Sure, some kids nowadays still have gloriously unhealthy lunches, but yuppie parents regard these children as contagious chunksters who could pass the “fat” virus onto their precious kids via direct, sticky-handed contact.

2) Clothing Has Gotten Ridiculous

Young girls have belly-baring shirts, kid-sized halter tops, and rhinestones on everything, while young boys look like mini douche bags with their youth-sized rugby shirts and cargo shorts. Pre-teens are just as bad: girls are pairing leggings with everything and boys are popping every collar they can get their hands on. What happened to Osh Kosh overalls and cute crap like duckies and froggies on little kids' shirts? Why the hell would you want your 7-year-old to go to school wearing a t-shirt that says “spoiled brat” and hot pants that have the word “princess” emblazoned on the butt?

3) Parents are Too Paranoid

In the good ol' days, we could go exploring in the woods behind our house, climb the tallest tree in our yard, and sled down the stairs in our house using a blanket or a laundry basket. Our parents didn't care as long as we came for dinner when they shouted. Now everything in the house is childproof, kids are on leashes so they don't stroll more than two feet away from their parents, and parents go insane if their kid gets a single scratch or bump. Cuts and bruises gave us character, and they taught us valuable lessons that we were able to learn for ourselves (e.g., stoves are hot, roofs are high, table corners are pointy).

Now that I come to think of it, I don't know why I didn't perish as a kid in a roof-jumping off accident or from obsesity triggered juvinle diabetes. Man, we do parent our kids like wussies these days.

To read more of Rebecca's article, go here.

More Good Stuff:

8 "PG" Movies Way Too Scary for Kids

Disturbing Baby-Swinging PSA

Dumb Kiddy Product Makeovers

9 Steps to Keep Your Kid from Ruining a Wedding

Eating Your Baby's Placenta

10 Great Books For (Traumatizing) Children

Parents and Teens Don't Recognize Weight Problem

Kelly Mills — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:32:00 GMT

Yet another study found that parents of overweight teens don't identify the kids as being overweight, and the kids don't see a problem either. There's been a whole slew of these "parents don't know kids are fat" things lately. When both groups were asked if they thought the adolescents, who all have type 2 diabetes, were "very overweight, slightly overweight, about right, slightly thin, or very thin?" only 41 percent of the parents and 35 percent of the kids reported 'very overweight', even though 87 percent were considered overweight by accepted standards. The researchers say this is a problem because recognition of a weight problem is the first step in making lifestyle and diet changes. But, well, I gotta cry "bullshit" on this one.

Frankly, I do still have some trouble accepting the premise that in this weight-obsessed society, the teenagers involved don't have any idea they might be overweight, even if the parents are blind to it. But let's assume this study is valid: Is it in fact necessary for the kids and parents to acknowledge weight problems in order to make changes? Personally I don't think so, and I believe focusing on weight as a measure of health is foolish anyway. After all, this is a group who has type 2 diabetes (linked with being overweight) and you're telling me that explaining diet and exercise are crucial to diabetes management and even reversal is not good enough? These kids have a disease that gives them incentive and reason to make lifestyle changes that would almost certainly result in weight loss. That's more important than highlighting weight, and trust me, they'll get the weight message from many different sources for the rest of their lives.

Unpopular and Fat: A Scientific Fact

Madeline Holler — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:43:00 GMT

Which came first, the social isolation or the excess pounds?

A new study looking to, I don't know, dredge up the deeply buried insecurities of grown women and/or convince parents to homeschool their kids has found that the less popular a girl perceives herself to be the more weight she'll gain during the teenage years. Conjuring images, no doubt, of the lonely sophomore eating a pint of ice-cream in a darkened kitchen while her cellphone never rings. Ugh!

The study: researchers recorded a pack of 15-year-olds' BMIs and had them determine which rung on the picture of 10-rung ladder they might be standing. A few years later, they calculated the grown girl-now-woman's BMI. Those who rated themselves along the bottom half of the ladder were 69 percent more likely to gain an excess of 11 pounds (there were allowances made for expected weight gain for the still-growing group of girls).

But here's what I find pretty interesting:

The researchers put the girls into two groups: the 4,264 who said they were on rung 5 or above, and the 182 who said they were on rung 4 or below. The weight gain link was based on those two groups.

That's a pretty small group who ranked themselves so low, isn't it? What I'd like to know is whether the lower your rank yourself the more you gained or more likely you were to gain, that kind of thing. And does the 182 number represent the expected percentage to be clinically depressed or whatever? I mean, is popularity the key here?

Of course, there is more work to be done.

Clea McNeely of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called the study strong. She said she wanted to know more about the 4 percent of girls who rated themselves below average in popularity, particularly whether they already were gaining weight faster before they rated themselves as unpopular.

Now, what I'd really like to know is whether anyone who ranked herself at the top of the ladder wound up super obese. Because I'm bitter like that.

"Fertility Diet" Recommends Foods for Baby-Makin'

Amy Kuras — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 21:25:00 GMT

This week's Newsweek cover story on "the Fertility Diet" had me intrigued. As somebody who struggled for years with infertility I tend to roll my eyes at all the craptacular advice out there and the implication that if you were not just such a trainwreck you'd probably be pregnant already – see "Just relax!"
On the other hand, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about my particular cause, polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS, being more a metabolic disorder than a reproductive one, pointing to increased insulin resistance as the culprit behind the weight gain, acne, hair growth and other lovelies associated with it. Most women with PCOS swear by a low-carb diet as the only non-medical way to lose weight and manage symptoms. While the authors don’t advocate lower carb dieting, they do recommend lower glycemic-index carbs, which are generally less refined and slower to digest. Not surprising, but interesting that what PCOS women have talked about for years is being validated by the medical establishment.
The article's authors based their recommendations on data from the long-running Nurses' Health Study, which has tracked thousands of nurses longitudinally. They looked at diet and exercise as they influenced the participants' attempts to have a baby.
One big surprise – they found full-fat dairy products such as whole milk and ice cream were actually beneficial to fertility. Guess those red-wine-and-Haagen-Daz binges after each failed cycle were not so horrible after all.

Embrace the Muffin Top: Extra Pounds May Save Your Life, Not Destroy It

Madeline Holler — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:25:00 GMT

Can't shed those last 10 pounds of baby weight? Don't! Being a little fat might actually help you survive illnesses such as pneumonia and emphysema, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight people also seemed less likely to die from some types of injuries and infections, according to the study.

Being fat is healthy? That's too good to be true! Indeed, it is. But not that much.

Extra fat still contributes to diabetes and kidney disease. But a new study found that up to 25 extra pounds (yessssss!) doesn't increase the risk of death from heart disease or cancer. But being obese -- that's scoring a BMI of 30 points or higher -- does. So, it's okay to be fat, but not too fat.

This whole fat-is-fine conundrum has doctors baffled. (No word on how self-righteous skinny people are taking the news.) The studies seem to contribute to the once-ignored idea that it is indeed possible to be fit and fat. One obesity expert says this news might also calm what he calls the "obesity epidemic hysteria."

A heart specialist, however, worries that the results might be misinterpreted and misleading. For example, a death certificate might have listed a diabetic's cause of death as diabetes, when actually heart disease contributed to the person's demise. He vows that this CDC report won't be the last word. (Those heart guys are such downers!)

Should we take our eyes of the scale? Rework the BMI chart? Forget about the pounds, embrace size 16 fourth-graders and just work on fitness?

Pregcellent: If Halle Berry Isn't In Deep Trouble Pregnant, She Didn't Have Type 1 Diabetes

Kelly Mills — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:31:00 GMT

Relieved to see a Halle Berry pregnancy article that doesn't reference her boobies? The actress managed to irk diabetes groups mightily with her claim that she got herself off insulin and basically cured her diabetes. Berry reported she had Type 1 diabetes (formerly known as juvenile-onset diabetes) which is, uh, incurable. She was quoted as saying, "I've managed to wean myself off insulin, so now I'd like to put myself in the Type 2 category." Yeah, well, you may have been in the Type 2 category to begin with. Some docs say she was likely misinformed, mistaken, or misdiagnosed. Because for a Type 1 diabetic to stop taking insulin...um, very, very unwise.

Since Berry is pregnant, we have some further evidence she wasn't Type 1. Folks with that need insulin more during pregnancy because the hormones block insulin action. If Berry had Type 1, she'd probably not be doing so well right now. One doc speculated that beause Berry was thin when she was diagnosed, her doctor might have told her she had Type 1 (Type 2 generally affects obese and out-of-shape people.) But no matter what, Berry did not cure herself. We assume the vast majority of diabetics are informed enough not to follow the actions of a celebrity, so it goes without saying Type 1 people should keep up the injections. Especially if pregnant.

Portion Size Matters For Fat Kids

Madeline Holler — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:20:00 GMT

Doing my part to fuel the childhood obesity hysteria while also making parents feel like every strategy to prevent raising little fatties is wrong, wrong, wrong, I bring you this:

It’s all about portion size, not calories.

It is? I mean, sure, of course, portions count! But I’ve been spouting that other study for years now about how, if kids are left on their own to decide what to eat and how much -- and not shamed or forced to clean their plates -- they’ll make food choices over the span of a week that amount to the right range of calories, vitamins, proteins, etc.

Guess not. Time to corral the snackers.

Researchers at a recent obesity conference presented findings that said kids who ate a low-calorie lunch don’t necessarily snack more later, as long as their lunch was the same volume as the higher calorie ones. In fact, the kids in the study who ate lower-calorie lunches wound up eating 400 fewer calories an average each day.

The report recommends that parents who are worried about their kid's weight not cut back on the amount of food their kid is served or allowed to eat, but to come up with lower-calorie versions of their favorite foods. This includes skim milk, low-fat dairy products and … drumroll … pureed vegetables!

How to Make a Fat Kid Skinny: New Friends

Madeline Holler — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:36:00 GMT

Any adult who has ever lost weight knows it takes vigilance and hard work to keep off the extra pounds. Researchers have found that fat kids, not surprisingly, have the same challenge with maintaining.

As with everyone else, obese kids who do manage to lose weight are at great risk of putting it all back on -- and more. But one approach is showing promise as a strategy for changing overweight and obese kids’ lifestyles for good: new friends.

In a small study, kids who weighed at least 65 percent above their normal-range were given exercise and nutrition counseling and assisted in losing weight. Most did. After the five-months of dieting, a third of the kids were sent out into the big high-calorie world to fend for themselves, and another third continued receiving counseling. Both of these groups eventually put the weight back on.

The other third of the kids had significantly better success at keeping off the pounds. What's the secret? These kids were encouraged to form new friendships, especially with other children who were physically active. They took up sports and joined teams and were better able to keep off the pounds.

So you know how peer pressure can get tempt your kids to try drugs or Vacation Bible School? I guess it can also get your kids to go out for team sports or take up surfing. Time to weed out the heavy-eating lazy bunch from playgroup and get me a camping chair for the soccer field sidelines.

Pregnant Women, Eat Your Pennies!

Madeline Holler — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:25:00 GMT

Lots of folic acid, not too much Vitamin A, enough Vitamin D, weekly replenishment of Omega-3s, chocolate brownies, calcium and protein. Protein, protein, protein.

Anybody who is eating for two care to name the missing ingredient for good fetal development?

Copper. About 8 to 16 percent of women bearing children aren’t consuming enough copper.

Copper? Like, pennies and phone cords and bowls for whipping egg whites copper?

According to researchers, tiny amounts of copper combine with certain enzymes in the brain helping to form neurotransmitters so that our brain cells can “talk” to each other. Oh. In the lab, they found even moderate copper deprivation made for dumb-ass rat babies.

Most of us are getting enough copper, but if you’re worried, here are some copper-rich foods: beef liver, mushrooms, trail mix (that’s a little underspecified and random, no?), barley, and canned tomato puree (that, on the other hand, is pretty specific. Why pureed? Why canned? Is copper leaching from something?).

Most fascinating to me is that humans actually eat – and need to eat – copper. Does that make me stupid? I guess Mom didn’t horse down enough pennies when she was pregnant.

As Suspected, Everything Makes Kids Fat

Madeline Holler — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 19:22:00 GMT

Somehow, I think we’ve all known this for a very long time: everything – yes, EVERYTHING – is making kids fat.

A short list:
Food
Diet food
And drink
Lack of exercise
TV
TV commercials
Their mothers
Their moms
Their mamas
Mommy
Mom’s minivan
Cupcakes
Some virus
And really, much, much more.

In this latest report on childhood obesity, researchers argue that it’s not any one factor that is causing an alarming percentage of Americans to be not just fat but obese. Rather, there are many factors working together that are turning even regular sized babies into the ubiquitous groups of pudgy teens you see outside schools and crammed into Starbucks. In some middle and high schools, nearly 44 percent of the student population is overweight or obese.

In the report, school food choices took a hit, of course, as did high calorie sodas and drinks readily available for purchase in the school hallway. The decreasing amount of time spent in P.E. over the high school years was also a reason.

Income and racial/ethnic makeup unfortunately plays a role too. Lower income schools were found to have fewer after school sports available. These schools also had higher rates of obesity. School populations with a larger non-white population had fewer low-fat snack choices. Hispanic students were exposed to brand-name fast foods at twice the rate of white and African-American students and also have high rates of obesity in teens.

Outside the school, kids don't fare much better in terms of available healthy food choices. Poor neighborhoods in many U.S. cities suffer from a lack of supermarkets. Instead, locals have to shop at convenience stores or eat in fast-food shops. One economist found a connection between lack of supermarkets and obesity.

But just like fad diets that never seem to help you lose weight for good, focusing on a single factor that has been shown to contribute to childhood obesity won't solve this escalating problem either. There's no magic bullet. But I think anybody who has thought for a minute about fat kids -- theirs or someone else's -- pretty much knows that.

So taking out soda from schools won't make kids magically skinny. Neither will banning advertisements aimed a children. But continuing to allow them? That's not going to help solve the problem either.

Weekly Check-Up: Exercise Won't Make You Lose Weight

Kelly Mills — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 12:31:00 GMT

There's an article in New York magazine about how exercise, rather than promoting weight loss, actually makes you hungrier. While there are, of course, numerous other benefits to exercise, the author claims weight loss and maintenance ain't one of them. He argues that studies of exercise and weight loss have been inconclusive, at best, and that those of us who store fat easily are just likely to keep doing that, making up for calories burned by eating more. And a thousand personal trainers simultaneously clutch their hearts and shriek in horror.

Okay, I myself am a personal trainer and fitness instructor, so obviously I'm kinda pro-exercise. But I thought this guy had a couple okay points, to tell you the truth. We do tend to see hunger as a question of willpower, rather than a biological drive. And exercise does make you hungrier, no doubt. Now, I think the research is more varied than he presents: for example, a couple of studies have looked at the habits of people who maintained significant weight loss, and found the majority exercised regularly as well as making dietary changes. But I can also say that if you have the kind of bod that really wants to hold weight, and you run six miles and then hit the fridge buffet with equal gusto, you probably won't get the big weight loss you want. You might be healthier, happier, stronger, more able to walk stairs with ease and carry your screaming toddler three blocks and all that good stuff, but not skinny.

But here's one thing: I think it's easier to make changes in your diet (and by that I mean stuff like eating less sugar, not ignoring hunger) when you have a regular exercise program. You might be hungrier, but you are also investing work and sweat and time towards your physical self. There's something about making steps towards living a certain way that makes other changes easier. You can create a new homeostasis, a new norm for your body. That was absolutely true in my case, for example, though I'm hardly a scientific sample. That said, I'd love to see some of the moral judgments around weight removed. I mean, there's skinny folks who have daily candy bars and milkshakes, and overweight people who eat much more modestly. But think twice before canceling the gym membership.

Be All Healthy In Pregnancy and Your Baby Might Grow Up To Be A Cowboy. Or Healthy. One of the Two.

Kelly Mills — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:08:00 GMT

I'm sure there are many pregnant women out there thinking to themselves, "Should I eat well, exercise, and take care of this little life growing in my womb, or should I only eat Pringles and sit on my behind all day?" If so, there's a piece here that might tip the scales. Turns out that eating well in pregnancy might not only result in a healthy baby, but might also help your child grow up to be a healthy adult. Why, Rachel made a list of reminders for herself should she ever get knocked up again: "1. leave off crack smoking, 2. stop running more than 15 miles per day in the 8th month, and 3. avoid kickboxing and bikram yoga." And I told myself, "Froot Loops over JD and Coke is not a nutritious breakfast." See, we help with the hard choices here.

But one thing I want to point out amidst all the obesity-very-bad news items: you don't do your baby any favors if you don't get enough to eat. Insufficient diet or nutrient-poor diets are just as bad as gaining too much weight. (Somebody tell key neighborhoods in Los Angeles!) And the article also points out that your best bet is to be in top shape pre-baby. So it pays to take care of yourself on every level for your whole darn life. Yes, health is actually good, or so the experts say, anyway.

Research Shows Kids Needs More (Healthy) Fats in Diets

Alisyn — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 14:08:00 GMT

A recent Nutrition Journal study showed that kids burn through fat quicker than adults do, due to the growth process and quicker protein synthesis, and that fat is needed in their diets to support normal development. Besides being an energy source, fat helps produce cell membranes and eicosanoids (compounds that help regulate blood pressure, heart rate, blood vessel constriction, blood clotting and the nervous system.) Dietary fat carries fat-soluble vitamins — A, D, E and K — from food into the body, and it also helps maintain healthy hair and skin, protects vital organs, and keeps the body insulated.

For all those reasons and then some, far more fat is required by a child's body than an adult's: kids 3 and older should be getting 35% of their daily calories from fat, while babies and toddler should be getting up to 40% of their calories from fat (adults should get no more than 20-35% of their daily calories from fat).

So, how do you know if your kid is eating enough fat? Well, you can start by talking with your pediatrician, and checking your child's progress on the growth chart. If the kid is on track - most kids are - great. If your kid needs a little help in the fattening up (oh, what I wouldn't give to hear my doctor say that to me!), try experimenting in the kitchen with foods that are high in poly and monounsaturated fats, and omega-3 fatty acids. Foods like:

- Avocados (guacamole, chilled avocado soup, mango/avocado salsa)

- Nuts (nut butters are a staple, but nuts can also be great when toasted and tossed into stir-frys, salads, and pan sauteed veggies).

- Oils (I cook anything that can be cooked in butter - from eggs to veggies to pancakes - in vegetable oil, and it's also great on salads, with your choice of vinegar, and can be slipped into a smoothie, or mixed with herbs and drizzled over bread or rice.)

- Fish (Okay, this one is probably the hardest. Salmon burgers? Herring donuts? Mackrel pie? Just kidding.)

Other great, kid-friendly sources of fat include dairy products, meat, and fried lard. Gotcha again!

Posh Putting Spice Girls on a Diet. You Know, If She Can Work Up the Strength.

Jessica Ashley (Sassafrass) — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:27:00 GMT

So it seems that Victoria Beckham, still known to most of the tabloid-drooling world as Posh Spice, has cooked up a diet and exercise regimen to get her bandmates in shape for their upcoming Spice Girls reunion tour. Maybe "cooked up" is pushing it. You know, since the diet is oh-so-unshockingly her own secret of starvation success: strawberries, lettuce and edamame. And with all the energy that sparks in her size 14x pre-teen body, Posh does 200 sit-ups a day.

Sit-ups and strawberries? Is this genius plan supposed to work for the very pregnant Emma Bunton and for Mel B, who just gave birth five minutes ago? Although I'm no poster mama for getting back into fighting (or dancing around in spandex and acrylic platform boot) shape, I am having a hard time believing that this diet would serve a mother well who is breastfeeding or even needs just enough strength to lift a bottle of formula to the baby's mouth, let alone aide in the final weeks of gestation with all that brain development and whatnot.

If this is true (because the celeb goss gods would not impart such insider information to us if it weren't, right?), then I would just advise the Spice Mamas in the group to put down the lettuce leaves for a sec and take a look at the four bezillion pictures of Vicky online. She never smiles. Ever. And there's a reason for that: She's hungry as a mutha and she's probably got terrible neck pain from doing sit-ups, which haven't been cool to do since the Jane Fonda era. You can bet yer jiggly ass that could all be taken care of in as long as it takes to walk down to the burrito shack and scarf a Milky Way. Remember that during "lunch time," ladies.

[photo credit: Getty via People]