Young, Unhealthy, Uncomfortable

Years ago, I sat next to my friend Sandy on the beach and enjoyed a sunny day. Her kids were there, along with hundreds of other families enjoying the beach on a perfect summer day in California.

As we sat in our chairs, chatting away, I couldn't help but notice all the lil' chubbers running around on the beach. I mentioned this to San, and she replied somewhere along the lines of, "Jame! How can you say that." My retort was something like, "Hey look, we might struggle with our weight now and even in high school but we were never fat little kids, ever!" It just broke my heart to see girls who were less than 5 years old running around with little fat boobies and little boys with huge bellies. This had to have happened some 15 to 18 years ago and it seems that today the young obese epidemic has only gotten worse.

I decided to tune in to Jamie Olivers Food Revolution (dvr, thank goodness!) on Friday night. I always liked him on the food channel. He began his cooking career at a very young age and has always promoted fresh foods and healthy eating.

This program is about Huntington, West Virginia and his impact on their food culture. This city was voted as having the worst health in our country, a statistic determined by its death rate. He has managed to help change the food provided at the schools in England, and the challenge is to bring that blessing to this town. The program begins there and we will see where it will lead. It will not be any easy shift in thinking. Pizza seems to be the general favorite, and the kids are reluctant to change. Not to mention the kitchen staff at the school. The only one who seems to be siding with Jamie is Pastor Steve from the local church who is losing his congregation to illness and death due to obesity. He is able to see the possibilities, where most are not.

So far, it looks like he is not winning them over to healthy eating. I am amazed at watching the clips how many children are heavy, and not just a few pounds but 30 to 50 pounds overweight. These children have similar habits to every elementary school kid I can recall during lunch, we ate what we wanted and tossed away the rest. No matter how good it was for us, no matter how expensive the cost, we didn't need to eat much - we were young, our bellies small. Besides, there was always a snack waiting for me at home if I was hungry later.

It breaks my heart to see fat kids. We all know how cruel children can be, and being fat, you might as well have a big ol' target on your back that says kick me. Emotional torment and self esteem aside, what about the health of a child who is fat. One of the issues raised by this new program is that medical experts feel that this is the first generation who most likely die younger than their parents. Their health is shot.

Tune in or look at the program on line (link above) and tell me what you think.