How many of those mothers read such snacks, and availability of snacks are healthy?

Dine without the Whine
Low Sugar Cereal
I always keep a box of low sugar cereal like cheerios in my pantry. They make a great snack with a little milk, or even just a bowl of dry cereal. Dry cereal also make a great take-along snack. Just throw a serving in a Ziploc bag and toss it in your purse.

Snacks for Toddlers
Dry Cereal with Chopped Raisins
Cheerios, Kix, or whatever your favorite dry cereal is - pack in small baggies

How to Feed a Toddler from eHow
Offer your child healthy snacks at regular intervals throughout the day ' this will help to keep him or her from getting too hungry and cranky.
Keep low-sugar cereals handy ' serve them with or without milk, as a snack or as part of a meal.

WebMD - Healthy Snacks for kids on the go
Give them a little of what they like (be it potato chips or candy bars) a couple of days a week, and you'll have better luck getting them to eat healthy snacks the rest of the time, she says.

Snacks that are easy to portion out into plastic bags and take along include fruit and veggie chunks; a mixture of dry cereal and nuts, raisins, and a few chocolate chips; "sandwiches" of whole-wheat crackers with peanut or almond butter; fruit roll-ups cut into bite-sized portions; half an energy bar cut into bite-sized pieces; popcorn or cookies measured out into 100-calorie portions.

Twist and Shout Trail Mix

This is a great project for younger kids (aged 2-6). Not only do they feel proud about preparing their own snack, they also get the chance to practice their math skills:
1/2 to 1 cup Multi-Grain Cheerios
1/2 to 1 Cup mini pretzels (preferable oat bran)
1/2 cup of raisins
1/2 to 1 cup Goldfish crackers
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 to 1 cup of peanuts

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IMO it's easy to lay blame with the parents, but look at what they're being told and even from "well respected" sources there is DIRECT name-brand recommendations, including cheerios and goldfish....and I'm sure if I did a search for oreos, I'd find them too!

I've said it for quite some time - the dietary recommendations we're all subjected to hearing again and again are flawed, and until we fix the problem at the foundation, nothing is going to help prevent or reverse the weight gain trends we're experiencing in the US and abroad.

This is pretty much the crux of the entire matter right here. The low-fat fraud being perpetrated on the American (Western) public for 40 years, and guess where we ended up - with epidemics of obesity and diabetes. No surprise there.

And nobody willing to do anything about it. I don't know what it's going to take. There are small injections into the culture of the "alternative" viewpoints - e.g., Atkins' death (sadly so) spurred a small "revival" in low-carb eating, along with Taubes' NYT Magazine article; as well, Taubes' book comes out in September, so we might see yet another small pick-up of low carb; Michael Moore's SiCKO details the travesty of health "care" in the U.S. - but these small steps are really not enough to turn around the thinking that needs to take place to spur government action and changes.

Truly mind-boggling.

Couldnt have said it better!! This is the bottom line...

It is cosmically stupid to suggest that fat kids should have privileges or perks removed because they are fat. Society does this already, quite effectively and quite cruelly. It does not help, it only hurts. I was never motivated by fear or humiliation. I ran to food more often--not less--when those things happened.

It sounds like some words were taken out of context here. The article does mention at the end that the walking initiative was part of a greater effort to combat childhood obesity, but it's a pretty big stretch to say that Kewell was implying that fat kids should be punished by being sent to bed earlier, or whatever. He didn't say to reward kids for being skinny, he said to reward them for eating well and exercising.

Those of you who see no problem with the article, have never looked through the eyes of a fat kid struggling with their weight.

These are kids. The little darlinglings that are all pretty and beautiful are the ones that torment and mentally torture fat kids. Teachers and other Adults do it too. They all discriminate. I can't tell you how many times I was discriminated by adults and teachers when I was a fat kid. But it's all silent. You just happen not to win the debate comp, or get the top grade. I actually withdrew from a subject in my senior year at high school because I got a B on a test, that my friend got an A. We compared the test resulst after (they gave us a copy). They were almost identical with info, except I gave more!! That was only one example of this teacher's constant discrimination against me.

Fat kids are not paranoid or over-sensitive, - they have just seen it all before. It happens with everything they do in school. It will happen with the rewards as well!

I can't count how many times I was told "Just look at you, you obviously do no exercise and eat too much".

And another thing whilst I'm ranting! I really hate when they interview these people about potential partners they would like, and they use the phrase "I like a man/girl that looks after themselves". That is a CODEWORD for NO FAT PEOPLE!!

It's not what they alll say, it's the implimentation or WHAT THEY DO.


P.S. Regina, Not to disminish the torment you went through when you are younger (because I know the skinny kids use dto get messed up about the teachings), but the fat kid is always chosen last.

My daughter is scrawny or skinny. It's in our genes to be skinny while young and put it on after kids, getting married, etc.

I notice that her heavier friends do not eat more than her when they stay over. They eat about the same. I think that some people are predisposed to gain with certain foods, but I haven't done any official studies. It does seem that if two people were given the same food, they are are not going to gain or lose the same amount. We are all different. It doesn't take glutony to gain a lot of weight.

I know that when I gained weight, I didn't eat anything different or more than before. I had taken a prescribed medication for 9 months and I believe it changed my metabolism.

I know that I tried low fat combined with excercise to lose it and low fat didn't work. I'm eating high fat and low carb and I am losing. Even though almost everywhere I look everyone is shoving low fat down our throats.

Sorry, Dave, but I can claim that perspective and I don't see the problem in the article. Are you sure you linked to the correct article? The article in your OP doesn't say anything about rewarding kids for being thin or punishing them for being fat; in fact it doesn't talk about weight at all as far as it being part of the program. It talks about rewarding kids for healthy behavior; eating wisely and exercising or even attempting to exercise.



It talks about a walking competition (10,000 steps a day) with the winning team getting $10,000 in sports equipment. I must be missing something because I don't get how encouraging kids to make good choices in their daily food and trying to be more active is a bad thing or somehow derogatory of overweight children.
Being an overweight child doesn't preclude being active or participating in sports. I've been overweight since I was a toddler and yet played on several sports teams from middle school on (tennis, swimming, softball, track, and volleyball to name a few) and was darned good at a couple of them.
It didn't make me thin, but I was certainly fit.

Dave, I think that big ol' chip on your shoulder has moved around a bit and blinded you to the actual message in that article. Perhaps you should reread it, and then tell us exactly what is wrong with offering to reward kids who get involved in exercise? I didn't see any hint of a mention of "nasty ugly fat children."

I believe that people in more, well, developed cities in America are in better shape. Rarely do I go into the city and see obese or even just overweight people. There are plenty of things to do for adolescents and adults alike that keep them busy, not to mention, peer pressure to be thin is way different than in the country where I live. In my high school, there were TONS of overweight kids.. tons. Some were probably obese (heck, I was, and I did NOT look 220 pounds, I'll tell you that much right now.) Sure, not everyone was morbidly obese, and granted there were only a few 'morbidly obese' kids, but there were too many that were overweight and obese. Being 17 and 18 and being overweight and obese is NOT healthy and these kids are only setting themselves up for failure and health problems later in life. Glad I learned early that I needed to lose weight.

I think people's idea of obese is skewed a little. People think obese is HUGE when really, it isn't. Like I said, at 5'7 and 220 pounds, I was obese, but you wouldn't have called me 'huge'. Fat, sure, overweight, definitely, but obese wouldn't have come to mind. My mother, who is 5'2 and weighs 220 pounds is considered 'extremely' obese. Lot of difference 5 inches makes. You would look at her and think obese, but not me, because I am taller. Anyway, I know that I'm rambling now, just trying to say that there are people who are overweight and obese, and you probably wouldn't even realize it.

With the new cereal advertising rules, people will feel great knowing they are carrying around little bags of cereal containing only 12g of carbs per serving - the equivalent of 1 tablespoon of sugar. What a healthy snack!

Um, there was actually no mention in the article about specific foods. For all we know they may mean low carb foods when they talk about "eating well."
The initiative is basically about encouraging more exercise and less consumption of junk food, and frankly I am completely bewildered that anybody can see a problem with this. *shrug*

Here is the article:

Lisa N & Rosebud,

You think differently than I do, that doesn't make my points any less valid. Of course you guys didn't say that my post wasn't valid, you just implied that I over-reacted, was wrong about the article and thus my feelings about this situation are not valid.

I have actually got a lot of validation and understanding by other posters in this thread.

It's not that easy for me to be emotionally honest about these issues that are inside of me.



Rosebud, I found that comment to be mean.

I believe you can both completely destroy me in any sort of mental/verbal debate with any kind of studies or literal interpretation you throw at me. And of course you are both moderators, so thus have more power on this board than me.

But I am glad I at least connected with some people in this thread, who took the time to understand where I was coming from, and my perspective based on that article.

My purpose in posting my inner feelings is to connect with others, including you guys (lisa & Rose) in a human experience sense.

I used that article as inspiration to vent my frustration at what I see happening with governments. Please do not interpet the inspiration in a literal sense, as a way to dismiss my feelings as something out of place.

Dave, I am sorry you are taking this in this way, and I do apologize for any offence I may have caused you.

I do not for a second mean to suggest that your feelings about the way you were treated as a child were not valid. Just as I strongly believe that all children should be treated well, and if they happen to be obese, they should be treated with extra kindness.

However....this particular initiative is simply aimed at getting children out from their computer games, and playing sport. I just think you chose the wrong article to rail against. I happen to think that this particular initiative is a good one. As I said before, what can possibly be wrong with encouraging children limit their junk food and to play more sport?

Cheers,

Roz

No worries.

My last post there ws trying to clarify my OP, to frame it to why I wrote it.

I know a lot of guys who were computer nerds, spent all their time playing computers games and are some of leanest people I've seen!

My future brother in law was one!
Heck my fiancee is another! She only gained weight in her 20s from the Depo Shot. But by her own account she was an insular no-sports computer nerd. She spent all her time indoors. When I met her I could fit my hand around her upper arm!!

In her twenties she gained weight from the depo shot. She lost 18 kilos when we atrrted atkins and kept it off.

I guess framing the example - Does sports and activity make you thin? Lisa even said she was very active in her youth, yet was overweight.

What I see with these govt initiatives is the pushing of all stererotypes - exercise and low fat makes you healthy.

And how do people determine healthy these days? If they see you are fat, they assume you are not healthy!