Researchers at Northwestern University recently determined that a third of U.S. teens showed poor levels of cardiovascular health after being given and subsequently “flunking” a standard treadmill test. Their research is touted as truly highlighting the growing problem of inactivity and resulting poor fitness amongst our children. I applaud the researchers on their findings but could have saved them a great deal of time and come to similar results by simply spending a couple hours at a local shopping mall performing my own qualitative ethnographic study.
Let’s face it, there are a lot more fat-ass kids now then there were 20 years ago. Here is how I achieve my results. When I was in elementary school there was 1 morbidly obese kid in each class of 25 students and 2-3 chubby kids. A chubby kid, while not necessarily “a porker” in the true sense of the word, is one who has enough extra payload that he/she might still have the misfortune of having to get their pants in the “husky” section at Sears.
Now let’s put that data up against some more recently acquired data. I was recently at Easton Town Center in Columbus. Out of 15 elementary aged kids playing by the public fountains, 4 were morbidly obese and 4 others were “chubby.”
So let’s look at the results of my hearty data set. 20 years ago, in an elementary school class of 25 students, 4% of the students were morbidly obese. 8% of the students were “chubby.” More recently 26% of elementary aged students are morbidly obese with another 26% being defined as “chubby.” Fortunately for today’s greater numbers of chubby kids, Sears has done away with the “Husky” designation of pants.
Why such shocking increases in portly kids? Part of the reason for such shocking results in my own studies is the geography of the study itself. Easton Town Center is located in Columbus Ohio, a city that in its very construction is ideal for creating engorged waistlines and inactivity. Quality of life is deemed sub par if a resident is not able step directly from the kitchen, after downing their doughnuts, to their car in less than 10 paces. From here, their car will take them directly to the parking lot at work where any more than a 25 yard walk into the office building means that you are a mere plebian in terms of workplace status. Walking in Columbus Ohio is frowned upon.
More recent personal ethnographic studies at my current location in Appalachia have proven to be even more atrocious. While there is more activity in the Appalachian lifestyle, the average diet makes a daily doughnut for breakfast look like a fat-free granola bar. In a particularly appalling incident several days ago, I actually witnessed a first; two teenagers with their mother in the lobby of my workout facility eating McDonalds before beginning their workout. This is like soaking your firewood in water the day of your campout. Why not light up a cigarette while your at it ladies?
Just last night while discussing food with my daughter and nephew, they suddenly started singing “Mcdonald, McDonalalds, McDonalds makes you fat” While it warmed the cockles of my heart to hear the song, and I am glad that they have a rudimentary understanding of the correlation of fast food and obesity, I don’t believe Mcdonalds MAKES people fat. People make people fat by eating too much Mcdonalds. As adults, we all make conscious decisions about our diet and must live with the consequences. It’s true that it is much harder now to make the right decisions given the pervasiveness of fast food in our society. It’s even harder to fit in physical activity. The decision to lead a healthier lifestyle begins simply with small steps such as walking to the mailbox once a day instead of pulling up in your car on the way home. Better yet, to the ladies at my gym, how about eating a bagel before your workout instead of a foul, stinking bag of McDonalds.
Sears may have done us no favors in removing the “Husky” section. In removing such a badge of dishonor, they started us down the road of removing tangible consequences for poor diet and inactivity.
The problem, as I see it, is an almost complete lack of a "middle way". On the one hand, we have the Big Mac gobbling fatsos, who bitch, wail and moan if they have to walk more than 20 feet for anything less important than a bucket of KFC.
On the other hand, however, are the endorfin-addicted gym rats, who go into serious withdrawal if deprived for even a single day of their exercise fix.
While the fatsos will be plagued in later life by aching feet and worn-out joints from carrying all that blubbery weight around, the runners and lifters will be plagued with bad joints from overuse and the stress of throwing all that weight around. The fatsos will die of hypertension and heart disease, and the hyper-strong cardiovascular systems of the runners and weight trainers will outlive their brains by decades, leaving them sitting in some urine-flavored old folks' facility in a diaper and bib, with a cranium full of oatmeal and a heart primed to beat flawlessly for 200 years.
Americans tend to do everything to the extreme; look, instead, for the middle way.
Your characterization of the 'endorfin-addicted gym rat' brings a chuckle. More than just some example of overdoing fitness, these gym rats or "steakheads" as I like to call them are an annoyance to the regular guy just trying to stay in decent shape. Their grunts and groans and monopolization of the free weight area keep everyday Joe's from enjoying a solid workout.
I wouldn't call it strictly an American thing though. Remember, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not American when he first moved his pumped up physique to our country.
I wouldn't call the fast-food enduced fatso an 'American' problem either. Rather, a problem that happens to people in America. I have met several fat immigrants who were not fat in their own countries but rather, became fat when they moved here and quickly succomb to the fast-food and out-of-a-box diet that our sick fatso appetites have allowed to flourish.
Eventually, fast-food will go the way of the cigarette and Mcdonalds will drastically change their business model to reflect that. I believe my kid's 'Mcdonalds will make you fat' song is a testament to that. I didn't teach her that song by the way. I guess what i am trying to say is that like our generations saw the ballooning of out of control sickning fatso diets. The next generation will turn that diet on its head.
"The next generation will turn that diet on its head."
That's what I like--an optimist.
Posted by: Rob at December 21, 2005 08:13 PM