Carole Davis/Director Training & Development
Arcar Inc.
Waldorf, MD
(412) 403-8518 arcarinc@aol.com
I would like to welcome comments and open the floor for discussion on this entry.
In the past few weeks, the news media has run stories of how obesity could be considered 'contagious' if you have a friend who is overweight. The premise suggested that friends tend to share activities and habits. Should those habits lean toward lack of exercise or unhealthy eating, the likelihood of obesity increases. Also, reports point to a growing acceptance of larger waistlines as part of our societal norm. This truly points to a socialization aspect of the problem of obesity. How much more so would this be true with children?
Additionally, ABC has an excellent show in "Shaq's Challenge". While demonstrating the need for individual change and family commitment to help children improve their eating and exercising habits, it wonderfully underscores the difficulty systems have in responding to needs - in this case the school district applauds but struggles to implement effective programming that everyone appears to agree would help students health-wise as well as academically.
This project likewise is pointing to the need to disrupt the limited youth involvement within the medical profession towards the childhood obesity crisis and the 'business-as-usual' mentality of the fast food industry in promoting poor quality food choices among our youth. The most powerful way to upset the french-fry cart (rather than the apple cart) is to create a team consisting of health professionals who can provide crucial validation and incorporate knowledge of the powerful ways food can work in the body into improved food choices. This, along with the expert crack team of young people who would be encouraged to become inventors in concocting wild and wonderful menu items that kids (and hopefully adults as well) would enjoy, would make up the working team. This process could be the beginning of a new area of youth healthcare that incorporates the active rather than passive participation of youth in what affects their health, expanding the dialogue and the mosaic of youth health.
Making fast foods fun, thoughtful, smart and tasty is what this project is all about. Let's face it. Our society is moving faster than ever and the likelihood that it will return to a slower era-gone-by is remote. Yet, if we embrace it and re-imagine what power foods can do for us, it could be marketed in the same way current foods are and change the way our next generation grows up.
Although quite some time, I want to share my views about this QUOTE:"...unique powerlessness of children to become agents of change in their own healthcare..." This is a powerful idea because we are empowering the young to police their own health, their well-being. With this, we are giving them freedom to stay healthy or not at their own risk> But we should see to it that they understand everything before leaving them their freedom of choice. Some points to ponder from hampers.
Comments
Carole Davis/Director Training & Development
Arcar Inc.
Waldorf, MD
(412) 403-8518
arcarinc@aol.com
I would like to welcome comments and open the floor for discussion on this entry.
In the past few weeks, the news media has run stories of how obesity could be considered 'contagious' if you have a friend who is overweight. The premise suggested that friends tend to share activities and habits. Should those habits lean toward lack of exercise or unhealthy eating, the likelihood of obesity increases. Also, reports point to a growing acceptance of larger waistlines as part of our societal norm. This truly points to a socialization aspect of the problem of obesity. How much more so would this be true with children?
Additionally, ABC has an excellent show in "Shaq's Challenge". While demonstrating the need for individual change and family commitment to help children improve their eating and exercising habits, it wonderfully underscores the difficulty systems have in responding to needs - in this case the school district applauds but struggles to implement effective programming that everyone appears to agree would help students health-wise as well as academically.
This project likewise is pointing to the need to disrupt the limited youth involvement within the medical profession towards the childhood obesity crisis and the 'business-as-usual' mentality of the fast food industry in promoting poor quality food choices among our youth. The most powerful way to upset the french-fry cart (rather than the apple cart) is to create a team consisting of health professionals who can provide crucial validation and incorporate knowledge of the powerful ways food can work in the body into improved food choices. This, along with the expert crack team of young people who would be encouraged to become inventors in concocting wild and wonderful menu items that kids (and hopefully adults as well) would enjoy, would make up the working team. This process could be the beginning of a new area of youth healthcare that incorporates the active rather than passive participation of youth in what affects their health, expanding the dialogue and the mosaic of youth health.
Making fast foods fun, thoughtful, smart and tasty is what this project is all about. Let's face it. Our society is moving faster than ever and the likelihood that it will return to a slower era-gone-by is remote. Yet, if we embrace it and re-imagine what power foods can do for us, it could be marketed in the same way current foods are and change the way our next generation grows up.
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Although quite some time, I want to share my views about this QUOTE:"...unique powerlessness of children to become agents of change in their own healthcare..." This is a powerful idea because we are empowering the young to police their own health, their well-being. With this, we are giving them freedom to stay healthy or not at their own risk> But we should see to it that they understand everything before leaving them their freedom of choice. Some points to ponder from hampers.
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