Michelle Obama, Childrens Weight Problems, And What I Think

Obesity in children has tripled over the last 30 years.  This is no big surprise with our white flour saturated fat diet.  I'm not immune, I like a big slice of cake and ice cream (preferably with whipped cream and chocolate syrup, might as well live if you're going to sin) as much as anyone else and even when I'm being VERY very good I usually can't resist a bit of cake.  But that's not the whole problem, our food is cheap.  Don't get me wrong it costs enough.  But seriously if you cut out everything expensive on your grocery bill and just bought sale items would you have enough to buy another car or a better house?  Maybe but probably not.  So therefore food is cheap so we can actually eat to our little piggy hearts content unlike our forefathers could @ times.  While food is cheap, healthy eating with lowered fat and sugar free products as well as fresh produce is EXPENSIVE.  (take it from one who spends more on groceries for two now than I did to feed 6 a few years ago).  We all know part of the problem with our weight and health is our sedentary life style, we don't have to walk miles and so the kids don't either.  The vast majority of us who do preform some sort of manual labor as part of our jobs are probably not breaking a sweat because of it.  Thus we are fat and our children are fat because of our dream lifestyle that our ancestors could only imagine.  (be careful of what you wish for)

Actually getting to the subject of this the first lady was criticized for sharing "too much" when talking about how she found out her girls were getting chubby and subsequently put them on a diet.  Supposedly Sasha and Malia are immediately going into a tailspin of bulimia and anorexia.  (perhaps I exaggerate a bit?)  I know I'll probably go down in flames for this (I liked Laura Bush too and loved the book American Wife too, I even reviewed it here) but give Michelle a break.  She's a mother and I don't think she's talking about the health issues for political gain anymore than Ladybird was trying to beautify America for political gain.  (dating myself there)  Also I had my girls on a diet when they were young.  Why?  Because my family is big, most are tall but everyone except some of  the men for generations have had weight issues.  Maybe not big issues but they were there, if I could prevent my children from having weight issues it seemed like a no brainer to try.  Some relatives weighed close to 300 lb or over.  Now scientists have found that obesity can be caused by an addiction to food supposedly.  All of that is neither here nor there.  I didn't give my girls sugar except on weekends for years!  Why?  Because I was mean and cruel?  No, I read a book about the benefits of fresh vegetables and no sugar and I took it to heart.  I think the authors name started with an R but it's an old book from the 70s.  The girls didn't have cavities till they graduated high school I don't think, they will also eat almost any vegetable to this day too.  And I weighed like 105 lb and thought I was fat so I know what a distorted body image is but I wasn't anorexic, I like to eat too much for that. 

My point is I was diagnosed as malnourished when I was a child.  Like really malnourished, they had better put some pounds on me or I was not going to  grow malnourished!  Why?  All I remember is I was not particularly fond of eating until I was like 11.  I've always had a fairly high metabolism despite my family history so that probably contributed.  I wasn't from a poor family, we were middle classed farmers in our area and my mother was a teacher.  My parents were busy and their first  and only other child had been almost 20 years earlier.  I really don't think they neglected me in that way, there was always food available.  I just didn't want to eat it unless it was chocolate milk or strawberry pop tarts.  They tried to feed me steak and green beans and potatoes, no thank you very much.

My mother freely shared my malnourished diagnosis, I think she actually used it as an illustration of how bull headed I could be.  So do I think my mother talking about this hurt me later in life?  Nope.  I may have had many differences with my mother but this wasn't one.  (Her sneaking my kids out to the garage and feeding them ice cream when they didn't clean their plates was an issue with me though)  This almost sounds like something you should be ashamed of, malnourished, looked like an Ethiopian, but I'm not ashamed @ all.  I did it, it was my fault, I grew out of it obviously.  I may have had a bad body image but I was probably healthier then than I am now.  For that matter I can blame having to sit @ a desk job for putting on this 30 lb that I've only managed to lose once but I ate the chocolates, I ate the big baked potato, I ate 5 slices of pizza, my fault. (now being in the truck me not losing weight is my husbands fault because he won't walk with me! ;-))  But why should people put down Michelle Obama and say she shouldn't talk about her kids diets?  We aren't talking sex life here or fetishes, we are talking food which the last time I looked it was OK to talk about with anyone including ministers and small children?

So what do you think, should Michelle have shared?  Your experiences?  Have you had weight problems one way or another and did talking about it influence them?