Fred Hahn's Ideas and Insights on Exercise and Nutrition to Better Your Life

Adolescent Obesity Levels Off

According to a recent study or, rather, survey, over the past decade adolescent obesity has leveled off. This is good news (if in fact the news is for real).

The sad part is that for the past 20 years or so, kids have been allowed to become so fat. It's our fault - the parents, the government and especially the food companies.

In an LA Times article, Dr. Riza Lavizzo-Mourey, President of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation is quoted as having said:

"These findings may signal that this national epidemic is not an unstoppable force."

You don't need to see the results of the survey to know that this 'epidemic' is entirely stoppable. In fact, the answer is quite simple. Why so many organizations act as if the reason or cause is insurmountable and unfathomable is beyond me.

Kids today are overfat because they eat too much sugar specifically refined carbohydrates (and yes, to a certain extent, calories in general). In my new book Strong Kids Healthy Kids this will be discussed in more detail.

Additionally, it's got not a thing to do with inactivity. Research indicates that overfat kids are just as active as their leaner counterparts. There are plenty of obese and active kids and plenty of lean inactive kids. Money spent on getting kids more active is money wasted. Of course kids should have gym class. Of course kids should be encouraged to participate in sports. But not for reasons of fat loss.

The idea that inactivity is a factor in obesity is without merit. Several studies have looked at activity/aerobic programs in children and found no change in body composition. Two being a 3 year study by Cohen, 1995 Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 66: A29 and a 10 week study by Ignico and Mahon, 1995 (same issue pgs. 85-90) both showed no change in body composition.

It's the gobbling of sugar, not the refrain from frolic that makes kids fat.

And who feeds kids the wrong stuff? Family, friends, schools and institutions.

Q: How do we stop war? Cease killing people.

Q: How do we stop adolescent obesity? Cease feeding kids that which makes them fat. And we know EXACTLY what these foods are. They are foods that never walked, crawled, swam, flew or grew. There is no such thing as a pasta bush, a bagel tree or a pizza-fish. I never met a cookie-cow in my life.

I don't care that it's hard. I don't care that the kids will complain. I don't care that you have to get up earlier to cook and prepare. I don't care that you have to eat the same way too.

The answers to life's problems are sometimes hard. Really hard. But let's not pretend that the answers don't exist because this is so.

"Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness."

A complimentary autographed copy of my book The Slow Burn Revolution goes to the first person who can tell me who said this. HINT: It was a man.

Me and DC

My family and I took a lovely trip to Washington DC this past weekend. The weather was beautiful and we had some fascinating experiences.

Here is a pic of the beauties in front of the inn we stayed at

This was a nice B&B. Comfy beds, cool pictures of presidents, monuments, etc. All great save for the continental breakfast. If the Inn had a theme song it would be Sugar Mountain by Neil Young.

Like a jerkaholic, I failed to take pictures of the breakfast table. I apologize for this.

Allow me to describe the fare.

On the lovely linened table sat a basket of various breads and English muffins. A large pitcher of nonfat milk accompanied an even larger pitcher of OJ. Jams and jellies of all colors were available and 4 different kinds of sugars were stuffed into a crystal sugar packet holder. There was also a container of  Nutella, which is a chocolate/hazelnut spread of some sort.

Centered on the long, beautifully carved maple counter where the coffee and non dairy creamer sat, a giant bowl of bagels dominated the scene. As you moved your way past this enormous container of gluten, more breads and muffins greeted you. Past this were big, half filled, glass containers of Frosted Mini-wheats, Frosted Flakes, Frosted something else and a container of non-frosted something else with nuts and seeds in it.

This container was completely full. In front of this sat a little bowl of raisins. Also full.

And that is it. A boiled egg or piece of meat was not to be found, or even smelled cooking in the distance.

The folks who sat around the big breakfast table were from many different lands. But the largest of the folks (by far) were the Americans and in particular the ones from Connecticut. The German family were the leanest of the lot.

Fearing having to drink skim milk in our watered down B&B coffee, I brought along a pint of organic heavy cream. As we had no fridge, I sat it on the table for anyone to share.

Surprisingly the the coffee was quite good and not surprisingly, the milk available was all skim. Needless to say I scored big points with my wife for suggesting we schlep the cream.

As we ate, I watched with delight as the older German woman took my pint of cream and poured it into her cereal bowl - the cereal that had the nuts and seeds mind you. My wife who speaks German told me that their conversation at that moment was all about how little fat and how much sugar there was at the breakfast table. The older woman remarked that there is usually Speck (smoked ham) included in a continental breakfast or other meats.

Not a single American touched the cream. They seem to be repelled by it.

Perhaps the highlight was visiting the Jefferson memorial by paddle boat.

Jefferson's majestic statue is a sight to see.

But before we donned our life jackets, I saw the horror or horrors - and I couldn't believe my eyes.

A very large woman was force feeding her 1 year old a bag of Lays potato chips. I watched in horror as she shoved the nonliving substance directly into her child's mouth. (I tried to snap a picture of this for you but my wife almost bit my head off so, sorry, no pictures of this.) 

As the kid gummed and tasted it, his face contorted in pain and disgust and within seconds began to eject the now half fluid, half particle substance onto the paddle boat dock. Clearly his little body knew that such poisons must be ejected.

But it got worse.

The large woman became enraged by this denial and scolded the child for spewing out the gooey substance. After shaking her meaty finger at the poor kid in anger she began to shove yet another one into his helpless little mouth. A crime in progress.

The older kid, her daughter I presume, was also eating the chips. But it appeared that years of force feeding and scolding had made her like and enjoy the poisonous product. 

It was like I was watching a horror film or being in a bad dream where you can't move. I felt the need to do something but alas I could not. It would have made a perfect Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.

What would he have done?

Scott Adams the Vegetarian Comic

Scott Adams is a funny comic writer. As a blogger, he's really good too. But his recent post on eating meat had my incisors and canines bared.

He lists 2 points on meat eaters:

1.That we will argue to death that eating meat is healthy. Yes we will. And why? Because it IS.

If meat were unhealthy, there'd be no lions, tigers and bears. Could it maybe be the type of meat one eats that could lead to ill health? One would think there is a eeensy, weensy, teeny difference between a bison steak cooked by a native Sioux and Parker's Brown and serve sausages.

2.The second point was funny - that if people were natural meat eaters, we'd salivate when we saw a cow. However I doubt that vegetarians salivate while looking at a picture of Christina's World - or while standing in a field of filthy, dirty potatoes.

Anyway...

He goes on to say that he doesn't understand why we cut our meat into steaks, cook it and cover it with sauces. Well, it's hard to eat an entire buffalo (though boy I've come close), steak tar-tar is a favorite of mine as is sashimi. So we animal eaters do indeed like it raw.

And last I checked you couldn't walk into a wheat field, snatch up a handful of wheat and eat. Many grain products are refined foods - unreal - processed. And did you know they can alter your DNA? Grain foods contain among the most destructive proteins known to mankind. Here's a glimpse.

As for sauces? C'mon Scott - vegans and vegetarians slather everything they eat in some kind of soy/tahini/rice vinegar concoction. Some are good too!

I must admit I have salivated, as Scott has, at the sight of potatoes. But usually they are in the form of frites nestled closely to my rare and tender rib eye.

Thanks to my agent Lisa and to Seth for the heads up.

What is a 'Fad?'

As in 'fad' diet?'

Essentially, a fad is:

"A temporary fashion, notion, manner of conduct, etc., esp. one followed enthusiastically by a group. A fashion thing or idea that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief, temporary period of time; a craze."

The definition of temporary is:

"Lasting, used, serving, or enjoyed for a limited time."

The original low carb diet, invented in a sense by a corpulent undertaker name William Banting (who incidentally lived to be 81 way back then) was put down on paper and distributed freely in the UK back in 1864. I t was called:

 
Can you see the date?

This booklet discusses the issue of how he cured his obesity through a low carb diet when all else failed him. After reading this, you'd almost be correct in calling Atkins a plagiarist.

So low carbing, considered by the current medical community today as a fad diet, has been with us for ~143 years - and is still going strong.

The Food Pyramid has been with us since (drum roll please) 1992 and is slowly being rendered inert. Remember, the definition of a fad is:

"A fashion, thing or idea that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief, temporary period of time."

So, what's really the fad Dr. Kildare?

Dr. Kill-scare

Have any of you seen this?

If so then read this: Low Carb Diet Takes One Below The Belt.