Schools Sending 'Fat Letters' To Parents About Overweight Children

reply to post by xuenchen


Hey Xue,

Wow I can not believe the some of the ignorant repsonses in this thread!

The schools should be sending the fat letters to themselves,
Congress and The Whitehouse!

Has anyone see a school lunch lately?

The food they serve is hardly what one could call well balanced,
this letter campaign is probably part of the plan, you know where
The White House eats organic, from thier organic garden and the
rest of America, yes yes including the school lunch program eats GMO!

And this is the same land where ketchup (GMO laden pesticide laden corn syrup laden)
ketchup a vegetable?

Pizza is a vegetable? Congress says yes

www.google.com...=congress+declares+pizza+is+a+vegetable+for+school+lunches[

Wow, what a ruse. The problem is the USDA and its Congress butt slapping
to Monsanto and the other chemical companies that are GMO engineering the food!

Pink Slime in School Lunch Program

5 Government Polices that make school lunch program Unhealty

1. The Child Nutrition Commodity Program

By coordinating "the distribution of commodities" to more than 94,000 schools, this USDA-run program supports "American agricultural producers by providing cash reimbursements for meals served in schools and other child nutrition institutions."

However, the majority of foods purchased by schools through this program tend to be animal products: in California, for example, more than 82 percent of school money spent on commodities went to meat and cheese items, according to a California Food Policy Advocates study, which added: "Nationally, over 50 percent (55 percent in California) of commodity foods are sent to processors before they are delivered to school districts. Processing, which may add fat, sugar and sodium to foods, is unregulated for nutritional quality."

Not encouraging. Neither are the recipes provided by the USDA that use commodity foods.

They are not particularly health-conscious—and while the agency did not write them, the selection says a lot about the priority of nutrition vs. using commodity foods.

The "Meat/Meat Alternates" section, for example, includes Beef Empanadas, Hot Roast Pork Sandwich, Pork Barbecue, Pork Cacciatore, Stir-Fried Pork—the only two non-meat options are the Chilies Relleno Casserole (primary ingredient: cheese) and Peanut Butter Pixies/BonBons (half peanut butter and half a margarine-powdered sugar-"prepared chocolate frosting" blend). Not a model for building a health menu.
health.howstuffworks.com...

According to Congress...French fries—specifically batter-coated—are considered
not only vegetables, but fresh vegetables.

Yeah, the schools no longer even educate and they serve carp food to the kids
for school lunches, (this does not even take into consideration that there are Government
sponsored Day Cares and After School programs serving the same crap as an excuse for food)

Hey at least if the children are taught that 1 + 3 = 5 (new Obama common core by
Ayers and Obama) they wont read labels either.

Its a win win for the Government, and the Chemical GMO food producers.

Here is an issue that caught my attention a few years back, and after living off the land and eating nothing but fish and game in my youth I know for a fact it makes a difference, and why I believe diet should be geared towards the specific needs of the individual.

www.sciencedaily.com...

Obesity sees some of is its highest levels in Hawaiian, Hispanic, Native American, and African American population.

The NA and Hawaiians that went back to ancestral living and eating and lost weight.

Discrimination and Obesity Among Native Hawaiians
www.sciencedaily.com...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

io9.com...

The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race
www.ditext.com...

youtu.be...




What our government offers us and encourages us to eat is garbage in comparison.

How to eat culturally.

I bet you guys wouldn't bat an eye if instead of fat letters they were sending letters in regards to anorexia/malnurishment.

What our government offers us and encourages us to eat is garbage in comparison.

Still the choice of the individual though, I've personally never looked into what any government may or may not advise to eat, nutritional information is easily available from multiple sources for everyone in developed nations.

Again, everyone seems to be looking for someone to blame other than themselves.
If a fat person (on food stamps or not) wants to lose weight then reduce intake, it's that simple.
I eat a fair amount of crap processed food myself when I'm feeling too lazy to cook properly, but I burn it off by using more energy than I take in.
Lets be honest and blame the choices people make in their own lives, it's ridiculous breaking our hearts as if fat people are all some kind of victim. The vast majority have only themselves to blame.

You can eat the crappest processed fat laden food you like, but if you consume less energy than you use you will lose weight.
Choices people, stop making victims out of people who choose to be fat, no-one forces the food down their throats.

Originally posted by OmegaOwl
I bet you guys wouldn't bat an eye if instead of fat letters they were sending letters in regards to anorexia/malnurishment.

OO, I did address that subject, however do you realize how many overweight people are suffering from malnutrition?

Here is what I found interesting, that according to statistics, more than 2 in 3 adults are considered to be overweight
www.win.niddk.nih.gov...

Except on ATS where there is only one or two in the thousands that post here, and none of their children either or parents.


Which leads me to believe there is an absolutely,

ENORMOUS stigma attached to being overweight.

Public attitudes about fat have never been more judgmental; stigmatizing fat people has become not just acceptable but, in some circles, de rigueur. I’ve sat in meetings with colleagues who wouldn’t dream of disparaging anyone’s color, sex, economic status or general attractiveness, yet feel free to comment witheringly on a person’s weight.

Have you experienced weight discrimination? Read the full story, “For Obese People, Prejudice in Plain Sight,” then please join the conversation below.

www.nytimes.com...

Over the last few years, fat people have become scapegoats for all manner of cultural ills. “There’s an atmosphere now where it’s O.K. to blame everything on weight,” said Dr. Linda Bacon, a nutrition researcher and the author of “Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight” (Benbella, 2008). “If we’re worried about climate change, someone comes out with an article about how heavier people weigh more, so they require more fuel, and they blame the climate change crisis on fatter people. We have this strong belief system that it’s their fault, that it’s all about gluttony or lack of exercise.”

stories from people who say they lost jobs or promotions because of their weight, or were not hired in the first place.
www.naafaonline.com...

One recent study shows that the higher a patient’s body mass, the less respect doctors express for that patient.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...

Dr. Bacon tells the story of an overweight teenage girl whose high school was going through a “wellness campaign.” Hallways were plastered with posters saying “Prevent teenage obesity.” After the posters went up, the girl said, schoolmates began taunting her in the halls, pointing at the obese girl on the posters and saying, “Look at the fat chick.”

heavier students were now made to feel guilty about their lunch choices, but the thin ones could eat anything they wanted

“Stigmatization gives the thinner kids permission to think there’s something wrong with the larger kids,” Dr. Bacon, the nutrition researcher, said. “And it doesn’t help them look at their own health habits. There’s got to be a way to do this more respectfully and more effectively.”

Originally posted by grainofsand
Still the choice of the individual though,

No, no it is not for children, who are in school...where these letters originated from.
The schools themselves are guilty guilty. They serve fat laden garbage and call it
food, calling french fries and ketchup vegetables. Children on school lunch programs
have no choice but to eat this stuff, how then can the school point fingers at parents???

Anyone who is defending the school here is intentionally blind.

Originally posted by burntheships

Originally posted by grainofsand
Still the choice of the individual though,

No, no it is not for children, who are in school...where these letters originated from.
The schools themselves are guilty guilty. They serve fat laden garbage and call it
food, calling french fries and ketchup vegetables. Children on school lunch programs
have no choice but to eat this stuff, how then can the school point fingers at parents???

Anyone who is defending the school here is intentionally blind.

The single school provided meal five days per week is not making kids fat, it's the crisps/chips pop/soda sweets/candy and other crap on top each day off the parents which causes the problem.
I agree absolutely, it is the parents fault regarding kids, and mostly the individuals fault regarding adults.

Originally posted by burntheships


Anyone who is defending the school here is intentionally blind.

And so are those that do not see the obese. You want schools to turn a blind eye to the health of the children that spend at least 30 hours per week under their supervision? Head lice is Okay, but when they tip the scales, it's not.

Originally posted by grainofsand
The single school provided meal five days per week is not making kids fat.

Oh, any knowledable person, doctor, dietician would argue with you, and prove you wrong.
Heck even Michelle Obama would argue with you.

Originally posted by Hollie
30 hours per week under their supervision?

Exactly my point, several meals provided by the schools are fat laden crap.

When I was in school the students were taught what the basic food groups were and how many servings of each they needed per day, so there was nutritional education, I would hope that such instruction is still included. If not then the Fat letters are likely to be seen more as a finger pointing your a bad person notice from the school which would likely simply cause anger and frustration.

This thread really made me think about this issue being exclusively one of over eating junk food and sedentary lifestyles, and if not what other factors could be contributing. We've all heard of endocrine diseases which can be treated, and family genetics, less often mentioned is that some medications can cause weight gain, this I know from personal experience. It was that last contributing factor that sparked one of those "AH HA" moments in me and I had to do some research to see if there were any studies that might back what I was thinking, so now I'm back to contribute.

Although more often the subject of media attention, the obesity epidemic is not the only health epidemic effecting our children that has garnered some serious attention. Almost hand and hand with the obesity epidemic is the asthma epidemic. Now I know that there are times when the treatment for asthma episodes require treatment with a corticosteroid which causes increased fluid retention and appetite, and even if one ignores the appetite the fluid retention still can cause major weight gain, even to the point of displaying symptoms of cushings disease, this I know from experience and it can be drastic.

So I started searching for correlations between asthma and increased obesity which of course there is because asthmatics at times are less physically active. Then I added my particular asthma trigger which is less often considered (and what caused me to develop adult onset asthma) chemical fumes, I can be in a room full of smokers with no problem, but open up a bottle of nail polish around me and I can literally die from the severity of my reaction to it. Upon adding this additional criteria to my search I found my suspicions confirmed.

I found a number of research studies confirming that Environmental and chemical toxins can not only trigger asthma, but can damage a number of the body's natural weight control mechanisms.

A couple of the articles and/or abstracts can be found here:
Chemical toxins: a hypothesis to explain the global obesity epidemic.

Obesity and metabolic comorbidities: environmental diseases?

In some of these studies the researchers stated that the motivation for these studies was because the commonly held causes of obesity, ie over eating and inactivity, do not explain the obesity epidemic that they are seeing, there is just not THAT much of a difference between 30 years ago and now. Reading this I got the impression that this is considered a fairly major contributing factor.

Now as far as I understand this issue, the school's will be using BMI charts for children to reach a determination regarding who gets a letter and who doesn't. I am of the personal opinion that these charts fail to factor in all bodily variations that contribute to one's weight, they only use age/weight or height/weight to determine the BMI to determine who is overweight or obese vs what is "normal". The child's bone structure and density which can contribute significantly in a child's overall weight are not factored into the BMI index. In effect it is really no different from the height and weight charts they used way back in the day when I was in school.

Now falling back on my personal experiences as a reference (and the numbers really haven't varied from when I was young), those numbers aren't always healthy. I am only 5' 2" but I have a considerably large sturdy bone structure, for example the smallest ring size I have ever been able to wear is a sz 8 which is considerable for a female. I was always weight conscious when I was young, and frustrated that I could never seem to lose enough weight to become "normal", I became so obsessed over this that around 16 yrs I discovered that coffee would quell my appetite and I completely stopped eating. I just lived on coffee, I would go for walks when my family had meals, I walked 5 miles a day and I finally reached normal, by then my mother was threatening to institutionalize me for being anorexic, my cheeks and eyes were deeply sunken in, I would wake in the morning with my teeth covered in blood due to the vitamin deficiency, I developed an ulcer, but I thought I looked great because I was finally "normal" and I did not to let that go for anything, I eventually became very ill, I couldn't think normally or see normally the world was a haze and eventually I had to give up being "normal" to become healthy again.

reply to post by burntheships


So... what you're trying to say is... a registered dietician shouldn't be able to send a parent a letter home about the health of their child...

...because the school lunch system serves unhealthy food?

reply to post by LightOrange


What I am saying is the dietician should be sending the school a letter.

Let the schools do what they are funded to do, which is educate.
They have failed at that, now what makes them qualified to send letters out
while they serve french fries and ketchip as vegetables ???

I that was what phys ed was for. Obviously the phys ed program is not working out so great. Well, anyway, this is another example of the Nanny State becoming overly involved in our personal lives. What business is it of public school to declare children obese and send letters home to parents? I think this is prelude to the deeper intrusion of Obamacare, you see, because Obamacare is the State controlling our health care and the State doesn't want to have to pay for the health problems of obese people. I doubt these people actually care about the children involved. Next they will be taking the children from their homes. Think it's not going to happen? Didn't I read a story on ATS about some obese children about to be taken from their parents in Britain?

I think that health is a part of education because without good health then you're not living a healthy life. Obesity is a very big problem in the USA and it doesn't just stop at health it also affects economics as a whole. To think that before this year, The US was #1 in the world for Obesity, now it's #2 (thanks Mexico!). Something needs to be done and unfortunately you have one side that says obesity is a good thing, healthy, and people should be proud to be fat, and the other side raises legitimate health concerns.

Teachers should continue to teach children that obesity is a health problem just like unprotected sex can also be a health hazard with sexual transmitted diseases. In Japan, it's against the law to be fat and you have to pay a fine every year if you are fat. Each year, schools measure their students including breast size and all to verify the BMI of the students. If they are fat, the parents get fined. At work places, they do the same. I wouldn't want this system to be implemented in the US and I hate to say this but if everyone's promoting obesity like it's the next best thing then having this system to nanny people will become a requirement.

You have the right to be fat, but you also have the right to be taught about obesity and how it negatively affects people. You go to school to get educated, and to say that these fat letters is a bad thing is ridiculous because not everyone is educated and knows that obesity is unhealthy and it's important to have people informed so they can act more responsibly. I understand, obesity isn't something that can be "cured" overnight. It can in some cases be a life-long struggle to tame but it has to be taken care of for better health, but if people want to make the choice of staying fat then it's up to them. In the US we are given the choice to run our lives our own way (for now) so fat people can be fat if they want to.

As a final note, people too skinny should also get that letter because it's just as unhealthy. In fact, screw it. Send out a newsletter to everyone! lol

This is just downright stupid. Pretty sure the parent's can tell if there child is obese or not. On the other hand, America really does need a wake up call. Too many people are letting obesity get the best of them. And us Americans wonder why the other countries make fun of us.. We're the fat kid in the classroom.

reply to post by butcherguy


I know....what's scary is how many people today think it's normal for fat bureaucratic govt to have this much involvement in our personal lives. Sending home letters about overweight children is beyond the pale of Nanny Statism. They could just have nutrition classes as mandatory part of home ec instead of shaming the families with taunting letters.
But then, Michelle's bean salads haven't been all that popular amongst the kids. What's a Totalitarian State to do???

reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus

What's a Totalitarian State to do???

spend more money on nonsense studies rather promote good nutrition.
see 2nd link in OPs post

sequestion ?? sure, right
make sure there is enough blame to go around and then convince the kids it's in their best interest to turn in their vile parents.

News In Brief: Fructose may be key to weight gain
Mice that could not make or metabolize the sugar gained less than normal mice

www.sciencenews.org...