For children, teens, & young adults being fat is a health emergency....

Today's Post: Thursday, 8-5-2010

Why is this so and what effects does it have?

Today and in the last few days there have been several news stories about this.

Being fat and the eating habits and lack of exercise that cause it and for which being fat is a highly reliable indicator, cause serious health damage.

And, that’s in addition to the self esteem damage that often results.

(Being fat also tends to reduce your lifetime income.)

1. A few days ago, there was a story that young adults who had high LDL cholesterol tend to build up plaque in their blood vessels that causes heart disease later in their lives even if they lower their cholesterol somewhat at a later time.

(Virtually no smokers in this age group know it; but every last one of them gets this same effect from smoking and from virtually every exposure they get to tobacco smoke. Cardiologists and doctors in related fields virtually all know that when they check the blood vessels of smoker, they will find far more plaque in their blood vessels than they do in similar people who are nonsmokers and not exposed to second hand smoke.)

2. A story today on AP and also on TIME online said that pregnant moms who gained too much fat weight by combatting the stress or discomfort of pregnancy by eating more sugary or starchy comfort foods tended to have heavier babies that then themselves will be more likely to have obesity or type 2 diabetes problems.

Similarly, an even more scary story earlier in the year reported a study that found that pregnant moms who ate junk food high in omega 6 oils also had have children who were much more likely to have obesity or type 2 diabetes problems.

3. Today, HealthDay news had a story that reported that children who had type 2 diabetes had thinking difficulties and were less mentally capable than children who were free of type 2 diabetes.

4. Similarly, the fat young people themselves are likely to stay fat in later life if they make no changes.

And, in addition to the problems we already listed, being fat is a direct cause of high blood pressure and more and worse back problems and joint pain problems due directly to the effect of the extra weight.

5. Lastly, being fat almost always goes with being very sedentary and getting virtually no exercise. This often means that fat young people watch a lot of TV and get almost no exercise and no vigorous exercise at all.

Regular exercise lowers LDL cholesterol and protects your heart in other ways and slows aging. Vigorous exercise like strength training even can reverse insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes in their early stages particularly for people who upgrade what they eat and drink. Regular exercise builds new brain cells; enables you to think better, and relieves stress. It also increases strength, fitness, self-esteem, makes you look better, and even improves your sex life.

6. Nor is this all.

The costs of the medical treatment in dollars, lost time due to illness, early death, or being in the hospital, and in putting up with obnoxious side effects from drugs that can ruin your quality of life are no fun.

These are all mostly avoidable and all begin with the eating style and lack of exercise that makes people fat and from the side effects of being fat.

Taken together, it becomes very clear that young people who are fat now are now having their health seriously harmed.

But since they are still young, these health problems and future health problems CAN largely be escaped. However, this is only true if the conditions leading to being fat are completely reversed right away.


So, being fat in a child, teen, or young person is exactly like having a flashing red light in your car. It means that there is a health emergency.

Something very dangerous is happening.

But if you find and fix the problems causing it right away, you have a chance of preventing more serious damage and may even reverse the damage already done if you act quickly and are lucky.

With being fat, it is clear what the basic steps are. But they only work if the young person involved knows why they are so important, learns to do them, gets good at them, and makes them a permanent part of their life.

Here’s a short summary.

In some ways it’s like living as if it was 1910 instead of 2010 but without losing the advantages we have in 2010.

The writer-analyst Michael Pollan said it well,

1. “Eat food
(He only includes foods people had available in 1910 –NOT packaged, processed foods with junk ingredients or soft drinks or diet soft drinks);
eat mostly plants;
and not too much.

2. Walk several times a week and do vigorous exercise several times a week. Ideally walk some every day and do interval cardio and strength training several times a week each.

(In 1910, even rich and relatively sedentary people HAD to do this much walking and be that active. AND, so did every generation of humans for hundreds of thousands of years before that. As a result, that is what our bodies are designed to do well and thrive on doing.)

3. Watch very little TV or at least cut back to 15 hours a week or less. And, if they show a food or drink ad, mute it or go take a bathroom break.

Here’s why.

You use more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

(Also, if you never have time to exercise and watch 21 to 42 hour a week of TV that’s quite common among fat people of every age. But, if you cut back to 14 or 15 hours, you liberate 6 to 27 hours A WEEK that gives you enough time to fit in exercise.)

The food and drink ads are for junk that makes you fat and sick, is cheap to make. It has a long shelf life. And, it is so profitable to provide that the companies that provide it can spend all that money on ads and still make lots of money off people who don’t know any better than to buy it and use it.

Check out what it’s made out of on the labels sometime. Refined grains, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, artificial sweeteners, oils like soy and corn that are high in omega 6, salt, MSG –sometimes labeled as “spices” or “autolyzed yeast,” artificial colors, preservatives, and hydrogenated oils.

With the exception of eating quite small amounts of salt or real sugar and the refined grains sometimes, not a single one of those is a “food” by Michael Pollan’s definition.

Not a single one of them is worth paying your money for or including in the calories you do allow yourself to eat.

They make you fat, cause type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer the studies are now showing.

For example, one source found evidence that for every daily soft drink you drink, you carry 15 pounds of fat from the calories you add. So, if you drink 3 or 4 now and stop entirely and drink water, tea or coffee instead that has no added sugars within a few months from that one change, you will be 45 to 60 pounds less fat.

(By the way, the soft drink will have the same effect if it’s a “diet” soft drink. That’s because they act just like a very strong drug that boosts your appetite for sugar foods by that much.)

So, if you are a parent and your child is fat or you are a fat teen or young adult, you have a health emergency.

The good news is that we now know why it’s an emergency and how to fix it.

Will you take action to fix it?

Only you can answer that.