My new passion

So, everyone knows I'm not the biggest fan of children, not that I hate them for themselves, but I just don't want any. It still drives me crazy that people can't take care of their children. This article is about a 6 year old, who is bullied for being overweight, and her parents say they feed her well, and that it is a thyroid problem, which is understandable. The problem is, she isn't the only one (either in the family or in the country) who is obese. I know, some people really do have weight issues because of health factors, but many people are just overweight.

My neighbors have 5 kids (I'm not sure if it's all one family or if they are cousins) and 4 of them are ridiculously overweight, the other one is chubby. Every day when I walk by and see them outside, sitting on the steps of their home, or waddling (yes they waddle) around on the sidewalk drinking a milkshake or a soda I cringe. I want to make it a point in my life to help stop this. These children SHOULD know better than to drink soda when they are thirsty, they SHOULD know better than to have a milkshake that is the size of a big gulp, they SHOULD know that what they are doing is unhealthy. And they should want to do something about it.
It frustrates me that parents are allowed to feed their children these things, and are not told differently. I don't find it difficult to eat healthy on about $30 a week, and I guarantee they are paying more than that to feed their children milkshakes and McDonald's. I also don't think it is wrong for people to eat at McDonald's... .sometimes. I think people need to learn that healthy food can be tasty, better than unhealthy food taste-wise even. I love brussel sprouts, but not if they aren't cooked the right way, and I understand that some people don't like them. There is something healthy that each person would like, and I think we should find this. We need to stop allowing people to just "not like" healthy food, and find recipes that they do like.

On a related note, these schools in Texas is planning to count student calories by camera. The security cameras are already in place, so why not use them to monitor food intake? While I do not believe that student health is totally based around school, I think that children need to learn healthy habits at home as well.

I think we need to organize and incentive-based system for activity and food intake, it could be based in schools, but it could be based in a community center, everyone likes incentives!

R