Honey we're killing the kids....

I'm assuming a number of you have seen this show.... About families with overweight and unhealthy children and how they are ingraining horrible eating habits on these children and what it will do to them as they age. 

Well, I think the show itself is mediocre at best.  The nutritionist they have is a horrible TV personailty and the aging gimic they do with the kids is so over-the-top exageratted that it actually hurts the credibility.  ANYWAY, I'm not writing about this to slam the show.  I watch each and every episode.

The thing is, the concept is awesome!  Go into a home with a family with really poor health habits and try to help them turn it around.  They should do this show with all households, not just ones with kids.  Obviously, they'd have to change the name... and no goofy age morphing for the adults... still, I think it would be really great to show people how they could go about 'fixing' their lifestyles.

Man, sometimes I wish I was rich.  Then I could actually act on all my ideas and then I'd be, well, more rich.  :)

-Robyn

True the aging thing is lame but the idea of the show is great.  Have you seen Shaq's new show about childhood obesity?  It's great he is trying to make PE manditory, change school lunches, and help transform some kids to show that it can be done.  I think it's great that a celeb is using his status to help people in our own country!!!

I have watched that show a few times.  I think shows like this are great, because it's (hopefully) getting the message out there about healthy eating habbits.  It is SO much easier for kids if you start them off eating well when they are little.  I watched a show recently, and the girl on it HATED raw vegetables.  She actually gaged when she tried to eat a lettuce leaf.  I felt so sorry for her.  What a way to go through life.  Society needs to start making some serious changes, and quickly.

I agree about the quality of the show, but the idea is sound.

Have you seen "Big Medicine" and "Inside Brookhaven Clinic"?  They are on Monday nights on TLC and if you ever need motivation to lose weight - these are the shows to watch!!!

I don't necessarily agree with the gastric bypass idea, but whatever works for these folks, go for it!  I do agree with the Brookhaven Clinic premise, that people have to change lifestyles if weight loss will be maintained.

Sharon McCay, Loisville, KY

Not having kids of my own, maybe my opinion counts less, but MAN! If would give almost anything to be a kid again and have my mom teach me healthy eating and exercise habits...... Being a single mom with 3 kids and 2 jobs usually meant that I, being the big sister at 8, was responsible for supper and all evening activities, so we had lots of PBJ and chips, Ramen, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, friench fries, tator tots, pizzas, etc. Easy food...... We never did much outside-- I was content to read a book myself. WHo needed to get sweaty?

I guess I like the age morphing thing because you can see how deeply it impacts the parents sometimes------and I can SEE the real resemblance, not just to the kid who they are morphing, but also to the fat parents who the fake photo almost always looks like! I agree a little over the top sometimes, but what kind of shock does it take to make people make the changes necessary to raise healthier, happier kids?

Best thing I learned recently was from this show, and the episode centered on a single mom with 2 BRATTY girls. She did everything for them, seriously, and was exhausted and just gave in most of the time. They told her to involve the kids in cooking and picking out foods--and these are girls who had pretty much refused anything to eat thus far in the week and going so far as to actually puke at the table, and do you know they ate everything on their plates the night they helped???? They had fun spending time with their mom and they had a sense of ownership for the good food, so they tried it.

I just turned 30 this year, and I've spent most of my life either thick and pretty much pretending to be happy about it or fat and miserable---I would have found it very beneficial if I had known how to be healthier the whole time....... This show has certainly shown me how much easier it is to help your kids make good choices if we are good role models in eating and exercise and how it is easier to maintain healthy living vs. forcing it on them at age 10 after a life of convenience food and tv viewing. ( :

Like I said, not being a mom may change my perceptions a little, but I actually talked to my mom a little after the aforementioned episode..... I felt disloyal for admitting some of the thigns I have admitted here and wanted to come clean.....

I really hate the age progression on that show as well. They make those kids look hideous and really they havent a clue what these kids are going to look like even if they remain eating junk. I think the concept is good and I agree with a lot of what they do and i seen that the familys portrayed in this still keep up with the lifestyle change even 1 yr later and so on so its all good if it helps them.

I agree that you learn SO much of your eating habits from your parents! The best thing my mom ever did for me was to serve a variety and fresh veggies and a salad at every meal. Even if we had cheeseburgers and frenchfries we had a salad on the side we ate first. The worst thing she did was cover the veggies in a ton of butter and the salad in blue cheese dressing! Those are the habits I have had to break since starting on this sight. I have to say - if that's what you have to do to make your kids eat veggies then it's worth it - they can cut those things out when they're older!

Well, obviously they have to make the kids' aging look as unattractive as possible to scare the parents into acting, because we all know that being unattractive is a fate worse than death (sigh) (I've only seen it once, do they do things like, "Your child is likely to have ____ health problem by age 40" or do they mostly stick with the looks?).

I've only seen the show once and I had huge problems with the episode I saw... with the "rocker" family, I thought the nutritionist did about the dumbest crap possible to see that the kids *hated* the food at first and it was really difficult to prepare. I think the first night was something like "cold cucumber soup" and none of the family knew *how* to cook and they didn't get it done til like 9 o'clock or something and then nobody ate it.

How stupid was that? The whole family was starving and the kids were in open rebellion. THen they had such a *fit* about the boys "sneaking peanut butter" (horrors - last I knew peanut butter was a recommended food). How many days did those kids starve before they found something they liked to eat??

Get realistic. If you make it this hard and the food this different and unlikeable, what message are you sending to the viewers at home?

You have to eat stuff that doesn't taste good??

It's really hard and after a long day's work you have to come home and cook these wierd, elaborate foods you've never heard of to be successful??

It doesn't have to be that hard or the foods that "strange" (especially at first). I'm just wondering how many folks at home watch it and say, "we'll never be able to do that, we're just doomed to be unhealthy". Shows like this shouldn't cause people to give up before they even start!!

I agree with some of the odd concoctions they had on some of the shows. I think the point was to get them trying something new and totally different from what they were eating. If you ate those kinds of foods to begin with they wouldnt be foreign to you in the first place. I think its good to try something new all the time gives your body different things it needs and it gives you new ideas with some old twists perhaps.

Cold cucumber soup sounds odd to you and me but im sure to someone else its to die for! Never hurts to incorperate new foods into your family meals they dont have to be elaborate all the time just different and more healthy approach. I think it leads to better eating as an adult if the kids get a taste for good veggies and fruits they will eventually get used to it if you stay consistent.

I agree with you, lizfm and angie---

It is sort of counterproductive to make the food so unappetizing that no one in the family wants to eat, and I think those families have to go in knowing it's going be damn hard to comvince most of the time spoiled kids that it is a good idea to eat vegetables and oatmeal vs. pizza, fried chicken and Frosted Flakes. BUT I also think it's such a shock to the kids that someone expects something of them, all of a sudden, go forbid, they get off the couch to ride a bike or help cook their own food. It is so much smarter to just do it their whole lives! I too would have been sad to see the ketchup and fried foods disappear from my life at age 10, but looking back now at 30, it sure the heck would have been worth it.

That said, I've also seen episodes where I actually copied down the recipes..... Like the one I mentioned above with the single mom and barfing at the table kids, she sauteed or roasted a bunch of veggies and then pureed them into "spaghetti sauce" with whol wheat pasta---and I did the same thing to my bf. he loved it and had no clue.

I think that show is more about education for the parents and the kids about how to eat and incoporate more activity into their lives vs. you have to eat just like this forever. And I am not sure who said it above, but I'd pay for someone to come to my house and show me how to do it even better---with kids or without! ( : We could call it, "Get off Your Couch and Cook" or something.

--hope I didn;t offend anyone? Olivia ( :

I wanted to add a bit of something from my own experience with my children. My whole family hated tuna i hated also. I decided to try and put it into our diet someway cause I knew it was good for you and would be a good thing to get my kids to start liking more fish. I slowly added it into things I made a wheat noodle tuna casserole for supper one night, I didnt add a lot of tuna but enough you could taste it a bit EVERYONE loved it. When I told everyone that it wasnt chicken bits inside of it that it was in fact tuna i got a glance and they all said hmmmm tuna isnt bad i guess. Now we eat tuna at least once a week and many other things I have tried over the past 6 months. With that said it is possible to change kids eating habits and have them actually enjoy them.

I can remember one episode from the show the one little boy had never tried an apple before he thought they were disqusting by the end of the time frame he was asking for them daily and loved fruits and veggies! It does happen and when it does its like BINGO EUREKA I have found the secret to eating right hehe

This is bit off topic.  Olivia, don't sell your opinions short just because you don't have kids!!  I have 4 beautiful nieces and a super cool nephew but no kids of my own.  That doesn't mean that I can't be a good role model and show "my kiddos" how to be healthy.  I bet you influence more families than you realize.  :)

Oh, and I totally agree about the fish thing: it is an acquired taste.  I love salmon, mahi mahi, cod, and was practically raise on catfish caught fresh from the lake by my grandpa.  My husband, on the other hand, thinks Mrs. Paul's frozen filets are the best fish he's ever had.  It's been a struggle to get him to eat healthier but I had a small victory a few days ago at dinner.  He ordered baked cod, ate it, and LOVED it.  There's hope for him yet!

I've also watched Shaq's Big Challenge and am really impressed with Tyler Florence working with the caf staff.  Feeding teenagers is no easy task, let alone keeping it to under $1 per serving.  Kudos Tyler!

Er...PE is mandatory already, isn't it?

The way physical education is "taught" is really what needs to be reformed.  You really don't learn anything about physical activity and its benefits or how to correctly do physical activities, nor do you learn about nutrition.  Having a bunch of kids play a sport doesn't help anyone, especially because those who are athletic dominate the games, most typically.

Can someone tell me what channel Shaq's show is on? I keep hearing about it but I can't find it

A lot of PE classes are getting phased out because of the increased standardized testing.  A friend of mine teaches PE and she only sees the kids once a week.  It's terrible.

There's hardly any recess either. When we were in the early primary grades I'm pretty sure we got morning and afternoon recess along with lunch.

Several years ago I was horrified to find out that *first graders* in our school district got 20 minutes to eat lunch and have "recess" and that was the *only* recess they got all day. And kids are lucky if they get PE or music or any non-classroom thing more than once a week if *at all*.

Glad I'm not locked up with them!

I love this thread!

thanks, jmghn---I sure hope I can influence some kids at least---none of my own, but I am a high school teacer (despite any terrible typos you may find!) and I am aghast in the caf sometimes at the selection---and now KNOWING actual calorie counts, it makes my skin crawl. And we instituted a "Health and Wellness" program a few years ago--and I can't tell any difference at all in the food. Scary--

angie! (lol) I know the episode you're talking about with the apple? It;s sort of funny to me now, but dang! Feed a kid some fruit-- that's a big part of why I think parents, while it's totally fine to treat with pizza or McDonald's once in a while, should TRY their very best to stick to whole foods, not froze, not precessed..... bleh--- I can't imagine having to do "healthy eating" for a family though---I know it would be hard sometimes,  expensive for produce, takes longer to cook than reheat (one of my biggest downfalls), but it is SO worth it!!!! Don;t you love the segment at the end where the kids are loving riding bikes, karate, cheerleading, or losing enough weight to make their 6th grade football team? I am so inspired by the family unity that is so apparent! (goo for you on the tuna too!) ( :

PE SHOULD be mandatory (I --hated-- it when I was a fat kid, so.... it must be good for something.) but I also agree that organized sports like the softball and soccer we played are not good for everyone. I vastly enjoyed the "health" segment of PE over the actual PE---- I am responsible for my entire school's junior class passing the state's reading assessment. I find that a daunting task on the best of days. BUT I think it is ludicrous that anyone thinks that taking a bunch of little kids' 10 minute recess away from them is goign to improve things----I actually think the opposite!! Ever sat in a room full of 1st graders? They NEED fresh air and to get out and run around. Period.

It is thought provoking to consider how much things have changed wven from when I was young (I'm 30), but talk to your parents! I was SHOCKED to hear some of my mom's perceptions on how society has changed regarding these same topics---food in general, fast food, spoiled kids, PE, exercise, etc.

(I'm glad I didn't offend anyone before....) ( :   Olivia

The best show they have for kids is the one with Shaq.  He really cares about kids.  He is right.  It is BS that schools only care about reading math and music and lost focus on physical fitness.  Lets have all smart kids who die at 35 from being obease!  If I am wrong someone tell me.

Shaq's show is an ABC watch it is amazing to see the school system with its $1 budget trying to reject everyone's advice on feeding kids healthier and offering PE.

PE was only ever 2 days a week from where i grew up now the kids have it one day a week and thats if the PE teacher decides to show up sometimes she doesnt and then for PE they all sit in the gymroom and tell stories and sing songs............Not much exercise goes on and I agree all of the testings the kids have to go through now really cuts into any of the extra activities going on. They have so much more to prepare for and learn in 1 school yrs time. My kids get really stressed during the testings and so do the teachers cause alot of if the kids pass or fail goes directly on that teacher and her class................Its not the greatest atmosphere to put a kid into because the teachers get nasty and mean and the kids get hyper. I have been thinking about cyberschool for my own kids that way they would certainly get the work done without interference and they would also have PE classes with me cause from what im told they only really do about 4 hours of work and then they are done for the day.

I taught 8 years in the inner city of Houston.  (K and 1st grade)  I always took my kids out for recess at least once a day. (Sometimes extra time- I taught lessons outside to get them out of the classroom-science, social studies, math, and read aloud stories.  I also incorporated indoor exercise in our instructional day.  I found ways around the "only 20 minutes" rule. My class always scored higher than the other classes on standardized tests.  I was finally open with my principal about my methods, and backed it with research.  She was enthusiastic, but I noticed that no other teachers were doing this.  I also ate lunch with my kids to encourage them to eat veggies and make better health choices.  I also brought in fresh fruits and veggies to use in math and social studies lessons.