Washington File

our lifestyles has changed , drastically

living in this country , doesn't consist of cutting, splitting, carrying firewood anymore, we don't walk , anywheres, even the tasks we use to do by hand and enjoy, have a machine that we all can buy and use.

nothing today is manual labour,we have become a lazy society,we consume more food than 50 years ago, better food, and do less work

its a very simple problem, eat less, work more

the introduction of microwaves in the early 80s, allowed us to consume more fast food than ever before

it is too easy to hop in our cars, drive to a fast food place, toss $20 in the window, and have greasy hamburgers and fries slid back out to us

it reminds me of a pig trough or a feedlot used to fatten cattle

Obesity is often the fault of the people who are obese. Sometimes it's other medical things, but often it is their lifestyle. If it's because they eat crap 6/7 days of the week IT'S YOUR FAULT.

Corporations don't help either, adding artificial flavouring, truck loads of sugar, and a whole pile of other wierd ingredients, which you are probably more likely to win the lottery ten times then spell their names.

i think its digusting that kids eat so much.I find it even more disturbing that their parents are letting them eat whatever they want. These kids know its bad for them but at 10 years old they really couldnt care less right? so its part of the parents responsabilty to make sure their kids are eating healthy. When i was little i liked eating mcdonalds but as i got older i decide it was disgusting because there is nothing healthy or beneficial in fast food so its been 3 years since ive eaten fast food,and i like it like that.

Close minded. Just as I thought. No surprise there.

Don,
I'm sure many North Americans would disagree with your assessment.
On the Cuba recommendation, I decline. My principles are more important than a cheap holiday. I, as many North Americans, value the choice to visit a long list of other destinations in lieu of a communist country. I choose not to support communism and totalitarian leadership. If poverty and starvation are "wisdom" in the direction of staying thin, no thanks. This is wisdom I can do without.
The only "wisdom" we can take from Cuba, is that communism only benefits the dictators in power.
In Canada, the diet we should be on, is the socialist diet. People can decide for themselves which eating habits they choose.

I take it that you think I'm not capable of making up my own mind about obesity in Cuba, or anywhere else for that matter, without becoming susceptible to some sort of communist propaganda Chris. The fact of the matter is this: I go to Cuba from time to time, not as often as I would like I grant you, but often enough. In all my travels there I have yet to see a fat Cuban - I see plenty of fat north americans and europeans but no fat Cubans. It may have to do with the general lack of prosperity: it may have to do with the total absence of north american type fast food restaurants: it may have to do with the generally better state of fitness of the Cuban people overall. It's probably more like all the above with a lot more thrown in besides. We could take a lesson from Cuban society on such matters as health and fitness as they have a surplus of both. As Cuba's second largest trading partner it may be about time for us to trade for a little of their wisdom in such matters. Perhaps someday the streets of Havana will be as littered with junk food wrappers and fat, lazy, stupid people as any north american city if the revolution fails. For now we can all enjoy the fact that we can get away from the contamination and obesity here "at home" and enjoy a tropical holiday as well. You should try it Chris, you may like Cuba if you can climb down from your pulpit long enough to give it a chance.

Some very interesting comments and surely from different perspectives. Pardon the pun but some 'food for thought':

1) Some time ago, the pop industry replaced sugar as the sweetening agent with high fructose corn syrup. HFCS is much cheaper than sugar, much sweeter, highly refined, and one of the worst things you can put into your body. Read your food labels- it's in things you'd never imagine. As my doctor told me, if it's listed as one of the first four ingredients, you probably shouldn't be eating or drinking it. He likened it to a drug.
2) Fast food is such a conundrum. Someone pointed out the time savings, and at the end of a long day surely this must sound great- you don't even have to get out of your car and you can get dinner for you and your family, but at what cost? Is the 30 minutes you're saving worth years and years of heart disease, diabetes, and all the accompanying problems? It would be nice if a quick-serve restaurant was able to offer vegetarian and truly healthy alternatives.
3) Sad that kids today can't/won't go outside and exercise; they spend hours and hours inside being sedate and eating sugar and fat-laden food. Unfortunately there's so many reasons (very little open space, poor land use- hard to run to the neighbour's house when you live on a multi-acre 'McMansion', lack of public parks, fears (some justified, some ridiculous) about crime, elimination of physical education in public schools, etc.) for this.
4) The portion sizes have become almost comical; the fast-food industry is in some race to see who can make the largest burger as if there's some prize at the end. Worse is when you see 8 and 9 year old kids eating adult-sized meals and wanting more.

Don has eaten so much propaganda he has finally burst. I'm shocked, you have found the courage to come out of the closet. Don't worry Don we as of yet are still allowed to express ourselves here in Canada, although I can't guarantee for how long.
I have to go now. I'm going to eat my meat, potatoes, and vegetables cooked on my stove, and all under the terrible conditions that exist today. It is now 17:07 and at around 19:00 hours I will be excercising. Life is great.

Dear Steffani, I agree with you whole heartedly.

Just one thing, though. You write: "A few of you are right to sense that there is something wrong with our western culture. We are indeed sick".

I agree with you here too, but the problem is GLOBAL!
I have spent more than 10 years teaching English in Asia. Obesity is a HUGE problem now in Asia.

All the Asian countries that have already achieved parity with the West with regard to wealth and standard of living (And, I suppose, having some of those seemingly angst-ridden small towns now that everyone has headed to the big city!), like Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, are now struggling with the EXACT same problem of obesity, with all its causes and ramifications, as we are in the West!

India, China, Malaysia, and Tailand, are all on there way, or trying hard to achieve parity with the West, and the obesity epidemic hit them years ago!

You say go to a small village in the West and see how sick we are. I agree with your point here.

But I also say: go see the world and see how sick we ALL are! And getting much, much sicker!

We are ALL in it now! For every McDonalds in Asia, there is also a local, home-grown, gut-bomb slinging franchise! And the locals flock to them, just like we to ours!

In the end, I agree with ALL the writers who say that the whole problem is one of either making the right (healthy) choice, or the wrong (unhealthy) choice.

No-one wants to go back to the days when no-one had enough money to make the unhealthy choice. So we better just toughen up. And we don't need to see the lost looks in the eyes of our fellow 21st century adults wallowing in the country-side to do this. Just look in the mirror!

There are no easy solutions. We are not the same people we were 30 or even 20 years ago. We have swallowed the abuse of greedy and unscrupulous people for so long that little short of a total revolution against this rat race we've created for ourselves will have any effect. Now, we need to start looking in the mirror and think about how our individual choices - as employees, as consumers and as citizens - have consequences on ourselves and the people around us. First on the agenda is for us to stop focusing so much about what we want _right now_ and start deferring our gratification of some of our wants.

The problem is nothing as obvious as time, money, or even consumerism. In fact, we are all wrong to be trying desperately to explain the problem. All the explaining in the world will not help.

The problem is psychological. We are out of touch with our instincts. We are chronically bored. Read Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols. Go stay in a small town in the Austrian Alps for a month or a year. Each person needs to find his own way to grasp the truth, needs to realize why exactly he or she decides to go on living everyday. We are searching for the wrong things, by looking for reasons. People find solace and comfort in food, in justifying our obsession with food, in explaining every bit of how people behave. Ask yourself, what am I trying to justify? Why do I seek this comfort in eating, or in knowing the reasons for my overeating, or in knowing the reasons of anything at all? I ask you, why does it matter why?

We are trying too hard to improve life.

Don't understand me? That's because, put simply, we have not internalized our problems. Stop bickering with each other and listen to yourself, to your instincts. Our obsession with food is analogous to our recently developed obsession with religion, our obsession with cleanliness and money and global warming. These are all part of one deeper problem.

A few of you are right to sense that there is something wrong with our western culture. We are indeed sick. I know that, for most of you, all this sounds strange and unrelated to the problem at hand. I strongly recommend that you spend some time alone out of the city.

Peter, I feel for you. We all want a great career and feel that there is never enough time in a day, week, month or year to get everything done. I am not targeting you, but all of us, myself included. When we fall in these traps, we have lost all what we are actually seeking - freedom and the ability to choose our destiny.We work because we feel we have no choice. If you think this is a problem unique to you and your colleagues, you are quite wrong. If you think this is a lifestyle which you have to put up with for a while and then you will return to a normal life, you are quite wrong. Experience teaches otherwise. The temporary has a way of becoming permanent. Our society has put us in a situation where we chase after freedom by binding ourselves in chains. The same applies for health and nutrition - we find sustenance by consuming poisons, and copious quantities of them.Blaming our society wont bring health to your children, give you the energy to play and enjoy your children, or give you a lifespan long enough to enjoy your grandchildren. All we have is... CHOICE. We need to make the hard ones...or at least we think they are hard choices. Imagine not having the choice but to walk for miles for water. We claim that we have to make tough choices, but these are "tough choices" in otherwise easy lives. We sleep in the beds we make. We live according to choices we have made. If one has poor health, it is often (in the absence of tragedy, or in certain RARE instance congenital factors) because of choices we have made. Our children are unhealthy because of poor choices we have made. The scary thing is that we have forgotten that we have choice because we have forgotten what is really important.

I don't buy the money argument at all.

Yes, berries would be great every day but overall, vegetables can be had quite cheaply compared to more processed foods any day and pasta is not "bad" per se either.

Actual cooking and with decent ingredients could go a long way to solving the problem. But, when microwavable bacon and salad in a bag are so popular despite the cost, I doubt it will change.

It's not about sport activity and hard working parents who are not able to take care of the kids' healthy diet.
It's about money.
Instead of pasta and potatoes children could eat berries and fruit, nice salads, lean meat.
Sure, it's nice to make a cucumber boat sandwich filled with whatever you wish... But the thing is that every cucumber costs more than $1, and for the family of 5 people need
to spend $5 for cucumbers only + other ingredients.A bag of pasta (2 pounds) costs $1 and it fills the stomachs of the whole family.
Have a look at the grocery store. Compare the rows of pasta with the rows of berries. Compare the quantity and the prices.
Who can afford it? Not too many of us.

Young parents know what proper nutrition is but sadly it takes a little more time to peel a carrot than drop a frozen chicken strip in the oven. Obesity takes time but who is looking at the clock, until it is to late.
Play a game on the computer, have a snack, watch TV, is this what kids should be doing??
Sad

There are no fat people in Cuba. Perhaps we should take a page from their book and go communist.

But fat kids are SO CUTE!!

I've been overweight for a good part of my life. I've played baseball, hockey, basketball and football in organized leagues at competitive levels (mostly through school but some municipal leagues as well), and am an avid swimmer, scuba diver and hiker.

When I was a boy, my father signed me up for all those sports. I often bitched and moaned about going, but only when I was under 12. By then I started to find my legs and wanted to keep playing.

When I hit university, I moved and for a long while I ate like a pig, but over time that desire shifted as I discovered things like tofu and vegetarian recipe books. My wife is vegetarian and I now eat about 95% meatless fare.

If my schools had had no sports, my mother and father had played off, my weight as "big boned" and allowed me to sit in front of the tube all day, and if I had not made the active decision to eat better, I may not have the life I have today.

I am still overweight, but I have a very strong underlying musculature thanks to my affinity for exercise, and my weight is not out of control thanks to my own decision to eat well.

Without the combined efforts of my parents, the schools and my own understanding of the effect my diet was having, I would probably be obese and unhealthy (and unhappy) right now.

It doesn't sound to me like raising children the right way is very easy. It also doesn't sound like having the wherewithal to insist that sports and recreation programs be made available to students in schools is very easy either. But if you ask me, I would say it is a far more productive path than railing against corporations and governments.

A sugar plantation worker, from Haiti, working on a sugar plantation in the Dominican Republic, makes about $2 per day. From this, he or she must pay for the rent of a shack and food from the company store.

It is utterly immpossible to compete with that! Some still try, though. Thus, Australia, the USA, and other major sugar cane growing nations must HEAVILY subsidise their sugar cane growers to give them a chance.

Here in Manitoba, we no longer grow nor prossess sugar beets because the provincial government gave up trying to solve the problem by subsidizing local farmers. In other words: they gave up and "went with it."

Just like everyone else!

But they didn'y have to!

A large part of the obesity problem could very easily be solved if we all had to pay the real cost of sugar! Imagine a one litre bottle of pop for $5! Imagine a $3 chocolate bar!

I wouldn't mind at all! It would be a price well worth paying! Especially if the sugar came from a local farmer, or a Hatian, working in the Dominican Republic, and who now makes a living wage! That is to say: enough to support his or her family, and put away a little each day for his retirement. Just like we expect from our employment!

And all the money currently spent susidizing sugar could then be better spent elsewhere!

So... why hasn't this happened yet? Have you ANY idea how much money big sugar companies have to throw around? Think about it! They put sugar in EVERYTHING!!

Money. It's ridiculous! We are getting fat so that others can get rich! Remember the old term "fat cats?" Fat cats were the rich ones and everyone else was emaciated! Now, we at the bottom get fat while the super-rich stay thin by using their wealth for surgery, spa-retreats, personal fitness trainers...

The 21st century is totally warped!!

P.S. Please watch the CBC documentary: "Big Sugar" which can be seen from time to time on the "Passionate Eye."

852 million people on Earth today do not have enough food. Millions of children will die all across the planet because they do not have enough to eat this year and then the next and then the next. Who knows how many children will be forced to work in factories and fields to provide some of the many luxuries we enjoy?

When our children are actually falling ill from overeating and inactivity leading to obesity, these facts are certainly something to think about.

The fast food companies should take a big part of the responsibilities. They supply inexpensive poor quality food and pay millions or billions of dollars to entice children to consume their products. The over stressed tired parents are a push over for these huge greedy companies. They sell an idea of a happy, fun and healthy life but what they are really selling is lots of unhealthy fats, to high salt and sugar content with few nutrients. They need to accept a large part of the financial responsibility to make positive changes. The poor quality food needs to be changed or better yet eliminated. A warning should be posted on the food products just like cigarette packaging. There is so much room for improvements. They produce garbage for our bodies, garbage for the landfills and poor paying jobs. How much more can we take? When will we begin to take initiative and demand better. The mighty dollar puts fear and control in the forefront of our lives and the expense is far too high.

To the dependants.
It's not the responsibility of the government to make sure your children get adequate exercise or to ensure the absense of disfunction. When will you take responsibility for your own child? Are you immune of accountability? Did you have children so that someone else can take care of them? Why should people who have no children be forced to pay more taxes to look after yours? I have two children by the way,and definitely do not expect anyone but myself to ensure that they receive adequate exercise and healthy food. How ridiculous to blame corporations and government for your inabilty to enforce your own guidelines.
Do you have the courage to invest in your own child? Do you have the ambition to raise your own child. Get real. Where does this sense of entitlement and lack of responsibilty come from?
If you have not the time, nor the resources to effectively raise your own child, you should rethink having one before you expect the rest of our citizens to be accountable for your actions or lack of action for that matter.

Until the advent of the Golden Arches, nobody was really fat. They started the trend, others followed. Then, there is the American psyche of getting more for your dollar. "Supersize" was the buzzword; "More food for my moolah"!! combined with lack of exercise, Americans (and Canadians to a lesser degree) are now full of flab. Europeans are not far behind (I spent several years in France where everyone ate sensibly until the Golden Arches showed up. Now, it's the turn of Japan and other Asian countries to feel the effects. I'm 72, don't eat junk food and don't exercise except for walking, cycling etc; (no gym, no workouts, don't smoke) and I weigh 145 lbs at 5'6.

I hate to sound like some old fart reminiscing like those guys in tuxes in the Monte Python skit, but here's my take.

As a youth in Toronto, I walked to school until my trek to high school forced me to take the TTC. In the summer, we had a school-based playground program which afforded the chance to active all day, all summer. These are the kinds of programs that would have been the first to go in the cost cutting craze of the early 90's. I also never paid fees for school sports, as the money for such worthwhile activities came from the school budget.

Look at the cost of ice and playing fields today. Look at the reduced hours for swimming pools. Schools subsidize the costs of sports programs with money from candy and pop machines, along with casinos. The alternative is to price these activities so high as to force even more people to the sidelines.

As a society, we made choices when we drank the poison cool-aid of the neo-cons 15 years ago. While taxes have fallen and deficits have been brought under control, we have paid the price. This price will begin to show up in rising health care costs and increased levels of disfunction in our youth. Do we have the courage to make the necessary investments in our youth or will continue to worship at the alter of low taxes and international competitiveness?

I agree with Max that fast food, cars, television, video games, and other trappings of our consumeristic society contribute to epidemic obesity. Corporations exploit the inherent bias humans have to avoid effort and consume high-fat and sugary foods. These traits evolved to allow us to survive in an environment where the availability of the next meal was always in doubt. That environment hasn't existed in North America for a few centuries. With fat profits come fat people. And the lack of time which we lament comes in part from our frenzied work habits--we have to keep making $$ so we can buy more of the bad food and expensive toys advertisers insist we must have.

I suggest parents consider eliminating television completely. That would require alternate, perhaps more active pursuits, and would save kids from being rewarded with ads for junk. But since this is unlikely, I agree that junk food ads should be banned; in fact, in many European countries, kids' TV shows have NO ads. Let's look across the Atlantic for inspiration; looking south is just depressing.

My family practice has an the alarming number of overweight & obese children; my experience corroborates the finding the most parents are unaware that a problem exists. I commonly see parents feed their children high-salt, high-carbohydrate snacks in situations when i would recommend the child simply learn to wait for mealtime. Ultimately, such carbohydrate and night snacks can become associated lifelong as "comfort" food i.e. bad eating habit inherited from family mores. The meals of schoolchildren are themselves often processed. The solution to such problems is clear.

I also applaud the new canada health guide's emphasis on portion size: much French food is high in caloric content, but the average Frenchman apparently consumes fewer calories per diem than the average North American.

To Cory of Minnesota and reader in Toronto:

Obesity is a societal and population health issue that is worldwide; medical literature (see Lancet 1997;349:1269-76) has aptly termed it a "disease of affluence". From across the border, i sympathise for the amount of political misinformation and media distractions with which American democracy is bombarded. It is clearly inappropriate to use this issue as a springboard in any forum to rail against Americans.

You know (and if you don't, you should), overeating and crappy food and lack of exercise are NOT the only reasons there is an epidemic of obesity. A huge reason for it is due to environmental contaminants: in our food, our water, our air... Dioxins alone account for a considerable amount of endocrine disorders, including obesity. As a scientific researcher in the health field, I am sick and tired of the media not knowing enough about ALL the reasons for the ill-health of North Americans. To keep pushing guilt trips on people isn't enough to reverse the trend that I saw a while back, that today's generations will die at a younger age than their parents and grandparents. This is the price of ignorance. And you have a responsibility to not simply parrot the easy answers to this health crisis. School funding cutbacks are another primary reason for this so-called epidemic. When I was in school, from Kindergarten through my first three years of university, physical education courses and activities were required of everyone who didn't have a medical reason not to participate. Short-sighted (the only kind there are, apparently) politicians/governments are hugely to blame for this situation, both in their neglect of enforcing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the Canadian Environmental
Assessment Act, among others; for passing new pollution-allowing regulations (like the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations under the federal Fisheries Act, which now allows any fish-bearing water body in Canada to be redefined as a mine tailings impoundment!!), and for letting school boards and provincial governments off the hook for reducing funding for schools to maintain PE programs.
Bah humbug to this kind of shallow media coverage.

Some people just can't resist turning anything into a U.S. bashing session. This problem exists in many other countries as well.
The common theme here is like many things in our society, lack of accountability.
It always has to be someone else's fault,never our own. Someone else is responsible to fix my problem. If that bartender did'nt give me so much booze I would'nt have drove, if that product was'nt advertised I would'nt have bought it, my kid is not doing well in school, what's wrong with that teacher?, if my kid did'nt hang with that crowd, he would not have done that, he's a good kid, etc.
In 1963 there is likely a height difference also, so this may be a little skewed as well. It's always handy to leave out all the particulars.
In the big picture not unlike many of the other manufactured crisis's of the day, getting the ball rolling is a great start to the cry for raising taxes to supplement the increased demand on the health care system. Let's face it that's what this is all about. Not long from now we will no doubt hear the need for more money to save the children. Why not save everybody? I guess it sounds better when it's about the children.
While everyone is busy blaming everyone else for their problems the government is busy figuring out new taxes for the growth of government and new excuses to back it up. That's it people, keep falling for it, eat everything up like a double chocolate sundae. The government will continue to grow with new departments to address all these nasty issues that can easily be fixed on your own (if they even exist), and your life will be increasingly stressfull with all these new worries and don't forget all the new legislation and further suppression by your friendly neighbourhood Government just trying to save the children.

To the CBC reader from Toronto: Many of the "qualities" you see in Americans can be seen in Canadians as well. In my travels to Canada I have seen obese people eating their Tim Horton’s Donuts and driving European/Asian/American (Canadian built) SUVs. Huge communities with very expensive and large home that likely consume 10 times the amount of energy my humble home consumes. I am fully aware of our shortcomings and desire change. But before pointing the finger of blame, first look inward at your own nation.

Is it not peculiarly ironic that, while most people in the world do not have enough to eat, we in North America have started to die early because we have too much?
Would this not seem to indicate that most of us ought to be doing things much differently?

"Convenience" is turning out to be not so convenient after all. Too bad it's not just food but just about every aspect of society. Quick-fixes dominate the prevailing culture. Sure they don't ever work, but they last long enough to tide you over to the next problem. I suppose the real cure is better diet and exercise, but considering how society is you can expect to see more people turning to surgery and pills. I suppose also one could make a serious effort to curtail all the chemical additives, hormones, and genetic-modification that seem to be the norm for getting us our food supply, but this requires changing the whole culture of the "agri-food industry". Fat chance of that!

Jeff Wilson, do you honestly think I do that every day? Good grief I would be 300 pounds. It was a general comment, put things in perspective. I know how to cook but sometimes I grab takeout, and I am sure others do too. IF everyone found the time to take proper care of themselves, we wouldn't have the epidemic we do. Most people are slightly overweight to obese, with the exception of a few who have the time required, and it's easier to stay thin than to lose weight. Evidently it isn't just me.

I suppose those of you who are commenting that I don't have time is an excuse should try it for a little while. Or pay my mortgage. I did not post to get ridiculed, but to share an experience that all of my colleagues go through for a period of 6 to 10 years. I am almost finished my professional education, which will allow me to finish the internship I am working on and move to a different position with less hours but I have a price to pay. Others commented on lack of time in society but they weren't directly targeted. Hope you feel better now. My point was after being at work for 12 hours without a break, you get drained, especially after prolonged period, and aren't as motivated and creative as your would be if you worked 8. It's called burnout and stress which are another epidemic and seem to be correlated to our convenience foods and their relation to society.

Jeff of Winnipeg, you have a great point about the "magic bullet" that solves our problems for us when the answers are right in front of us. Similarly in environmentalism, we know the causes and solutions of every single one of our problems. We just lack the collective and political will to implement them because of the societal and economic momentum behind the way things currently are. Our jobs keep us busier and our food choices get poorer because our society is more and more geared towards people having busy jobs and faster food. To call it an epidemic only helps to push responsibility onto someone else.

Let's get real, here! There is no problem with regard to time and good eating habits! NONE at all, for anyone! PERIOD! Think about it.SERIOUSLY! I can cook a fresh dinner of potatoes or rice or pasta, a fresh or boiled vegetable, and a cut of meat, all in 20 minutes. No problem! That's why I NEVER stop at a fast food restaurant on the way home (Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" has a lot ot do with it too!). Think about it: How long does it take to veer off to the drive through, order, pay, and be on your way? Maybe 2 or even 10 minutes. So how much time have you really saved? Are you saying that you really don't have an extra 10 to 18 minutes a day to eat well? I just can't believe it! Sorry. Oh, and one more thing, how much WORSE did that gut-bomb taste compared to a fresh-made, home-cooked meal!?My lunch is a sandwich which always combines some or all of: lettuce, tomatoe, cheese, a slice of the cut of meat I cooked last night, sprouts, whatever... And I make my sandwich in the morning while my coffee is brewing and my oatmeal or Red River cereal is cooking.
For all this, I only have to go grocery shopping once a week (Sunday). And I SAVE (ie: spend less) money! It's not hard to eat well, it really isn't. I just cannot accept the "I have no time" excuse, sorry. Nor can I accept parents who say they don't have time to cook a fresh meal for their kids, and who send their kids out the door every morning with 5 bucks in their pocket, knowing FULL WELL that their kids will blow it on sweets. Like the one litre bottles of what is essentialy sugar-water on sale in our schools!Let's get real. We all know how to eat well. No more excuses! And no more $2/bottle sugar-water dispensors in our schools!! When it comes to diet, nutrition, weight, and so on, everyone is looking for the quick fix. Well, I just gave you 3! All together, I spend about 25 minutes a day cooking! 25 minutes is nothing! I also save time by letting the dishes pile up and only doing them once a week.

It is interesting that this overeating is going on while there are many around the world that are starving. The problem is not American diet....The problem is the American attitude about everything...ie if it is not overeating and not workingout it is driveing around in big cars (SUV and others) and haveing high demand for gas/oil..if it is not the cars it is the big houses and their high cost of cooling and heating (ie AL Gore's house cost around 3000 $ a month to worm) and if it is not the big houses it is the big planes that drop bombs on innocent people...etc etc etc (you get the idea) so unless the Americans are willing to change their attitude toward life (their own and others ...witness the genocide in Iraq etc etc) things will not change...(and why change as long as you can get other people's resources ie oil from middle east..water from Canada etc etc)

It is hardly surprising that obesity is an epidemic when television ads promote things like "Ficello Cheese Sticks" as a kind of TOY. The ad for this product makes it look like some kind of edible plasticene. I have never seen any promotion as bizarre as this.

The Kinder chocolate egg ads (with a toy inside the food!) come a close second but at least that is intended as a treat, not as a staple of a child's school lunch.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Make time. Exercise isn't hard, get a treadmill and walk/jog on it when you're watching TV. An hour every second day is all you need.

If your job affords you no time to exercise (three hours a week for Pete's sake), it is time to find a different job.

All the money in the world won't help you when you're dead.

While I'm not saying everyone should convert to a vegetarian diet, the fact if that a diet containing a wider variety of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and soy can make a world of difference in regulating one's metabolism and weight, and overall health.

I was often on the heavy side when I was younger. However, when I turned 20, I made the choice to cut red meat and pork completely out of my diet while limiting poultry to aone or two servings a week. Now, I've managed to keep a steady weight for more than a decade without having to eat like a bird.

10 years ago, there were few choices for protein alternatives for vegetarian diets. Now, there are a lot of different products from soy ground beef, meatballs, burgers, soy chicken products, and even soy creamer for coffee that, believe it or not, really do taste wonderful.

The options are out there for those willing to take the steps towards a healthier and leaner diet.

My work day starts at 5:30 – have coffee, get ready and drive to work. At work from 7 am until 7 pm. By the way, there is no such thing as coffee or lunch. Drive home, home at 8, make supper and eat by maybe 9. Two hours of schoolwork to 11pm, and 6 ½ hours of sleep to the next day. I know a lot of people who are the same way. Even without the schoolwork, I don’t have any time for myself, or anything else. There is no “down time”, no ability to plan meals (if I can’t take breaks, how am I supposed to eat 5 – 6 sensible meals?), and when I’m too tired, I grab takeout or something prepared. I know I shouldn’t, but I don’t know where the time is going to come from when I work 6 days a week, sometimes 7. I should exercise, but I’m so mentally drained even if I didn’t have the school work, I couldn’t do anything. I used to work out 5 days a week, until I switched jobs; and now the last 6 years have been like this and the whole industry I work in is the same.

It’s all well and good to say this is a problem, which it is, but I think that a lot of the issues discussed are related to how we as a society have regressed so that time is taken for granted and boundaries are broken down so that there is no time for family, friends, or personal maintenance.

From the corporate side, why is a bottle of water or milk more expensive than pop? Is meat going to continue to increase in price while the cost of prepared foods is (relatively) stable?

We have to sit down as a society and redefine values rather than let the top 10% income earners dictate how we live if we want to exist on their wages, but that’s just my opinion.

As much as people try to pin this epidemic to any single cause, you have to realize that everything that we're currently doing merely addresses the symptoms and not the heart of the matter. People constantly blame the prepared food industry, snack foods et cetera. Ask yourself this question: Why is it that we have this massive industry to begin with?

We don't have time.

North Americans are on the go more than almost any other country on the planet. PDAs, Blackberries, wireless laptops and other devices of the like take away the boundary between home and office. We never fully separate our family from our professions because there is simply "too much to do."

Children spend all of their time turning into "vidiots" because they've lost the ability to think for themselves. Who needs to have an imagination when I can have strange and new worlds at my fingertips with the flick of a switch? And in HD no less!

I think we all need to do ourselves a favour and unplug once in a while. If we don't start doing something about the way things are, we'll find a new generation of diabetic, overweight children who will all have a shorter life span.

I have a simple suggestion. Ban the advertising of junk food to childern.

One of the biggest problems in getting this problem addressed is removing the rose-coloured glasses that parents view their children through.

Last week I read that between 25-30% of kids are overweight or obese, yet only 7% of parents recognized it. That's a pretty big gap.

I myself know many mothers who use the terms "big boned", "solid", or "sturdy" to describe their (sorry) fat children. I know a teenaged girl who herself says she's "big boned", yet she wears a size THREE shoe and my 11-year-old's hand is bigger than hers. Anybody who is 5'1" tall, and wears a size three shoes has no excuse for a weight of 200 pounds. What does her mother say???? Yup, "big boned".

Seems to me that Arkansas had the right idea. If the parents don't recognize the problem, put it in writing, back it up with facts and figures, and stick it in front of their face.

I'm tired of seeing children with legs so big they have to swing one around the other in order to walk.

The money associated with obesity will keep the epidemic alive and well for many years to come. There is money to be made selling labour-saving devices, money to be made selling processed food and money to be made "treating" overweight children. Similar issues arise in environmental circles, where chemical companies pollute our waters, then turn around and sell water treatment technologies as a necessity. We are caught in a cycle of affluence in which our every desire can be met so long as we continue to be detached from our bodies and surroundings. Teaching children cause-and-effect would go a long way towards solving these issues.

It's interesting to note that the cost to treat the obesity crisis among American youth amounts to exactly one week's spending on the Iraq invasion. No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, but if Bush looks closer to home he will find the WMD is fast food.

I guess all the vaunted labour saving devices we imagined a few short years ago, the devices designed to make our lives easier, are finally paying off. Good for us! We can also thank fear: fear of neighbours, terrorists, pets, plagues, depleted resources and the very air we breathe. It's easier by far to stay inside with the doors and windows locked with the kids right where we can see them at all times. Of course the kids still need friends and activities so we get them computers with access to the internet so they can talk to their friends - multiplayer games so they can play together online. Sunny D, Pizza Pockets, Frozen fries and all the other pre-prepared and pre-packaged foods handle the rest. It should come as no surprise whatsoever that we're now seeing such results.