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Health experts blame TV for overweight kids

By: Robin Harvey (Toronto Star Life Writer)

Broadcasted on BICNews 22 November 1997

Kids watch the tube and play video games rather than play outside

Tom is only 9 and already he hates his body.

The Grade 4 student is not, by anyone's standards, obese. But he is definitely larger than his friends. His arms are chubby and his tummy and behind are quite rounded. Some might term him chunky, husky or other more affectionate names for larger-than-average.

But Tom has heard different labels.

``I hate all those words,'' he says grimacing. ``I'm fat. I grab my stomach and I hate it because it's fat. I'm fat. Kids tease me in gym. They call me blubbo, porker.''

Tom did not want even his first name used. It seems as a society, when it comes to body image, weight and fitness we are failing our children on almost all fronts.

We are in the grip of an epidemic of weight problems. About 40 per cent of 5- to 8-year-olds in North America are classified as obese, according to the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association.

A total of 60 per cent of Canadian young people don't meet the minimum fitness standards for their age, according to the Foundation for Active Healthy Kids, sponsored by OPHEA and other groups.

And amid this growing health crisis, children increasingly feel pressure from the media and society to achieve a slender physical ideal that is impossible for anyone to meet.

By the time children are 9, some experience body dissatisfaction and the desire to diet regardless of their actual body weight, with 40 per cent of 9-year-old girls having already dieted, according to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre. As a result, eating disorders are on the rise among boys and girls, according to Merryl Bear, spokesperson for the group.

Just how did we get so messed up over eating - one of the body's most natural and important processes?

Many social, cultural and physical factors come into play, according to Dr. Miriam Kaufman of the Hospital for Sick Children and author of All Shapes And Sizes - Promoting Fitness And Self-Esteem In Your Overweight Child (Harper Collins, $15) and available at Parent Books.

``We don't want to accept that we really do come in all shapes and sizes,'' she says. ``There is a wide range of normal weight for adults and children.''

Genetics play a much bigger role in a child's size than people want to think, she says.

In fact, a recent study in the New England Journal Of Medicine confirmed this. It found the child of an obese mother is about three times more likely to be severely overweight than if the mother is not obese. The risk if the father is obese is a little less.

Most people, including children, are born with a metabolic rate determining their body's general weight or ``set point,'' experts say.

That is generally the weight your body will naturally be if you eat enough healthy food when you are hungry and stop when you are not, as well as engage in moderate activity.

Trying to alter that set point by dieting just slows your body's metabolism. Your body thinks you are experiencing famine and works to conserve resources for survival.

However, that doesn't mean children should be unhealthy and out of shape, Kaufman says. Too many children weigh more than their natural set point would dictate, due to bad eating habits and inactivity, she says.

TV watching is one of the biggest factors keeping children above their natural weight, she says.

`Today kids are four times less active than 40 years ago. Fitness begins to decline at age 5'

Margaret Good, physical activity consultant for the Ontario Physical and Health Education Association, says today's kids watch on average 26 hours of TV a week. Add to that an average of 25 to 30 hours a week sitting in school and the time spent playing computer and video games and you have a disturbing pattern, she says.

``Today kids are four times less active than 40 years ago,'' she says. ``Fitness begins to decline at age 5 then (declines) drastically at age 12.''

Dietitian Leslie Beck, president of the Consulting Dietitians of Ontario, says the increase in families where both parents work has seen a phenomenal rise in the amount of processed and fat-rich foods kids consume. Children eat more meals outside home, at the school cafeteria and at day care, where they may make less healthy food choices, she says. Many latch-key kids home alone after school eat junk food for comfort.

Another survey found 75 per cent of men and women responsible for week night dinners don't know what they will serve by 4 p.m., she says.

``We are so rushed, what is fast is what gets eaten - unfortunately often the foods that put on weight,'' she says.

Beck and Good say schools no longer provide enough formal physical education or unstructured games at recess and before and after school.

The focus on competitive team sports and track-and-field competitions often excludes larger kids who need activity the most, but who may not be as naturally fit or co-ordinated due to their size, they say.

This sets up a vicious circle of inactivity. Yet parents today are more likely to drive their children to and from social and other activities, due to fears for their safety.

Just how can a parent or a child tell if a young person is larger than he or she ought to be?

It is not always simple, according to Kaufman, as different body types can have radically different weights. One way is to go to your doctor and discuss your child's growth chart record. This plots where your child falls as a percentage compared with other children his or her age and height.

For example, a child whose height falls at the 10th percentile on the chart is shorter than 90 per cent of children his or her age. Therefore his or her weight should fall in a similar range - within 10 to 15 per cent of his or her height.

But it is also important to watch your child's growth chart over time. He or she may have always been smaller - or larger - than average. Then for a period their weight may outstrip their height on the chart.

This could indicate the beginning of a weight problem. Or it could show a growth spurt about to occur that will soon see the child's height catch up with his or her weight. Many pre-teens put on weight before the growth spurt that occurs naturally with puberty.

According to Kaufman, children with legitimate weight concerns should be encouraged to maintain their weight until they grow taller. They should never be put on a calorie-restricted diet unless they are severely obese and at risk of serious health problems, according to Beck.

Obese and out-of-shape children suffer similar health problems as obese adults - including heart and circulation troubles, high blood pressure and joint problems, according to Good.

But some of biggest health risks are linked to chronic dieting and up and down weight swings, Kaufman says.

One of the biggest risks of being larger than average for children is damage to their self-esteem.

Devon, 12, has worried about his weight for the past two years.

``You get teased a lot and I don't want to wear a bathing suit,'' he says. ``People don't know what it feels like.''

Devon has joined a Weight Watchers youth group and finds the group support invaluable.

Weight Watchers spokesperson Penny Bond says the program focuses on healthy food choices and appropriate physical activity for children, not quick or massive weight loss. Any child with a legitimate weight problem can join, she says, but those 10 and under need a doctor's note.

`Kids were so cruel . . . Everyone calls you names like thunder thighs'

``It's hard on adults' (self-esteem) being heavy,'' Bond says. ``But it can be far worse on children.''

Ashleigh Foster, 17, knows too well.

Her weigh crept up in later childhood and by 14 she weighed in the range of 210 pounds at about 5-foot-8 tall.

``Kids were so cruel. You start to notice boys and it gets just awful because everyone calls you names like thunder thighs,'' she says. ``Finally I got sick of it and went to a nutritionist.''

Foster did not count calories but switched to healthy foods and focused on exercising more. Now she is about a size 14 to 16 and, at 5 feet 11 inches tall, that suits her fine. She has been working as a model for Plus Figure Models and hopes she can set a good role model for other girls.

Parents and teachers need to take a stronger role in discouraging teasing and negative stereotyping of larger people, experts say.

``You could not make a racist or sexist comment now without getting into trouble in school,'' Kaufman says. ``You shouldn't be able to do the same sort of thing because of someone's weight.''

As a child actor Jeremy Eskford, 8, is very aware of society's pressure on everyone to be thin.

He says he has overheard children being teased about their weight at school.

He likens it to the stares and whispers that his developmentally challenged older brother gets.

``Me, I think every kid should get the same chances no matter what,'' he says. ``I tell kids (if they are teased) to tell the teacher.''

The main thing schools and parents can do is encourage acceptance of all sizes, according to Bear.

``The child knows from our culture that fat is bad and then they start to think that they are bad,'' she says. ``When the fact is for some the idea of a socially acceptable weight is absolutely unattainable. It is time we stop trying to change our bodies and changed society's views instead.''

Contents copyright © 1996, 1997, The Toronto Star.

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