This week's Time magazine contains this cover story about kids and obesity.
Reading the intro piece, you realize what a love affair Americans have had historically with food. One of our national holidays (Thanksgiving) focuses on One Honkin' Meal, after all.
Then the story breaks down areas of the country hardest hit by this epidemic: Native American reservations and rural Appalachia, to name two.
The poor are at a particular disadvantage. Think about it: If you don't have access to reliable transportation, and stores with healthy foods, what are you going to do? Take three buses to buy a bag of apples?
But kids in middle and upper-class suburbia fall prey to another phenomenon: Phys ed. classes keep falling by the wayside in schools; and they're more sedentary (with computer games and the like) than their peers one generation removed.
Adults, of course, model this behavior. If we don't burn more calories than we take in, PRESTO!--we gain weight.
Thoughts? Rebuttals?
This McClatchy photo is of Tianna Gaines, 28, and her 3-year-old son, Marcus, Turner Jr. and her twins, Marques Turner and Marianna Turner, at their Philly home. Gaines eats junk food because its cheaper, and because healthful food is harder to get.
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