"Pregnant, obese...and in danger"

[laundry_queen]

70. disagree

around our area kids and teens are more active than ever. Parents have them in soccer, dance, hockey, baseball, swimming....some kids are in all of them. And even 'fat' kids are in these sports. Our schools discourage junk food - no halloween parties, or Christmas parties with treats...no, parents must bring fruits and vegetables, yogurt and cheese only. And yet there are more fat kids than I was in school, even though they are more active. I don't know about you, but every kid I knew had 'Atari' in their house back then - and they also played it for hours on end. It's nothing new.

30 years ago people weren't as fat because they weren't being fed garbage and your average family could afford healthy food (and had the time to cook it). I remember exactly the percentage of what my parents spent on food when I was a kid, and what I spend on food. Huge difference. My parents, even though they made crappy wages, barely lower middle class, were able to afford a side of beef every year. I can't even afford ground beef once a week. So, I buy fillers - cheap starches. I try to keep it healthy because I know someday soon I'm going to be diabetic so I myself just eat the meat and veggies. My parents loaded up on veggies because they were CHEAP. Not so much anymore. When I started to concentrate on adding more fresh vegetables to our meals (and less grains/starches), my grocery bill went up by $300/month (I do have 4 kids - now I try to grow my own vegetables). And they now put sugar in everything. 30 years ago that wasn't the case. I bought some hot dogs the other day for a campfire and didn't realize until I got home there were 8 grams of sugar per wiener. THERE'S FUCKING SUGAR IN HOT DOGS FER CHRISSAKES. Sure not the most healthy food on earth, my WHY does it need sugar added? WTF? And even in healthier options there's added sugar. In spaghetti/tomato sauce, in whole grain crackers, in yogurt (some yogurts have more sugar than a piece of cake), in peanut/nut butters (did you know Nutella has more sugar than the same amount of FROSTING??), in whole grain bread, in cereal, in oatmeal, in granola bars...need I go on? Every single food that we used to think of as healthy, is now full of sugar. But no, people are lazy.

Can you explain to me why, even when accounting for the weight of the mother, babies are born heavier now than 30 years ago? It's been hypothesized there is something environmental going on. To pass off something as complex as obesity as 'lazy asses' is incredibly short sighted, but not surprising considering the source.