What to do with Generation XXL
by Dr. Martin Collis 
ask. How much do you love your children? No more excuses, pick up the sword of responsibility and wield it. Take action. Get motivated, educated and disciplined. If you're a parent, be the parent. If you're a teacher, teach your children well. Bring your children to a new awareness of their lifestyle, their health and their future. Do it because you love them, and you don't want the legacy of their upbringing to be abundant flesh, diabetes, heart disease and daily fatigue.»
I don't know who wrote the above, I found it in one of my files. I don't know whether I like his/ her (I think it's a him) hectoring style of writing. But I do sense the frustration and I can relate to the passion. It's a tragedy that given all our knowledge and resources, and our access to education that we're breeding a generation of children, many of whom will struggle to fulfill their potential because of their weight. It's sad that we have a global 'War on Terror' and yet millions of kids are driven to school because they and their parents feel that our own streets are unsafe. (It's worth noting that hundreds more children are killed or injured during their car commute to school than are ever kidnapped or mugged while walking to school.)
Mixed Messages
We are sending a very confusing message to our students. We tell them that we'd like them to eat well and exercise. We point out that there are medical dangers to being overweight. We teach these precepts in our Health classes and then send them out into a school full of vending machines selling junk from which the school profits. These same schools often make only a token effort to offer a meaningful physical education program, which impacts all the students. For example, in the US the minimum amount of PE required in the 4 years from grades 9 - 12 in order to graduate is as follows:
| 4 years | only one state, Illinois | | 2 years | 6 states (No state mandates 3 years) | | 1 1/2 years | 5 states | | 1 year | 19 states | | 1/2 year | 6 states | | 0 years | 3 states (Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee) |
In the other 10 states individual school districts set the minimums.
Now for the kicker, 21 states allow waivers or substitutions, for the PE requirement for religious reasons, ROTC, band and many other activities.
Even if children actually get a physical education class it doesn't guarantee a lot of activity. R.G. McMurray reporting in the August 2002 Journal of Adolescent Health watched 1140 kids aged 11 to 16 in Phys.Ed. Many classes contained less than 10 minutes of aerobic activity. I remember having my university students chart the activity of selected junior high students during a volleyball class and a gymnastics class. Some of the kids were so skilled at avoiding movement that they burned less than 100 calories. You're not going to impact obesity if a kid burns 100 to 200 calories per week in PE and then walks outside and has a 600 calorie Double Gulp.
One would expect the Parent Teachers Associations and the Parent Advisory Councils would be militant about the indoctrination of their children with fast food products in school and the lack of meaningful physical activity in the school curriculum. However, parent groups are primarily fundraisers and some of the biggest profit margins come from low nutrient, calorie dense junk. (The Girl Guides with their cookies had this figured out long ago.)
So, what was to be found at the National PTA Convention this summer in San Antonio? One would have expected the latest educational software, great new textbooks, numerous learning centered innovations, educational technology advances and a variety of booths to help inform parents how they could maximize their roles in supporting education. In reality, the exhibit hall was dominated by the confectioners like Mars, Nestle and Hershey. The Sugar Assn. was there to refute the "myths" that sugar could cause hyperactivity, obesity, diabetes or tooth decay. "If your child loves sweet treats, there's no need to worry" their literature stated.
The Sweet Smell of Excess
The latest killer confectionery, which is showing up at state fairs to huge acclaim, is the Deep Fried Twinkie. It was created by a 36 year old Brit. Christopher Sell who was having success in his Brooklyn chip shop selling deep fried Mars bars, Snickers and other chocolate bars. (Deep frying chocolate bars started in Scotland, a country that leads the Western World in heart disease.) For the record, a deep fried Twinkie has about 400 calories and 28 grams of fat. |
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Solutions
I believe that solutions will emerge from a combination of grass roots programs and tough local and federal legislation. Everywhere I go I see examples of students, teachers and parents who are health focussed and do not want to see schools used as recruiting grounds for young consumers. They want the pop machines and corporate logos out of schools and do not want the drama program or marching band dependent on sales of Coke or Dr. Pepper.
The Los Angeles School Board has recently taken the courageous step of banning soft drink sales in their schools beginning January 1, 2004. Meanwhile, the soft drink giants are offering school districts ever increasing sums of money for exclusive "pouring rights" for extended periods. This can lead to absurd situations in which a student can be suspended for wearing the wrong logo. This happened to Mike Cameron at Greenbrier High in Georgia. Mike wore a Pepsi T-shirt for a publicity picture for "Coke in Education Day" at the school. The principal said Cameron could have been suspended from school for a week, but removed him from classes for just one day. "I don't consider this a prank," said the principal.
In my own province of British Columbia, the students of Prince George Secondary School in the Northern town of Prince George have mounted a militant campaign to get the corporate logos out of their school. Administrators hoped that the protests would die out at the end of the last school year when the 'problem' students in grade 12 graduated, but this year's students are more vocal than ever. I'm reminded of the old rock song by Twisted Sister, "We're not gonna take it."
See accompanying story, 'No Corporate Logos in Our School'
by 'Well' subscriber Cathryn Wellner 
In the tiny town of Wells, parents will not allow any commercial junk food interests into their school.
I believe that myriads of individual initiatives will lead to change. I know elementary school teachers who take their students on a daily walk to make sure they get at least some activity. Many parents are supporting and coordinating 'Walking school buses' where children are chaperoned to school in groups.
The New York Times reports that the East Penn school district outside Allentown is sending letters to parents of overweight children that encourage them to change their children's eating habits and help them get more exercise. About 380 confidential letters have gone out since the fall, with more expected since high school screenings are completed, district officials said. 
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Legislation?
Richard Rothstein of the New York Times writes, "Legislation perennially before Congress would authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to prohibit, on nutritional grounds, soft drink sales in schools. But the bills have been stymied. Lobbyists for soft drink and sugar producers have fought the bills, but so have the National School Boards Association and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, where members say that the harm done by underfinanced educational programs can be greater than that done to health." So much for our Great Society.
Three US Senators, Frist, Bingaman and Dodd, currently have proposed legislation aimed at reducing obesity, particularly among children and adolescents. The 'Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act' or 'IMPACT' is 'aimed at giving young Americans the information necessary to make informed choices'. The Bill is in response to the Surgeon General's "Call to take action to prevent and reduce overweight and obesity". IMPACT has been referred to the Health, Education, Labour and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Committees are often where bills like this go to die.
There are 3 major pieces of legislation I would like to see that already have a proven track record of success in some States and countries.
- Remove all junk food advertisements from children's TV programming.
- Tax soft drinks and junk food. Use the money to support healthy lifestyle initiatives.
- Mandate quality daily physical activity in schools in grades K through 10.
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Government Funded Initiatives
There is genuine concern among doctors, politicians and other professionals about child obesity. Recently, national initiatives have been developed in Canada and the USA to try and stimulate physical activity and healthy eating among children. In Canada, I know, respect and admire a number of friends and colleagues who produced Canada's Physical Activity Guide for Children and Youth. I am delighted that funding was made available for the project. I think we will learn a lot from the response of students and teachers to the guide. It's a step in the right direction, but an uncertain step.
 I realize that it's not easy to produce kid friendly
materials that have the Government stamp of
approval. I wrote 'Moving into the Teens' for the old Ministry of Fitness and Amateur Sport.
The large majority of teachers and students never
knew of its existence.
When it comes to getting the Nation active it's hard to take anything the Canadian Federal Government does seriously, as it was they who cut the funding to Participaction, thus removing the most effective promotional organ for physical activity in the nation. On April 5th, 2002, Health Canada launched "Canada's Physical Activity Guides for Children and Youth". One of their primary goals is to get children to increase their physical activity by 30 minutes a day and decrease the time they spend on sedentary activities by a similar amount. They used some of the top human resources and organizations in the country, but I didn't find the Guide exciting. I did an informal survey with some children who looked at the Activity Guide on the Internet and it did not capture their imagination. It might be a currently fashionable word, but 3 different students described the site as "lame". A teacher described the site as being like a government brochure that was now on-line.
In fairness to Health Canada, the Society for Exercise Physiology, the College of Physicians and the Pediatric Society, I have only seen one of the promised products. Four more products are to be released later this fall, including a teacher's guide, a parent's guide and an interactive tool where kids can monitor their own physical activity. I question why they chose to have a National launch in April when 4 of the 5 components of the program were not ready. The Launch News speaks in glowing terms of the major publicity engendered by the release. But in our advertisement and information saturated world, it's not enough. I spoke to 10 educators, only one of whom had heard of the Guide, and even she hadn't seen it.
I truly acknowledge the effort made by some caring groups, and it seems churlish to be critical, but I feel the Guide has poor graphics and lacks energy and excitement, the very things it is trying to create. top of the page
Verb
The Center for Disease Control has a well funded ($190 million US) program to promote physical activity to the 'tweens' (kids 9-13 years) called 'Verb'. I might be a bit slow, but it took me a minute or two to figure out the name. At first I thought it was an acronym, or some cool tween reference with which I was unfamiliar. Then it clicked, 'verb', a doing word. I feel that 'Slate' captured the essence of Verb in a recent article.
- It's vague.
- Grammar isn't sexy. Even if kids understand the message, it's not clear that a campaign built around the concept of "Verb" will strike them as hip. More likely, it will remind them of dreary school-day afternoons.
- The web site stinks. Donated by AOL, it peddles lame (there's that word again) gizmo's such as Verb skateboard stickers, Verb paper airplanes, Verb kites etc. What AOL really wants is for the kids to stay in front of their computer screens. www.verbnow.com
I'm thrilled that organizations are trying. I just hope they get better at it.
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Conclusion
We have gone so far, so fast in the wrong direction that it is going to take a massive, multi-faceted effort to reverse the trends that are diminishing the lives and expanding the bodies of our children. It remains to be seen whether governments and legislators will have the will and the courage to do what it takes. My feeling is that we're not going to do it with brochures and web sites. Don't look to corporate America for a solution, they're probably part of the problem. Kids have been fattened up with fast food and the hot designers/retailers like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren merely offer more selection in the 14-20 size range. In November 2002, Seventeen magazine is launching a new section for larger girls called "Curvey Girl".
I applaud all the efforts of concerned professionals to put health higher on the agenda of our children. But we can't wait for someone else to fix the problems. Ultimately, many of the solutions must come from passionate parents, turned on teachers and, best of all, from the children themselves.
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