Junk Food In Schools Doesn’t Correlate To Fat

January 23, 2012

Junk Food In Schools Doesn’t Correlate To Fat

Remember how banning junk food in schools was supposed to make fat kids thin? Guess what? No, it doesn’t. At least not according to “Competitive Food Sales in Schools and Childhood Obesity: A Longitudinal Study” in Sociology of Education (January 2012).

But of course we should’ve thought it would, right? It’s not like “Snack food intake does not predict weight change among children and adolescents” was published in International Journal of Obesity in August 2004, right? And there wasn’t any studies about “energy-dense snack food” not being correlated with weight gain in adolescents either…right? Wrong.

Once again, America is continuing to do the same thing (that didn’t work) to try to prevent fat kids. And yet, fat kids exist. Time to ban fat marriage?

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Anti-fat bigotry, Anti-Obesity Programs, Childhood Obesity, Fat Panic

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

8 responses to “Junk Food In Schools Doesn’t Correlate To Fat”

Twistie

January 23, 2012 at 11:13 pm

The other evening a young man knocked on my door looking for donations and signatures for the latest campaign by an environmental protection group I’ve supported in the past on various issues. This time, the campaign was to tax ‘junk food’ to help stem the hugely rising tide of childhood obesity.

I simply told him no, I couldn’t support this campaign and said goodbye.

As he walked away, he pulled out his cell phone, called someone, and started yelling obscenities about me – while still on my property, thank you very much.

Yeah, the combination of junk science, moral hysteria, and personal abuse soooooo makes me want to change my mind and donate to the cause.

I wonder what he would have done if I’d hit him with both barrels of FA.

When will people learn that this stuff just doesn’t work, and start concentrating on giving people access to the things (fresh, nutrient rich foods at affordable prices; safe places to move bodies in a variety of ways; medical care based on actual examinations and thoughtful discussion with patients instead of how fat the doctor happens to think you are vs how long the HMO says a visit can last) that can make an actual, measurable difference in an individual’s health? Oh, and then let individuals decide for themselves which of these things they wish to take advantage of?

I love my fresh organic veggies from the CSA… but I have to scrimp a bit to get them, and I damn well still deserve a can of Pringles or a little ice cream when I want them. Tax them to keep kids from getting fat, and I won’t be able to afford an occasional treat for my forty-nine year old self, or else I’ll have to give up the organic veggies. And kids will still be whatever size nature had planned for them to be in the first place… unless they get fatter than that because of endless stupid, demonstrably useless interventions that result in eating disorders, low self-esteem, depression, and a wholesale spurning of healthful habits that don’t result in thinner bodies.

As a society, we’ve decided that if at first we don’t succeed, we should use a bigger hammer. Alas, this doesn’t change what is possible and very few of us have sensibly decided that perhaps what we need isn’t a hammer after all, but a nail file.

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TheHuldra

January 24, 2012 at 1:41 am

But but but … all thin people know that fat people lie about what they eat, because thin people don’t get fat so we *must* be eating more than them or we’d be thin too.

Their mothers must still be feeding them junk food!!!!

(Disclaimer: in case you don’t know me well enough to tell, obviously this is sarcasm! It’s based on personal experience, though.)

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closetpuritan

January 24, 2012 at 6:49 am

Not News Part II :)

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1. Living 400lbs
  
  January 24, 2012 at 8:02 pm
  
  True! :-)
  
  Reply
Bree

January 24, 2012 at 2:45 pm

There also was a report done that some schools who have vending machines of healthy snacks and drinks are being ignored and students still go to the store and buy sodas and junk food. Some of the students interviewed said that the prices in the vending machines were too high and if they were less expensive they would use them.

So not only is junk food not causing rapid weight gain, if healthier foods were cheaper, kids would buy them. Yet we don’t listen to them, only the obesity town criers. A lot of good that does!

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hopefulandfree

January 24, 2012 at 7:19 pm

Health “care” providers should be up in arms about the scientism and cultural mythology perpetuating efforts to make fat kids thin (well, to create hate and turn specific groups into targets of scorn and discrimination while granting temporary social status to non-target groups). Unfortunately, a lot of lip service is given to “critical thinking” in the health care education system, but critical analysis is discouraged at every turn. Um, speaking from my own experience. :)

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Sue

January 24, 2012 at 11:06 pm

Well, I do like this blog. Firstly, I will say I am 50 years old, and I have been thin, medium and obese. When I was thin I ate less, and severly restricted what I ate and exercised a lot more than I do now when I am obese. When I was of a medium to overweight I think I would say I was fairly active, but I had the most nurtituoius diet I have ever had. I would eat as much as I could, and I was never hungry. Now I don’t feel I overeat, although my diet is poor (too much junk) and I am not terribly active. Probably the worst state I have ever been in was when I was thin. I am ok now, but would be better if I ate more nutrition and was more active. So, I guess it is calories in/calories out to an extent, but trying to be thin for me was pretty miserable and time consuming too.
Also, my son who is 17 is very obese. He has a very large build, but he doesnt get much exercise either. I am not opposed to his having some junk food as a treat, but junk food is well, bad for you. I don’t limit junk food in the house because of weight issues, but because it is unhealthy to eat chips, candy, etc on any regular basis. But I NEVER get on him about his weight. Neither does my husband, who is skinny as a twig. That to me is just cruel. I do encourage healthy food, but I let him have pizza too.

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Living ~400lbs

October 6, 2013 at 4:21 pm

[…] Banning junk food […]

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