Australia's Obesity Epidemic (3 Viewers)

[MaNiElla]

Here's the article btw:

• Australian scientists in pre-natal breakthrough
• Overweight mums produce overweight children
• Children condemned to overeating and obesity

AUSTRALIAN scientists have made the world-first discovery that a pregnant woman's diet determines whether her baby grows into a fat adult or a skinny one.
The research suggests women who are overweight before they fall pregnant, and during it, may condemn their children to a life of overeating and obesity.
It reveals that a mother's diet during pregnancy affects the baby's brain circuits, determining appetite and energy expenditure in their offspring.
"This suggests that mothers should think twice about overindulging, or using the excuse that they're eating for two during pregnancy," University of NSW professor Margaret Morris said.
Pre-natal period programs a child's future appetite
Unlike previous studies, the groundbreaking work highlights the pre-natal period as a critical time for "programming of post-natal and adult appetite".
It found that even before a woman falls pregnant, she is potentially "programming" a child's future appetite.
"The major finding is the dramatic increase in body fat in offspring of overweight and obese mothers," Professor Morris said.
Mothers fed a high-fat diet had offspring that were heavier, with more body fat and altered appetite regulators in the brain, meaning they overate, she said.
The results are supported by a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition last year. It found that mothers who eat junk food during pregnancy may produce children who crave the same foods.
Professor Morris will present her findings at the Australian Neuroscience Society conference in Hobart this week.
She said the study was particularly relevant, given that about 30 per cent of mothers enter pregnancy in an overweight or obese condition.
Study mated overweight female rates with healthy males
The study was conducted using overweight female rats who mated with healthy males.
The females continued to be fed a high-fat Western diet during and after pregnancy, Professor Morris said.
"The mums were overeating for that whole period. We found the offspring were a third heavier than the rats fed a low-fat diet," she said.
Professor Morris said the brain pathways regulating appetite in rats were similar to those in humans, suggesting similar trends could be expected in people.
Sydney University nutritionist Dr Jenny O'Dea said it had become "quite well accepted" that a woman's diet during pregnancy impacted on the fetus.
"We also know that obesity during pregnancy more often than not causes gestational diabetes and high blood pressure," Dr O'Dea said.
Pregnant women should not 'eat for two'
She said that although nutritional needs were high during pregnancy, women should not be "eating for two".
Professor Morris studied mothers who were already overweight before they fell pregnant. The experiment results also found their offspring were showing signs of developing diabetes at a young age.
The findings are particularly relevant for overweight mothers, highlighting the importance of maintaining a normal weight before and during pregnancy.
Further research will examine how methods of intervention during breastfeeding can reverse bad nutritional habits and overeating.
Susie Burrell, a pediatric dietitian at The Children's Hospital at Westmead, said the study sent a powerful message to women planning to fall pregnant.
"They need to get their weight under control before conceiving, and those who are pregnant need to have minimum weight-gain during pregnancy," Ms Burrell said.
She said an increasing number of women were overweight before they fell pregnant, creating a "snowball effect".
"Their babies are more likely to have a high birth weight. This then leads to lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23113819-36398,00.html

 

[-mz-u-wsh-]

I read an article on news.com.au the other day, that says that if a pregnant mum is overweight when she's pregnant, her children will grow up to be overweight/obese adults too. If she was slim and healthy, then her children would be slim and healthy adults. It was a pretty convincing I must say.

Which explains why my mother was a stick figure both before and after she had me, yet i turned out to be over weight!!

anyways im going to add my 2 cents into this!! Yes its true overweight/obesity is life threatning, and yes it causes many diseases in the long run.. BUT alot of you have it wrong that all obese people just continue to gain weight.. I'm going to admitt i went to the obesity clinic *because i disliked the way i looked and felt* and during the times i went there i saw many obese people getting help and going to lectures on food and exercise.. YET "all fat people just eat junk food" half of these people knew about the fat content in everything AND even which fat/oils are the worst and best... many of these people had a better diet than some skinny HEALTHY people i know.. thing is they were mostly adults and a few were actually nurses, meaning they could never go to the gym and exercise.. i remeber the fattest guy actually walked to the hospital to attend the lectures.. BUT AGAIN "all fat people are lazy and dont want to do anything but sit at home and do jack all"

the whole idea of make children exercise everyday till their blue in the face (or should i say red) but the way the teachers preform these routines is what MAKES the bigger children try and get out of every sporting activity possible.. I was actually talking to the gym instructor at the gym i joined, shes doing a uni degree in primary teaching, and she had the simillar view on sporting in primary AND secondary schooling. teachers need to make sport fun and not try and make sporting like its a competition and you have to be the best runner or what not. i remember sport in primary school, i tried every reason not to do it, because the teachers made it into a game of competiton, 'which ever group wins gets to leave 10 minutes earlier today', i know after i left school and went back to visit, they had made around 2 mornings for each year to go into the basketball courts and do basic exersice *they had good music that made it calm* i did not hear whoever does 4 more star jumps than everyone else will recive an iceblock.

And shock tactics will not work, i admitt i had a serve smoking problem for awhile when they first brang out the packages i just loocked at them and went OHH well... and i know alot of other people did that to, people will see what obesity does and go "that wont happen to me, it hasn't yet so i doubt it will", i agree teaching from a young age will help alot, i dont know if anyone remembers 'HAPPY HAROLD' well if you dont, it was a puppet giraff that used to talk about nutrition and exercise, thing is once kids found out harold was fake they just didnt listen and just went on to muck around. SO, things like education at young ages do work, thing is they need to be carried on into highschool, which is only minorly covered in pdhpe..


So thats my two cents, yes you can now post saying "oh your just a fatty you dont know anything, go to jenny craig" i really dont mind, it just builds my confidence and makes me chuckle!!

 

[katie_tully]

BUT alot of you have it wrong that all obese people just continue to gain weight

I don't remember anybody saying that obese people just continue to put on weight. The point of the thread was that if you are currently obese, and regardless of whether your weight is stagnant or fluctuating, you're decreasing your life expectancy by half.

half of these people knew about the fat content in everything AND even which fat/oils are the worst and best... many of these people had a better diet than some skinny HEALTHY people i know

I think you're exaggerating. If an obese person has a better diet than a skinny person, it doesn't mean the skinny person is healthy. There is no correlation between skinny and healthy. Many skinny people would also have a high GI diet, or a high fat diet and whilst it looks like they're healthy it's hard to tell how much body fat they have. A skinny person can still have a lot of body fat, and it's worse of it encases the organs.

thing is they were mostly adults and a few were actually nurses, meaning they could never go to the gym and exercise

I know nurses and doctors who smoke. Just because you know better doesn't mean you do better. You don't have to go to the gym to exercise, maybe this is what the problem is. Perhaps people need to be shown exercise plans that fit into their schedule. As if these people don't have half an hour 2 or three times a week to go for a walk.

the whole idea of make children exercise everyday till their blue in the face (or should i say red) but the way the teachers preform these routines is what MAKES the bigger children try and get out of every sporting activity possible.. I was actually talking to the gym instructor at the gym i joined, shes doing a uni degree in primary teaching, and she had the simillar view on sporting in primary AND secondary schooling. teachers need to make sport fun and not try and make sporting like its a competition and you have to be the best runner or what not. i remember sport in primary school, i tried every reason not to do it, because the teachers made it into a game of competiton, 'which ever group wins gets to leave 10 minutes earlier today', i know after i left school and went back to visit, they had made around 2 mornings for each year to go into the basketball courts and do basic exersice *they had good music that made it calm* i did not hear whoever does 4 more star jumps than everyone else will recive an iceblock.

it's called incentive, thats why they make things a competition. Are you honestly saying that if PE were less competitive the larger kids would be more inclined to participate?

i dont know if anyone remembers 'HAPPY HAROLD' well if you dont, it was a puppet giraff that used to talk about nutrition and exercise, thing is once kids found out harold was fake they just didnt listen and just went on to muck around. SO, things like education at young ages do work, thing is they need to be carried on into highschool, which is only minorly covered in

Dude, unless you had half a brain, you figured out Harold was a puppet in kindergarten.

As a self confessed overweight teenager, who has admitted that shock tactics will not work, tell us what would engage you enough to want to make you lose weight? This is the feedback that is needed. Tell us what you think would make you engaged?

 

[HalcyonSky]

This is the problem, you make up every excuse you can think of to avoid dealing with the physical exersion and personal discipline required to lose weight. Confidence issues can undoubtedly hold you back, but its ur own fault and nobody elses if you cant overcome it and get ur ass into the gym or out for a walk every day.

 

[CharlieB]

This is the problem, you make up every excuse you can think of to avoid dealing with the physical exersion and personal discipline required to lose weight. Confidence issues can undoubtedly hold you back, but its ur own fault and nobody elses if you cant overcome it and get ur ass into the gym or out for a walk every day.

/thread.

 

[banco55]

the whole idea of make children exercise everyday till their blue in the face (or should i say red) but the way the teachers preform these routines is what MAKES the bigger children try and get out of every sporting activity possible.. I was actually talking to the gym instructor at the gym i joined, shes doing a uni degree in primary teaching, and she had the simillar view on sporting in primary AND secondary schooling. teachers need to make sport fun and not try and make sporting like its a competition and you have to be the best runner or what not. i remember sport in primary school, i tried every reason not to do it, because the teachers made it into a game of competiton, 'which ever group wins gets to leave 10 minutes earlier today', i know after i left school and went back to visit, they had made around 2 mornings for each year to go into the basketball courts and do basic exersice *they had good music that made it calm* i did not hear whoever does 4 more star jumps than everyone else will recive an iceblock.

Problem is exercise is only useful if it's above a certain intensity. Maybe they should stream PE classes and have a class for the fatties so they don't hold back the kids that can actually exercise properly. Plus it should be difficult to get out of PE. You needed a medical certificate at my school.

 

[^CoSMic DoRiS^^]

Problem is exercise is only useful if it's above a certain intensity. Maybe they should stream PE classes and have a class for the fatties so they don't hold back the kids that can actually exercise properly. Plus it should be difficult to get out of PE. You needed a medical certificate at my school.

hah, we just needed a note from our 'parents' (read: forged signature on something scribbled in your maths book 5 mins before class). not even that, if you feigned being sick or on your period well enough you'd get out of it.

 

[katie_tully]

we would fake bruises by rubbing pencil onto a plastic ruler and then transferring it to a knee or ankle or something
it looked pretty authentic actually

 

[inasero]

now now katie we wouldn't want to go on putting ideas in peoples heads, the whole idea is to make physical activity compulsory

at my school PE was compulsory up until year 11, but you know i've been thinking about this for a while and i seriously reckon it should be a compulsory subject all throughout high school- with more of an emphasis on preventive health measures in senior high school (things like drugs and alcohol, sexual health, mental health, nutrition, basic anatomy). Just as we need English to articulate our ideas and communicate effectively (and even that may be debated by some), we also need this health information so we can make informed choices about our own wellbeing.

Looking back there's alot of things I missed out from my high school education, and I'm not just talking about things I've learnt since in uni, but the really basic things, the essentials we need to get along in life.

 

[Evan11]

Hmmm, if there's a correlation between obesity and socio-economic status, then perhaps we ought to re-distribute wealth evenly so that our populations health comes into line.

Cough Communist Cough

(That ought to stir some shit up)

 

[Evan11]

Wow. Controversy alert. No one has used that one before on BOS.

Wow sarcasm alert, coz no one is ever sarcastic on forums.

 

[katie_tully]

we werent allowed to do PE in yr 11/12 because our 'studies' were more important, and they didnt make provisions for us to have a period off.

 

[Wildberries]

It's all in the balance people. . . . make time for yourselves to go for that walk or run or even a team sport on weekends, the sooner you realise you need to do it to enjoy it the easier it'll be to make the life changes.

My school just had to get a note from parents too. . hehe, but when PE wasn't taught in 11/12 (compulsory I mean) I started doing exercise like running and walking everywhere more on my own time(go figure lol), mind you i've always been pretty healthy physically. so if your someone who hates being pushed maybe make up an exercise plan you like to enjoy it more and get the results from it??

 

[katie_tully]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national...duty-ambulances/2008/02/10/1202578600937.html

What the hell.

OBESITY is becoming such a chronic health problem that the Iemma Government has had to buy three more super-size ambulances to cope with those who are so fat they cannot fit inside a standard ambulance

which cost $150,000 each

There are already three mega-lift ambulances based in Macquarie Fields, Caringbah and Blacktown, which have transported about 1552 patients since they were introduced in 2002.

She said latest research from Access Economics estimated the economic cost of obesity to the Australian health system was about $873 million a year

I don't want to see any more arguments about obese people paying taxes too, therefore they can be as fat as they like. If they're that fat, they're obviously not working and they're certainly not paying their share of $837 million

 

[^CoSMic DoRiS^^]

hahahahahahaha super size ambulances? i didn't know such a thing ever existed. the fact that they even need to exist at all is a little disturbing.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

Since we know from those studies before that a lot of fat people are also poor (and most likely therefore pretty stupid people)

Hit them where it hurts, namely the "cost of living" by introducing a "fat tax", where obese people pay more tax simply for being obese (maybe by increasing their income tax rate if they're overweight)

That way they pay for their disgusting giant ambulances and other shit they need

 

[katie_tully]

Since we know from those studies before that a lot of fat people are also poor (and most likely therefore pretty stupid people)

Hit them where it hurts, namely the "cost of living" by introducing a "fat tax", where obese people pay more tax simply for being obese (maybe by increasing their income tax rate if they're overweight)

That way they pay for their disgusting giant ambulances and other shit they need

Civil libertarians love you.

 

[Captain Gh3y]

As I said before it's likely your average fatty has a limited mental capacity compared to a normal* person.

Therefore depriving them of some civil rights is fine, since they don't really understand what civil rights are anyway. It's just like how we don't let Chimps vote even though they're so similar to us.



*when they're the vast majority I guess they'll be 'normal'

 

[quixote studios]

As I said before it's likely your average fatty has a limited mental capacity compared to a normal* person.

Therefore depriving them of some civil rights is fine, since they don't really understand what civil rights are anyway. It's just like how we don't let Chimps vote even though they're so similar to us.



*when they're the vast majority I guess they'll be 'normal'

I'd vote for ya

 

[Zrap]

Fat people are the nicest people you will ever meet.