Okay, so, be proactive about it if you're worried.

Learn to be a pediatrician, get on the diet and nutrition council (or whatever would have some influence in that area) and make changes.

Well, I have been as proactive as I could by showing my daughter a healthy way to eat.

Other parents have responsibility for their own children.

Be quiet . You're not allowed to say that thing on here. Saying anything positive is frowned upon. Best to say you've tried but are failing miserably.

That makes everyone else feel so much better about themselves.

Cmon, Eyores, chin up...

It's good to state the positive ways and not put down others. Be it people with weight problems, or entire cultures or life styles. It's all about wording it certain way, presenting one's opinion. This is refreshingly very open minded community, why make it sounds like it ain't.

I would be, for example, interested, how fat foods improve one's diet. It's a known fact that leaving out fat completely ( I remember the feeling of desperate deprivation) is very bad and it makes one yoyo diet, anyways.

I'll go back to asking questions, what fatty fast foods are ok? What would be the portion size? I just made fancy and really good houmous, and the amount of olive oil it took scared me a bit.

How often does one eat super sweet fruits? Oily, ilke avocados? Or nuts? They are way too heavy for me to consume too much too often, but what a fast and healthy treat..With some "nature's candy",hmmmm, gimmme....

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"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

Olive oil is great stuff - and avocados are super healthy, despite their high fat content.
One of the best nuts are pistachios, containing 90% mono- or polyunsaturated fats.
It's the saturated and manufactured trans fats which are dangerous. Yukko.

And did you know that we like fat so much because it coats the tongue and holds the flavour of the food on there for longer.....

As an aside- a main feature of the BBC news tonight about the obesity timebomb, and this time with emphasis on liver disease in young teenagers + diabetes and some cancers.

Half the world is dying of too much food, and the other half of too little - how dreadfully sad.

That makes sense, the purpose of oils...I am not too big on fat, just visualizing makes me itch, but avocado and pistachios are my favorites..oily melons. Cantaloupe, the other ones. Olive oil is nice, but how much can one really have? Pistachios are so heavy in calories, too..I love Brazilian nuts, I forgot if there is a special name for them in English, the giant ones, they are so lovely.

I know somebody super close who in pregnancy had such craving for oil she would eat it on empty stomach, by spoonfuls... And scrape chalk of the wall, ate the paint, I don't really get it. I agree with body craving things it needs, for sure.

What fatty cuisine is healthy? I think Greek, no?

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

A friend in the US has been totally obsessed about her weight and avoiding all fats, that she has developed severe osteoporosis.
Linseeds are a really useful source of good fats- I crush them slightly to allow the oils out, and use them in my morning porridge.

Meh. Only if you are overweight.

Well yes - but the problem is, a larger and larger proportion of people in general, and young kids and teenagers in particular (especially in UK and US and Polynasia) are - threatening not only their own health, but health systems which are at breaking point and will be increasingly so. Being rude about individual people for being overweight is not helpful, I agree ( I am overweight myself) but not acknowledging that there is a huge problem with obesity out there, isn't either, surely.

Of course it is a problem.

But calling people names, accusing anyone of calling her for it of being PC, being ignorant about obesity and then posting a link some 300-odd posts later to a "health scare" and being "worried" about it doesn't cover up the faux concern that Leni has for these poor poor overweight whales people.

No Tom. It is the "but it is just so easy, you just need to..." attitude that comes with it that everyone, or at any rate I "frown upon". Hope that helps clear up any confusion.

To whale or not to whale - that is the question.

Carlos R - please spare us what has been said for the last few pages. No one cares anymore.

I thin we can all agree it's not easy. But, it would be quite nice to know where it all had gone wrong and on a macro scale, blaming pre-existing medical problems and genetics isn't exactly helpful either.

Yes. You'd like that. Funny, though, how you've been on other threads and not forgetting just how much of a "victim" you are.

Quite. Neither is saying "just eat less" to people who are obese.

On the topic of childhood eating, the problem is that with cases of n=1 you'll never really know what you did right or wrong - indeed our three children's very different eating habits reflect this point quite strongly.

You can say that - it just won't work for everyone but it will work for some. Same with smoking, coffee drinking (or indeed anything else) .

So nothing special there.

Exactly. The ones it won't work for, and there will always be a large enough number, don't need negativity, no pigs, no whales. And those who it will work for, they already know this. We are no prophets, no Einsteins for saying there is certain Western lifestyle and conditioning that make people unhealthy. We are trying to say it is a lot more sophisticated, the entire culture needs to be addressed, often, companies selling stuff, govs providing alternatives and support, health education, families working together, than saying "just eat less, folks" and targetting people who visibly manifest some needs to us, without us knowing anything about them.

I wouldn't say so...A little bit of smoking is good, you think? I'd say a little bit of food is essential. Coffee/smoking is just a bad, unecessary habit, while food one has to eat no matter what. The attitude won't ever be the same. Plus, other addictions get often treated as illnesses, while folks hooked on food get treated as gluttonous and weak. Not ill. Zero sympathy.

I am not saying the debate here went wrong, bunch of smart posters digging into a theme that is so overwhelming past few decades, that's all very good. But banalizing and making simplifying comments won't help people who need it. Personal examples, sure, but we aren't better just because we weigh a tad less..

__________________
"L'homme ne peut pas remplacer son coeur avec sa tete, ni sa tete avec ses mains." J.H. Pestalozzi

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is a matter of depth.” S.P. Cadman

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." A. Einstein

Wrong! People care and wait for the comments to come!

Oh for pities sake the pair of you, can't you see that life is too short!

Regardless of your personal metabolism, etc., if you eat MORE than what your body burns each day, you WILL gain weight, if you eat LESS than what your body burns each day you WILL lose weight.

Different people have different requirements, but in the end that's what it boils down to.

Tom

Indeed, assuming that there aren't any underlying health issues.