Systematic VS Individualistic Solutions to Childhood Obesity

By : Rick Osbourne


In 21st century America we've developed a system that encourages kids to get fat. For example we have a fast food industry along with a sugary drink, cereal, and candy industry that are all extremely adept at encouraging kids to eat poorly. We have a TV and video game industry that has perfected the art of enticing kids to sit still and watch mindless programs, or play meaningless games that waste hours, days, weeks, months, years, and lives.

We've developed mass produced school systems that are so consumed by science and math that they pay little more than lip service to physical education. In the process1 schools are inadvertently reinforcing the sedentary behaviors that TV and video games have so successfully introduced at a pre-school level.

We've also developed unsafe neighborhoods that cause parents to keep their kids indoors instead of allowing them to go outside and run, jump, climb, and play with other kids. We have more and more single parent families in which Mom works so many hours per week at minimum wage that she no longer spends time with her kids who are in turn, spending most of their time in front of the TV, playing video games, and growing overweight if not obese.

This scenario could be carried on almost infinitely, while each piece of the puzzle has its own set of academicians who are busy studying one aspect of the problem and generating a cornucopia of abstract statistics aimed at correcting a broken system. Each piece of the puzzle also has legislators who are sponsoring legislation, humanitarian not-for-profit corporations who are feverishly underwriting projects, and a media that's reporting the story in a way that causes childhood obesity prevention to be confusing, complicated, intimidating, and expensive.

The problem is we're spending $120 billion annually jousting with these systematic windmills while childhood obesity continues to grow like a forest fire raging out of control. In other words, the problem is... what we're doing failing at every turn!

Let's Fix Individuals Instead of the System

If we're really interested in solving the problem, we must start looking at childhood obesity with a different set of eyes. We need to get creative and climb outside of the box before the next generation is incapable of fitting inside the box.

So here's my question. Instead of spending time, energy, and money on fixing the system, what if we devised ways to naturally immunize our kids against the system that's actively undermining them?

For example, what if we naturally immunized kids against fast food advertising? What if we naturally immunized kids against TV and video games? What if we naturally immunized kids against the void of PE in school, etc.? What if our kids suddenly became strong and resilient enough to fend off all these systematic carcinogens? What if the system was suddenly drained of its ability to produce self destructive behaviors in our kids?

Kids Naturally Immunized Against the System

In this light the question becomes, how can we naturally immunize kids against the system that's become so brutally efficient at corrupting their eating and exercise habits and undermining their health and their future in so many ways? Let me offer five possibilities* for your consideration.

1. Find ways to help your kids learn to do pull ups because kids who can do pull ups are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

2. Find ways to help your kids learn to do dips because kids who can do dips are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

3. Find ways to help your kids learn to do hand stand push ups because kids who can do hand stand push ups are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

4. Find ways to help your kids learn to climb a rope because kids who can climb a rope are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, these kids have naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How cool is that?

5. Find ways to help your kids learn to master any sufficiently challenging body weight exercise because kids who can do sufficiently challenging body weight exercises are NEVER OBESE. And by maintaining the ability, they've naturally immunized themselves against systematically created obesity for life. Yes they naturally immunize themselves. How incredibly cool is that?

One More Way to Say It

Let me say this in a little different way. Show me 10 McDonald's employees who can do pull ups and I'll show you 10 McDonald's employees who are not obese. Show me 100 TV and video game lovers who can do dips and I'll show you 100 TV and video game lovers who are not obese. Show me 1000 kids who loathe PE but can do hand stand push ups or climb a rope, and I'll show you 1000 kids who are not obese.

Instead of Waiting on Systematic Cures, Take the Bull by the Horns Yourself

Instead of waiting for experts to correct the broken system, let's take the matter into our own hands and immunize kids against it by starting young, helping them learn to master and maintain the ability to do sufficiently challenging body weight exercises. If we have parents and educators helping kids to naturally immunize themselves against a system that's designed to undermine them, my bet is the windmills will collapse at our feet, and the system will find itself being corrected from the bottom up instead of from the top down. What do you think?

*These are all examples of what is known in some circles as a functional acid test strategy (FATS) against childhood obesity.

Rick Osbourne spent 17 years as a physical educator and coach. He currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, (http://www.pullyourownweight.net) an informational website whose claim to fame is a strategy that motivates kids to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and his book "Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity," (on Amazon) shows parents and educators how to motivate their kids to eat better, exercise more, and to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne a can be reached at Osbourne.rick@gmail.com

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