Purpose built ambulance

i tend to agree with StNorb on this one, though i am probably less hostile
obesity is something that in most cases should be easily preventable, and easily curable/managed. too many people are just lazy or lack the proper education about it and as mentioned, its a rather large drain on our healthcare system that is only going to increase as the years go on.

its not just the fault of individuals though, soceity as a whole is more encouraging of and accepting of obesity and just the nature of the corporations and the entertainment and the sense of entitlement and everything that we have now is just one giant mix that enables this type of lifestyle.

Its a change needed on a huge scale and unfortunately i dont see that happening anytime soon.

just put a tax on chips and pepsi

And another way to help with the rising increase in obesity, especially childhood obesity, is to provide more physical activity in schools (at least they have made phys ed manditory right through to grade 12 again), remove the crap food from schools, including in the school cafeteria and set up guidelines for the elementary lunch programs that no junk food be allowed. As well in the workplace, if your company has the physical space, recommend that a gym be set up that will help with the physical activity during a lunch break. If the space is not available, then have a program by which the company pays for a portion of your gym membership for a one year period on a yearly basis. If you choose not to be a member at a gym but rather play a team sport, then the yearly payment can go to the registration for the team. As well the government could extend the tax credit that is available to parents of kids in activities to anyone who is in an activity that qualifies. And lastly, make the junk food prices so high and the healthy food prices low that it will make the healthy food easier to purchase.
With all of that said, it will always be about choice, whether it be financial or personal choice. And because of all of these choices that are made by people everyday, we are now in need of an ambulance that can carry the obese to the hospital.

drinking and driving accidents are even easier to prevent. ( dont drink, maybe ban all alcohol completely)
work place accident WAY WAY easier to prevent (dont work)
vehicle accidents not involving drinking are the easiest to prevent. (remove all vechicles from use)

Deank wrote:drinking and driving accidents are even easier to prevent. ( dont drink, maybe ban all alcohol completely)
work place accident WAY WAY easier to prevent (dont work)
vehicle accidents not involving drinking are the easiest to prevent. (remove all vechicles from use)

You know I saw a film at the global justice film festival a few years back. The filmmaker used similar logic:

Militarization of space is bad because weapons are made in factories and people can get hurt working in factories.

holly golightly wrote:And another way to help with the rising increase in obesity, especially childhood obesity, is to provide more physical activity in schools (at least they have made phys ed manditory right through to grade 12 again), remove the crap food from schools, including in the school cafeteria and set up guidelines for the elementary lunch programs that no junk food be allowed. As well in the workplace, if your company has the physical space, recommend that a gym be set up that will help with the physical activity during a lunch break. If the space is not available, then have a program by which the company pays for a portion of your gym membership for a one year period on a yearly basis. If you choose not to be a member at a gym but rather play a team sport, then the yearly payment can go to the registration for the team. As well the government could extend the tax credit that is available to parents of kids in activities to anyone who is in an activity that qualifies. And lastly, make the junk food prices so high and the healthy food prices low that it will make the healthy food easier to purchase.
With all of that said, it will always be about choice, whether it be financial or personal choice. And because of all of these choices that are made by people everyday, we are now in need of an ambulance that can carry the obese to the hospital.

Yeah, that's a great idea for increasing physical activities at the schools... making the kids walk to 7-11 for that stuff will do them some good!

Deank wrote:drinking and driving accidents are even easier to prevent. ( dont drink, maybe ban all alcohol completely)
work place accident WAY WAY easier to prevent (dont work)
vehicle accidents not involving drinking are the easiest to prevent. (remove all vechicles from use)

i'm confused, are you being sarcastic because you disagree with obesity being a problem?

Gee mr rat I am glad you find everything to be a big joke. (no pun intended)

holly golightly wrote:And another way to help with the rising increase in obesity, especially childhood obesity, is to provide more physical activity in schools (at least they have made phys ed manditory right through to grade 12 again), remove the crap food from schools, including in the school cafeteria and set up guidelines for the elementary lunch programs that no junk food be allowed. As well in the workplace, if your company has the physical space, recommend that a gym be set up that will help with the physical activity during a lunch break. If the space is not available, then have a program by which the company pays for a portion of your gym membership for a one year period on a yearly basis. If you choose not to be a member at a gym but rather play a team sport, then the yearly payment can go to the registration for the team. As well the government could extend the tax credit that is available to parents of kids in activities to anyone who is in an activity that qualifies. And lastly, make the junk food prices so high and the healthy food prices low that it will make the healthy food easier to purchase.
With all of that said, it will always be about choice, whether it be financial or personal choice. And because of all of these choices that are made by people everyday, we are now in need of an ambulance that can carry the obese to the hospital.

communismcoughcoughcommunism

Goth_chic wrote:Gee mr rat I am glad you find everything to be a big joke. (no pun intended)

LOL!

No seriously, I am all for a junk food tax, ...and... banning junk food from schools.

...and, I am realistic enough to know that banning junk food from schools will not prevent the kids from obtaining it.

It's unfortunate that we live in a society where if you are obese it is easier to stay obese than to do something about it.

Lets focus on working on and addressing the problem instead of working on ways to perpetuate the problem.

I rarely buy junk food so I say tax away. When I was in school we didn't have any vending machines, we did have a small cafeteria but the majority of us took lunches from home. I eat relatively healthy and so does my family. Sometimes we do order a pizza on a Friday night, or we have popcorn at the movies. I say everything in moderation, nothing wrong with having McDoanlds once in a while. It starts at home, if the parents eat junk food and do not cook healthy meals then how are the kids going to know any better. Next time you are in the grocery store check out what is in some of the carts....WOW is all I can say!

AdamX wrote:

Deank wrote:drinking and driving accidents are even easier to prevent. ( dont drink, maybe ban all alcohol completely)
work place accident WAY WAY easier to prevent (dont work)
vehicle accidents not involving drinking are the easiest to prevent. (remove all vechicles from use)

i'm confused, are you being sarcastic because you disagree with obesity being a problem?

nope.. I am saying that there are TONS of other things we could do that would drastically reduce our health care costs as well. One needs to open the prospects to everything if we start down the road of attacking one group of people or another.

For that matter. The elderly probably cost as more then most other groups. Perhaps its time we started using those ice flows again.

Goth_chic wrote:I rarely buy junk food so I say tax away. When I was in school we didn't have any vending machines, we did have a small cafeteria but the majority of us took lunches from home. I eat relatively healthy and so does my family. Sometimes we do order a pizza on a Friday night, or we have popcorn at the movies. I say everything in moderation, nothing wrong with having McDoanlds once in a while. It starts at home, if the parents eat junk food and do not cook healthy meals then how are the kids going to know any better. Next time you are in the grocery store check out what is in some of the carts....WOW is all I can say!

The first time I chaperoned one of my kids school events I was shocked. It was a kindergarten trip to the children's museum. About 80% of the lunches were some combination of pop, chocolate bar and drinks.

St Norberter wrote:It's unfortunate that we live in a society where if you are obese it is easier to stay obese than to do something about it.

Lets focus on working on and addressing the problem instead of working on ways to perpetuate the problem.

I agree with you. Food can be an addiction and unfortunately food is everywhere and you need it to survive. I have a friend who was obese, she ate to comfort herself. 5 years ago she joined Weight Watchers and she now looks fabulous! She has kept it off with alot of hard work. She still has cheat days but she works out extra hard at the gym the next day.

But banning junk food from schools shows these kids and their parents that the schools are no longer going to be responsible for their unhealthy habits but rather they are promoting a healthy lifestyle and are being healthy role models. We all need to be good role models for the kids today and that includes the school system. This is one way of being a responsible role model, even the little things we as adults take for granted have a way of influencing the youth of today. Yes kids will find a way of getting junk food but at least they will not be able to get it at school.

I say ban the sale of junk food at schools. Unfortunately you cannot ban what a parent packs for their kids lunch. At my kids preschool (which will also be their elementary school) I see what some of the kids eat, pizza pops, candy, chocolate bars and pop.

The first things banned from schools have been among the healthiest and have caused some of the bad diets out there Nuts, Strawberries, Kiwi, fish, etc. .

Lets overturn the good food bans before we start banning the not good food.

holly golightly wrote:But banning junk food from schools shows these kids and their parents that the schools are no longer going to be responsible for their unhealthy habits but rather they are promoting a healthy lifestyle and are being healthy role models. We all need to be good role models for the kids today and that includes the school system. This is one way of being a responsible role model, even the little things we as adults take for granted have a way of influencing the youth of today. Yes kids will find a way of getting junk food but at least they will not be able to get it at school.

Our school did this. When the kids started in school, one of the rewards was being taken to McDonalds by the principal. Since that time the reward is now a lunch at subway and the cafeteria has changed to a much healthier menu.

Nuts were banned due to kids with severe allergies. I have never heard of a ban on fish or berries.

Goth_chic wrote:Nuts were banned due to kids with severe allergies. I have never heard of a ban on fish or berries.

( you will as soon as your kids get to school)

oh whats that... everyone has to suffer because of a few people.... say.. aint that exactly what some people are bitching about in this thread in regards to the fat people costing us more?

Goth_chic wrote:Nuts were banned due to kids with severe allergies. I have never heard of a ban on fish or berries.

Same thing - allergies.

One of the problems is that with privacy laws - there isn't a lot that can be divulged.

E.g. in one of our school's classes there are egg, nut, shellfish allergies.

The teacher couldn't tell us the child or number of children that had that allergy. I was able to get someone else to confirm the number though. Because I knew the ones that made up this number, I can send my daughter with some of her favorite foods because she knows this person with the allergies and they both know that this person can't have them.

But when you can't identify the person......

Deank wrote:

Goth_chic wrote:Nuts were banned due to kids with severe allergies. I have never heard of a ban on fish or berries.

( you will as soon as your kids get to school)

oh whats that... everyone has to suffer because of a few people.... say.. aint that exactly what some people are bitching about in this thread in regards to the fat people costing us more?

I don't agree with wholesale bans on foods in school because a certain person has an allergy. it's one thing in preschool, nursery or kindergarten, but if the perso has a food allergy they are going to have to learn how to deal with it. What foods to eat, what foods not to and be able to deal with the fact that their friends can eat stuff they can't. Banning certain foods across the board doesn't accomplish this and diminishes personal responsibility.

Again I understand what both Goth and Dean are saying. Yes parents are providing what their kids are eating so if the parents choose to give them junk food then they are responsible for turning their child into an obese child (if it happens). As for taking the ban off of the foods that have the potential to cause severe allergies, I too agree with having those bans removed. If you know you child has an allergy to nuts (peanuts in particular) then I am sorry but make other arrangements. My youngest daughter has what her doctors call a "texture" disability in that she gags and chokes on foods that have texture (most meat) so she eats a lot of nut butters on toast/bread. She couldn't take these sandwiches to school because of one kid who had allergies to nuts. So because of one kid, she couldn't eat her healthy meal. It turned out that the kid eventually grew out of the allergy, which some do if exposed to the product on a small basis gradually.

When I was a kid I don't recall anyone having a nut allergy. We could take peanut butter to school. In my kids school we can have peanut butter, there are no nut allergies in their class.