When I turn on the tv every morning it inevitably ends up on the news.
Mostly I'm listening and getting ready at the same time and something
caught my ear today. I believe the channel landed on The Today Show or
some other useless entertainment and they were discussing kids having
weight loss operations. Was it safe? Why was it happening more
frequently? Was it parenting? A lack of discipline with fast foods?

It seems so simple to me...the source of nutrition is basically food so I don't need a scientist or Matt Lauer to tell me
that. And sure fast food has something to to with it. And yes it does
have to do with parents, probably lacking a proper diet, who encourage
poor habits due to a need for speed. But, what about the kids who are
just bigger from the get go?

On more than 10 occasions I've caught myself explaining to someone the following:

"Don't you wonder why the young athletes are bigger at a younger age?
Why girls develop earlier? I mean did you see Lebron James right out of
highschool? He looked like a man child! And did you hear about the first two WNBA players to dunk the ball?"

I use these examples to back up my next point. Its not the fast food
service, its the fast food growth. No longer are the days of pastures
full of cows. Instead, because of our huge consumption rates, they pack
cows into feeding bins so they can get em fat quick and cheap. What
happens when cows don't eat their normal diet and don't get to roam?
They get diseases. How do you prevent disease? You inject antibiotics.

And instead of cows growing large by feeding on grass all day, they are
lacking in weight due to grain feed. Currently, 36 percent of the world's grain goes to feed livestock and poultry, inefficient converters of grain. So how do they bulk them up? Steroids. That must lead to alot of animals with tiny anatomy!

Most of the things they put into our meats these days are absorbed
directly into the fat and muscle of the animal. Yeah, that's pretty
much what makes up the parts we eat. We literally take in growth
hormones and cow medicine via the meat. And what's that stuff that
baseball players, body builders, and horses alike have been accused of
taking in order to improve performance? Here is simple chart that shows our size increase in just the last 20 years.

(taken from http://www.wonderquest.com) 

Here are a few fun stats to think about over this Fourth of July weekend:

(From Worldwatch.org)
-More than 200 million Americans-three-quarters
of the population-will attend or host a barbecue this weekend

-World meat production has surged nearly fivefold since 1950, growing from 44
million tons to 211 million tons in 1997

-Today,
people share the Earth's natural resources with nearly 1 billion pigs, 1.3 billion
cows, 1.8 billion sheep and goats, and 13.5 billion chickens-over two chickens
for each man, woman and child on the planet.

-The United States and China, which contain 25 percent of the world's
population, combine to consume 35 percent of the world's beef, over
half of the world's poultry, and 65 percent of the world's pork. If
Brazil and the European Union are included, this group consumes over 60
percent of the world's beef, over 70 percent of the world's poultry,
and over 80 percent of the world's pork.

So what is the verdict on children having weight loss surgeries. Well, it isn't going to stop just because of these stats. Until formal education is put in to place, many of the people this effects won't even have access to figures like this. Not to mention, why would you want to give up all that tasty food when you can just fix any problems it causes with a quick surgery?