Obesity

As my Grandmother used to say, “a minute on your lips, forever on your hips.” I was told from a young age to watch my weight. I never got the PBJ sandwich at lunch but rolls of turkey with a toothpick through it. I have been on weight watchers, taken awful drinking shakes instead of eating food to lose weight, do the latest fad diet, etc. What I put in my mouth is a daily part of my brain’s thoughts.

Unclear why my Mom thought I would be lithe when my father comes from Russian stock. I would never be tall and thin because it wasn’t in my genes. My mother was tortured about food as a kid too. When she went to someone’s home and saw pizza for the first time at eight years old, she reached out to take a slice, and my Grandmother slapped her hand and said, “poison.” Oy.

I have been following the guidelines the American Academy of Pediatrics put out this past month. Obesity has been on the rise for years. The healthcare costs down the line for obesity are huge. The current belief is that obesity can not be cured by diet.

The guidelines start at two years old, where there would be intervention working with specialists for 26 or more hours to health with behavior and lifestyle choices. At 13, the intervention recommends either drugs or/and metabolic and bariatric surgery. That seems highly aggressive at 13.

Of course, the disconnect is that insurance is not up to speed to pay for this, so getting them on board for these services will take some time.

There are many different treatments these days, such as diabetic drugs, that are showing impact. Not shocking these drugs have become the rage with the wealthy. They seriously curtail your appetite. I can’t help but wonder what pharmaceutical company is benefitting from this and what the implications are, say, ten years from now, taking those drugs.

I am always blown away whenever I go to Paris because the portions are half the size in the US. When you go to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, the serving size is big enough for three days of food for one meal. Being a fat kid is not fun, but perhaps we should look to other countries that do not have the obesity as we do in our country.

Looking at our portions, what is in our food, and what we consume would seem less radical than having a kid’s stomach stapled at 13. Of course, there are always outliers, but maybe we should start looking at changing consumption first.