End childhood obesity within a generation?

The "LinkedIn" business professionals' website contains "forums" for discussions on specific topics. I recently saw this solicitation from the White House group to participate in a discussion. The discussion has been going on for 6 months or more, but the question bares thinking about because it really is a "crisis" and is now also a focus of efforts by First Lady Michelle Obama, too.

Here's the solicitaton/question:
What are your ideas to end childhood obesity within a generation?
Today the White House will host a meeting on childhood obesity, bringing together experts and industry leaders from across the country to discuss ways to combat the growing health epidemic. First Lady Michelle Obama, Administration officials and Childhood Obesity Task Force members will discuss healthier food in schools, access to healthy, affordable food, empowering parents and more.

We want to hear from you too. Today the White House is collaborating with GOOD to ask:

What are your ideas to end childhood obesity within a generation?

Some of the most interesting responses will be featured on the White House blog and on the GOOD blog, so stay tuned.

Please note that the username, personal identifier or icon affiliated with responses may be posted on the White House blog.


There are two problems that desperately and urgently need solving with respect to childhood obesity as a creeping an insidious pandemic in America. It is should not be overlooked that this is not a major problem in Argentina, Chile, Australia, or France, either. So at least part of the problem is cultural, and we need to address some of that perhaps too, but for the moment, let's stick with eating, and exercise, the two elements that most directly affect weight gain or loss.

Yes, children need to get out (or even "in") and engaged in more physical exercise but it doesn't have to mean conventional sports, and certainly not highly competitive sports where exceptional abilities in a few make it not very much fun for the rest. "Kickball" (a cross between soccer and baseball) is a good start, but the emphasis should be on fun, not just competition. Creative ideas like "looney rules" both made up on the spot by the teachers or other organizers and "suggested craziness" from national fitness advisor could help keep a daily game of this near zero-budget sport from being boring. For example, a local rule that on Tuesday only red-haired children can play second baseman, or else, if none of those is available, it must be a three-legged second baseman (two kids with the "middle" leg wrapped in a sack). "Hiding" third base is permissible on Thursdays in months containing the letter "R", but costs 5 "runs: on the scoreboard if done any other month. Well, you get the idea.

Formal PE has to be rehabilitated both in terms of fitness emphasis on actual fitness exercises, as well as rehabilitating facilities and equipment (especially where PE has been dropped or drastically reduced for budgetary reasons). The whole "multi-purpose" school as community center concept should be explored wherever possible, too. Kids under supervision doing planned activities avoids the joystick atrophy syndrome of major muscle groups of students whose whole recreation time is spent in the video shop next to the mall food court.

Now, as to "diet" we need to be careful, of course, that we are not limiting calories needed for growth in young people, but we should also be taking lessons from the food industry's marketing successes, too. Sugars and high fructose corn syrup have come under fire, and rightly so, but not because they are anything inherently "bad", merely that they have become an excessive proportion of foods predominantly created out of starch content, with oils and lipids being flavor carrying elements that add to the popularity. In America the ubiquitous (dare I say, iniquitous?) donut is a prime example, though there are dozens of brand name snacks that are just variations on this theme.

What we should have learned from the food marketing folks is that, again, "fun" appeals to kids and "fun" foods have been constructed around all sorts of highly entertaining characters, from the Fruit Loops Toucan, to Count Chocula, it is not JUST the high percentage of sweeteners that sells cereals. We need to create new "fun" foods that are constructed from high fiber ingredients (or supplement the fiber in the ingredients) and high percentages of protein. Now we know that protein tends to be expensive, but there are also untapped sources (or at least relatively "untapped") of protein like dried distillers grains, and other "foods" that have been processed in such a way that the "left overs" are more nutritious than the originals. Similarly, algae has been used in starvation and malnutrition prevention programs in underdeveloped and drought/famine plagued areas, but in the USA could provide both biofuels as well as high protein (after oil extraction) as both livestock feed and as a food ingredient for more nutritious snacks than the sugar based treats kids favor now. This is especially true if we don't try to eliminate the craving for sweets, we just modulate it down to a more sensible level. High fiber + high protein = thinner kids.

Sincerely,
Love and warm wishes,

Stafford "Doc" Williamson
President
DaoChi Energy of Arizona

http://luxurylifestyle.psyrk.us/
http://undietlifestyle.winfotech.com

Zombie Myth (keeps haunting me)

The Zombie-like myth of food vs fuel, especially the historic "example" was, as is detailed above, never real in the first place, and only gained credibility when a World Bank report mistakenly drew a correlation.

Similar to the way grain produces a fuel and then has a "second life" back in the food chain, as with DDG's, algae can produce a vegetable type oil, and the remainder can also become a high nutrition animal feed supplement.  However, that only takes this argument half way.  The fact is, that although micro-algae are rarely used as a human food ingredient, "macro-algae" (better known as various types of "seaweed") are quite commonly eaten by people around the world.

What is left over from extracting the oil from algae can also be fermented and distilled into ethanol, but it is also a rich nutritional source for human consumption as well as the more indirect route of feeding it to our domesticated animals.  It has already be demonstrated as a life-saving anti-famine tool in Africa, and could easily be adapted into recipes for the rest of the world too.

The other amazing fact about algae is its growth rate.  Some species of algae grow so fast that they double in total mass as often as 6 times in a single day.  But even just a single doubling each day means that if you could feed algae enough carbon dioxide to grow and double continuously (doubling once a day) for 90 days, starting with a single kilo of algae, 90 days would produce enough algae to weigh more than the entire planet Earth.  Work it out for yourself, what the 90th power of 2 would be, or you can take my word for it, the theoretical total mass of algae is astounding.

So, from now on, when anyone talks about "food vs fuel" just tell them that algae is both, and doesn't require a drop of fresh water either.

All sorts of possible benefits could come from making algae into a commonly used food or food ingredient.  Many health claims that I am not qualified to evaluate are made in the book:

Green Solar Gardens: Algae's Promise To End Hunger (Volume 1)
But the main point here is, that algae can replace every drop of petroleum fuel we use today. If we build the facilities to house the production of algae, the "ramp up" of the growth cycle is less than a whole season (although that's theoretical, not a practical proposal, but the growth will far outstrip our ability to extract the oils for some time, if we just let it grow).

Sincerely,
With Love and Warm Wishes,

Stafford "Doc" Williamson