'Lead Bottom' lives to see another day | Children Health Wizard

Walt Disney World closed down an interactive exhibit and fitness park on March 2 that drew strong criticism for the potential to shame children who are overweight. The fitness park was fatally flawed, but Walt Disney World deserves some credit for attempting to draw public attention to the growing problem of obesity.?

The fitness park featured heroes called ?Callie Stenics? and ?Will Power? that fight against fat villains referred to as ?The Snacker? and ?Lead Bottom.? While these animated superheroes? struggles with the temptation to watch too much television and eat junk food may have been cheesy, they do call attention to problems of today?s youth.

One large opponent of the fitness park was the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA). They claimed the park played into stereotypes that degraded overweight children and they were disappointed Disney had supposedly fallen under the shadow of negativity and discrimination. AJ Wolfe, owner of The Disney Food Blog, acknowledges the flaws of the exhibit. She said, however, Disney?s goal was to simply educate park-goers about healthy choices.

Both parties are correct. Using stigmatizing characterizations to promote healthy eating and weight loss is not the answer to obesity. Ignoring the problem, on the other hand, is not the solution either. NAAFA spokeswoman Peggy Howell said she was disturbed to see negative eating and exercise habits were associated with higher weight individuals. What she fails to acknowledge is that most cases of obesity begin with negative eating and exercise habits, according to the Cell Press.

Scientifically, obesity is defined as an imbalance of energy intake and energy expenditure. Energy expenditure includes physical exercise and metabolism. Morbidly obese individuals often display defections in their metabolic pathways that are associated with feelings of hunger, which in turn increases food intake. There is a large amount of academic research on the interplay of genetic, environmental and psychosocial factors on obesity.

Decades of research into obesity did lead to a finding that is vital to understanding the dangers of weight gain. An increase in fat tissue from the overconsumption of food leads to an increase of the hormone leptin. Once the brain is desensitized to leptin, the hormonal control of food intake ceases to function properly. The brain will signal feelings of constant hunger, which is why a little weight gain can lead to a lot.

All of this can be summed up to the idea that prevention of obesity is the best medicine. Once your metabolism is altered significantly ? which happens once you are sufficiently overweight ? it is altered forever. It will rarely function normally again. The more scientists discover about obesity, the scarier it becomes.

The World Health Organization has referred to childhood obesity as one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Studies in 2006 found that 30 percent of Americans are obese and that 65 percent are overweight. Despite its growing seriousness, obesity remains a taboo topic.

I congratulate Walt Disney World on attempting to address it. In this day and age, however, you have to be careful about how you address problems that can be related back to appearance.

The public objection to obesity really is not related to appearance. It is related to the adverse health effects of the condition. Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer are significant health problems that can be caused by obesity.

Children and adults need to learn about the risks that obesity, and to a lesser extent being overweight, can present. Awareness of the dangers of snacking, high fat diets and limited physical exercise needs to be raised.??

Article source: http://dailyevergreen.com/read/opinion-Lead-Bottom-lives-to-see-another-day

Source: http://www.childrenhealthwizard.com/lead-bottom-lives-to-see-another-day

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