I flunked.

In the NY Times, there is an essay concerning "food police" and the "war on child obesity." Basically, the writer is reacting to the often extreme measures schools seem to be taking to discourage children from eating the wrong things or becoming fat. Fat is a human obsession I don't quite understand. There is SOOOOOO much emphasis for humans to be rail skinny rather than able to function well in their bodies.

The bit that makes me hyperventilate is the tidbit of information - apparently, in Arkansas, student report cards now include the child's BMI ratio (body mass index or your weight in relationship to your height.) SCARY!!! First of all, children are growing little things and their weight/height ratio changes fairly rapidly. Also, the BMI doesn't take into account muscles or general fitness. The writer pointed out that Tom Cruise has a BMI of 31 which places him in the "obese" category. Now, if any chart would consider Tom Cruise "obese" -- then I can only imagine how badly I'd flunk out of the elementary school BMI race.

Also, I can only imagine that this is just one more way to make kids feel really terrible about themselves -- putting their BMI on their report cards as if how tall they are or how much they weigh is within their control. Last I looked, not many 8 year olds are driving to the store, doing the weekly shop, and preparing all the family meals. Healthy eating habits have much more to do with what the parents do - the example the parents set. (See previous post concerning parental example)

Recently, I saw parents of a baby - probably 6-8 months old giving her sweetened Iced Tea through a straw in a restaurant. The child was screeching for more and really quite animated. The Phenom remarked that if you don't have the child hyped up on sugar and caffeine, you have one less justification for beating it. I preferred a gentler interpretation - if you never put mt. dew in the kid's bottle, the kid doesn't know to scream for it.