Australia: Extreme Obesity Is Child Abuse

[draykorinee]

It absolutely is child abuse.

[Tydrane]

Epic shitlordery going on down here, I love it. I think it's a fair call, though - if smoking around your kids decreases their life expectancy by a couple of years, why should it be okay to instill poor diet and exercise habits in them when it has the same consequences?

[ItachiZaku]

Your waistline is not a measurement of your health. Not even BMI accounts for your waistline.

But if your waistline is bigger than your height... that's... how the fuck...

[Belize]

It's about time for fast food outlets and supermarket chains to be treated like cigarette makers and be banned from advertising their junk as well.

Fast food in of itself isn't bad. I'll admit I eat fast food. Not everyday, but maybe once or twice a week love me some Big Macs. It's the lifestyle that goes along that is bad.

I exercise and eat healthy the rest of the time.

[Deleted]

I'm UK based and also a man, I have the luxury of my clothes sizes being in actual measurements. Regardless, anything over 34 for women and 36 for men severely increases risks of diabetes for example though. Waist size is a fairly decent indicator of health risks.

Depends on your country. A 38 in the uk is not the same as a 38 in france or germany or usa.
(Even though it means inches, it seems every country has a different measurement for an inch).

[Deleted]

Not sure child abuse is the word I'd use (unless they force feed the child), irresponsible parenting would likely be a more appropriate term. Terms aside, I guess it is a good thing that they are doing something to solve what could very much become a problem in the future (and hopefully in a graceful manner).

Still not sure if one could classify it as government overreach?

[Deleted]

I think giving you children giant sodas at the movie theater is child abuse so sure why not. Kids don't know what is wrong with that, just hat it tastes good. You can teach them but they are still just kids.

Giant sodas don't make you obese. Especially since you don't go to the cinema on a daily basis.

It's still your duty as a parent to see what your child eats up to a certain age, and make sure they stay healthy.

My parents really hammered on eating healthy, but then again they had it easy, I always liked eating veggies naturally.

I think the problem with parents these days that they are far too easy to manipulate and they should learn to say NO more often.

[fuguki]

Not sure if it's child abuse, but definitely bad parenting.

[Total Crica]

well, im kinda not sure about this - its kinda silly to tell kids they cant be raised by their parents because their parents let them eat whatever they want and then when they are not kids no more they can go back to eating whatever they want - i say just outlaw the things you don't want kids to eat, cuz if its bad for them as kids its still gonna be bad for them as adults, right?

[PACOX]

The biggest issue with obesity is that its directly to a very basic primal need, the need to eat. Society has grown faster than evolution, hence why its hard for man to balance their primal need to eat with the no abundance of food that even poor people relatively enjoy. Obesity is the result of our brains no realizing that calories are no longer scares, Does that excuse personal responsibility? No. But to act like fat people are bad people is asinine, especially the fat people who consciously struggle with their weight even if they never actually win the fight.

If you have a fat kid who goes to school and has friends then there is a point where you're not 100% in control of their diet. You can educate them and restrict them at home but they can easily make up for the caloric restrictions they get at home while they are out. This thought is from a dietitian. The best you can do is educate them on proper eating habits. Maybe parents should be held accountable until the age of 12 but after that if the kid wants extra calories then they will be able to find them.

Putting a child on a diet is pretty hard to do when you're competing with their natural growth processes. I don't know about girls but I know boys can (those within their normal weight) can eat you out of house an home as they're growing. Its an uphill battle trying to put a teen on a caloric restriction while combating their natural urges to eat.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Child abuse if they don't know any better, which could be said for a lot of thoughtless action that comes around to harming children, and I do think corporations and fast food should pay a lot of the health care cost associated with spikes in heart disease and type 2 diabetes, but honestly considering some of the morons having kids simply because they can and oozing them out, from what I have seen corporations now days at least are taking more responsibility than many parents.

[esach88]

I'd like to know what ages they base this on, because I think past the age of 10 (maybe 12?), a child should be knowledgeable enough to maintain their own weight. If they are over-weight at that age, I think less blame should be put on the parents.

It would be incredibly hard for a 10 year old or even 12 year old to eat healthier if their family only buys crap and cooks them crap.

[-aiko-]

Hmm...I think there's a solid argument for it being child abuse but I don't believe taking the kids away is the right answer. Fine the parents or something.

[Beazy]

Baby fat burns off quickly for healthy teenagers, but is entirely accountable for. Size 16 is 38 inches according to google? If you're a teen with a 38 inch waist you're certainly very unhealthy.

When I was 17, I was 6.5 feet tall and 40 inch waist, not even remotely close to being "unhealthy". . . . . sounds like you didn't fair too well in school. Whats that like?

[Annoying]

When I was 17, I was 6.5 feet tall and 40 inch waist, not even remotely close to being "unhealthy". . . . . sounds like you didn't fair too well in school. Whats that like?

Well, at 6'6", if you weigh much more than 220ish pounds, you'd be overweight. I'm not sure how heavy you'd have to be to have a 40 inch waist, but more than 220 seems likely.

[Gheld]

What if he weighed 100KG because he lift's bro?

EDIT: Also, it comes down to 2 things.

#1. Semantics. Thanks to semantics and general ignorance people eat/drink stupid shit like fruit smoothies with the belief that they are healthy. "Made with 100% real fruit." Yeah, you can refine fruit into flavored sugar water, but it's just flavored sugar water at that point.

#2. Sedentary lifestyles: People drive fucking everywhere these days. I remember when I was a kid, during the summer, we would rarely ever drive. My family would bike to the park together and then bike around the park, and then bike home. People think they are getting exercise when they drive to the park once a month and then lazily saunter around? Fuck.

We would walk to the store, a few kilometers away, grab groceries, and then take the bus home with them, and then carry the groceries home from the bus stop. And now they are saying "Try parking at a farther space for just a little bit extra exercise." No. And we had a damn car. We just didn't use it on nice days because back then that would make you look like a lazy slob.

My brother's and I walked or rode our bikes to school during elementary school, because the school bus was only for out of division kids. And in high school, which was farther away we rode our bikes on nice days, and took the bus when the weather sucked.

Saturday morning cartoons started at 6 am and ended at 9. Why? Because by 9 your parents were awake and making breakfast, and by 10 you were rearing to get outside and play.

And when it rained that was just another reason to go outside.

People used to over-eat all the time. We ate high carb pancakes and bread and sugar cereal and we snuck an extra cookie when mom wasn't watching. But we weren't as lazy as people are these days.

[Valstorm Warsong]

Yeah, that is child abuse, since those parent's are essentially cutting years of their children live. Even if they lose the weight down the line, being fat as a child/teen has long lasting effects.