I am, believe it or not, working whilst responding here. It, for want of a better word, inspired me to go through the child obesity stuff. I am looking at the social aspects of the phenomenon rather than physical effects. One of the case studies I was sent is of a boy near Tacoma in Washington State in the USA.
He was excluded from school in 2012. He had recently changed to middle school after a one year delay. The school has old style bench seat conjoined to desks. To begin with he could not fit into one but the school janitor found one with the back broken off and rigged up a back piece that allowed him to use it. On the first day using it and within the first hour the bench had snapped. Another bench was provided with a table. The bench also snapped. A metal structured seat was provided but the legs buckled. An adult metal chair was found for him which also bent. By the Thursday of the first week the principal was going crazy looking for solutions. The boy also had a problem getting into the class because the walkway (path, I suppose) to the room through the grounds is on a slope. The principal called in the educational inspector for advice. The inspector called in the medical examiner.
Together they concluded the school was not equipped to accommodate the boy so asked his parents to enquire after a different school place. They refused because the school was less that one minute drive from their house and the next school was almost quarter of an hour away. The inspector supported the principal in demanding payment for the damage the boy had caused, the parents refused because they felt it was the duty of the school to make provision for their son. The boy was referred to the school board, they supported the principal, received clearance from the inspector and excluded him. The parents phoned a lawyer and action began.
Where the problem began was that at 11 years old, the boy weighed over 224 pounds. I was unable to conceive what that meant so looked at a conversion table, about 102kg. He could hardly manage to walk more than 30 ft at a time without taking a break, the 160 ft from the school entrance to the classroom took him at least 15 minutes. The school nurse said that she considered it a waddle rather than walk.
The medical examiner had not completed his report when the action at the school began, but when he had sent it to the education and welfare services. A social and medical report was demanded. The boy 's parents were visited and the description of them compared both to sumo wrestlers. When the boy's health and overweight was discussed firstly the parents said that it was inherited, everybody in both families is big. Then in discussion about what they eat and drink it emerged that they mainly ate prepared food, often burgers or wiener sausages. The boy would eat at least 8 burgers at a sitting, 10 to 12 if he was hungry! They were naturally in buns with relishes. They almost always had fries. Sometimes they ate pasta dishes. For a change they would have steaks, ribs or large joints of beef that they bought pre-cooked.They also had chocolate pudding type things, ate vast amounts of chocolate anyway, muffins, cookies and all manner of pastries (what we would call cakes mainly). The boy had never tasted fresh vegetables, salad or fruit. The mother knew how to put things in her microwave to the extent that they had four of the largest size domestic microwave ovens in their kitchen to prepare food. All of the family only drank Coca Cola ever, not even a glass of water or milk had passed the boys lips since he was weaned.
The medical examiner and welfare officer called in a doctor and nutritionist to advise the entire family. They refused them entry to their house or to listen anyway. A court order was obtained on the basis of what had been seen that the boy be taken into care until his health was improved through careful diet and supervision, learning how to exercise and particularly weaning off sugars and other substances that would probably have caused a cardiac arrest before his 25th year.
The family went to their lawyer who placed a complaint that the boy was being deprived of his civil rights (think we would say human rights). Anyway, that is the story, the case is probably unfinished even now having been placed before the court in February last year. The only news given about him was that at that time he was already a little under 200lbs.
That is not an isolated case by a long way but a good example of every bit of sugar, carb, calorie, fat and all else stuffed inside a human being because for the largest part they knew no better.