DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FAVORITE SUPERHEROES AS A CHILD?

My two favorite were Superman and Batman. As corny as the shows were, the “good guys” always displayed valor, honor, integrity, compassion and commitment while fighting “EVIL” to protect mankind. Do you remember how their physical presentation added even greater “strength” to the characters they portrayed?

Looking at them from today’s perspective, their costumes rather than their physical realities created the illusion their strength superseded all mortal men. The truth is, they were two men that fit the physical profile, HEALTHY.

As society has undergone its transition from the 1950’s to 2016, we have lost much of the physical charisma our superheroes possessed and replaced it with an unfortunate manifestation of a new reality. Whether it’s cartoon drawings, action play figures or people dressing up as superheroes, our new reality looks like this:

Portrait of a greedy man eating burger on gray background

This is the reality 1 out of 3 American’s face today. This number increase to 2 out of 3 if we include those simply overweight. We are making this physical state of existence an acceptable new norm. This is a dangerous precedent to establish because MOST people becoming obese develop serious health complications from disease (diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, gall bladder disease, stroke, etc…) as well as structural loss of integrity and function (osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, spinal disc disease, etc…)

These are the cartoons, toys and people our children interact with and experience. They may not be dressed up as super heroes, but their disproportionate size and functional difficulties create impressions on our children. If this is the environment they’re raised in, this becomes a very “normal existence.” Children do not have the maturity to intellectually understand the ramifications living an obese lifestyle typically causes.  As adults, it become our responsibility to make certain we teach and guide our children to understand the components in life they must follow to increase their chances to live a healthy life.

UNFORTUNATELY, MANY ADULTS ARE NOT ACCEPTING THIS RESPONSIBILITY!

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What can we do to help these parents and these children achieve healthier life enhancing outcomes? If this problem is going to be FIXED it will require our families, our communities and our society to step up and face this condition head on. Relying on government to create social programs to reverse this epidemic is an unlikely solution. A country trillions of dollars in debt is NOT going to make CHILDHOOD OBESITY a primary concern.

Normally at this point in my articles, I list my ideas and solutions. I think it might be more productive (since the solutions are going to need to come from our society,) to let each of YOU use your creative minds to come up with IDEAS that can lead to SOLUTIONS. Write them in whatever detail you wish in the comment box. Let’s see if I’m correct in believing the readers of wordpress are more willing to take a moment to contribute an IDEA to SOLVING CHILDHOOD OBESITY, than to contribute to the ongoing detriment by turning a blind eye and expressing in a deafening silence a belief that this is a problem for “others” to solve.

PLEASE REALIZE, CLICKING THE “LIKE” BUTTON WITHOUT LEAVING AN IDEA ADDS TO THE ONGOING “DEAFENING SILENCE” AT OUR CHILDREN’S EXPENSE.

WON’T YOU PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO OFFER YOUR HELP.

Tags: disease, emotions, fast food, health, lifestyle, nutrition, obesity, weight loss