BodiMojo Teen Health Blog – Teenage Nutrition, Fitness, Stress, Relationships & More

Let’s face it. We are a country of obese, and statistics show we’re only getting bigger.

Fortunately, we’ve begun to fight America’s obesity upsurge—or at least, New York City, California and a few other states have.  In a recent Boston Globe article, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced his administration’s anti-obesity campaign that would become effective as early as next fall if approved by the Public Health Council. But are the measures in the campaign good enough?

Under this campaign, major restaurant chains will be required to post calorie counts for all items on their menus. This is a stellar idea because a lot of people are blissfully unaware of just how unhealthy restaurant food can be.

One of my friends, for example, knew that offerings from fast food chains were loaded with unnecessary calories, but didn’t realize that food from standard restaurants could be just as fattening–or worse. The “Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch” appetizer at Outback Steakhouse has 2,030 calories. This is the calorie equivalent of eating 21 White Castle hamburgers! (This is also approximately the number of calories I am supposed to eat in one whole day, as a young 22-year-old female.)

Another friend had the habit of ordering salads everywhere she went, believing they had less calories than other things on menu, such as sandwiches. Little did she know that Chili’s Grilled Chicken Sandwich has fewer calories than Chili’s Caesar Salad with Grilled Chicken. The sandwich is 840 calories while the salad is 1,010 calories. A “Guiltless Chicken Sandwich” at Chili’s is only 490 calories.

So requiring restaurants to post calorie counts seems like a positive step towards conquering obesity by making us more conscious of the foods we consume. I do wonder about another part of the campaign – the call for public schools to determine whether a child is overweight by assessing height and weight – and whether it could yield negative outcomes, particularly among children’s self-esteem. Labeling certain kids as overweight or obese may lower  self-esteem – or worse, trigger an eating disorder – instead of motivating them to become healthier.

I believe many of us are harsh enough judges of our body image. I have quite a few friends who fell victim to anorexia and bulimia during their teenage years. While they do not have these disorders anymore, several of them – years later – remain extremely weight conscious and all of them remember calorie counts for a lot of foods.

If this particular measure of the campaign is implemented, children of public schools may begin to bring home report cards with their body mass indexes (BMI) on them. Taking the height and weight of students in grades 1, 4, 7 and 10, public schools will calculate students’ BMIs, determining whether or not a child is overweight.

I think this measure should be implemented with caution even though it is already in effect in certain cities. A formerly overweight co-worker of mine said her physical education instructor in elementary school used to tell her she needed to shed pounds. She always got offended and self-conscious because she already knew she was overweight. She didn’t need someone telling her she was chubby. Although calculating BMIs can be beneficial to those who are unaware of their heavy stature, it may result in bruising the feelings of others.

Other recommendations to combat obesity among students include improving the nutrition standards of school cafeterias and making physical education a core subject, both of which to me seem like smart solutions to curbing obesity among children.

It’s definitely time to do something about obesity in Massachusetts, where, in the past two decades, the percentage of overweight adolescents has tripled. These are good beginning steps—let’s continue to strive to to win the war against fat.

– Contributed by Angela Lee, BodiMojo Bostonian