America’s cards are stacked against all kinds of people these days and our kids are no exception to the rule. After listening to medical ethicist Harriet Washington describe what she calls “The medical industrial complex, and reading Dr. Mark Hyman describe “Obesity’s toxic triad” (big food, big farming, and big pharma), all of whom are being financially supported by the US Congress (with US tax dollars) in the form of subsidies and loopholes galore, it’s easy to conclude that our democratically elected officials in both houses of Congress have been aiding and abetting corporate profiteers at the expense of future generations for some time now.
Why you might ask? Because everyone from the fast food industry to corporate farmers, pharmaceutical companies, colleges, universities, hospitals, and individual doctors are all so financially locked into the system that they can ill afford to rock the boat and tell the American people the truth about anything. And that includes the active role they all play in supporting the root causes of an epidemic the US Surgeon General has called “America’s number one health threat,” childhood obesity.
Systematic Changes are Unlikely
Presuming the sheer size and momentum of the current system will prevent any significant changes, the question becomes, “What are the odds of systematically arming our kids with the tools they need to stand up and fend off the influences of the obesity industrial complex that’s responsible for stacking this deck?
Arming/Activating the Kids Instead
In this light I contend that the odds are excellent – if you know how to do it. Actually the solution is not only simple but it’s so inexpensive that individuals from all income levels can afford to partake. On the other hand, done right, it will be extremely expensive to the obesity industrial complex that depends heavily on the epidemic’s continuation.
Let me explain by spotlighting one very important fact that most people, if they just think about it for an instant, already know. The fact is, statistics confirm that the odds of an obese person/child being able to do even one conventional pull up are somewhere between miniscule and non-existent.
In other words, if your kids can do at least one pull up, odds are excellent that they’re not obese. And furthermore, they’ll never have to wrestle with all the problems that follow in obesity’s wake – as long as they eat and exercise in ways that allow them to maintain the ability to physically pull their own weight. In short, they will have naturally immunized themselves against obesity for life.
Inspired and Motivated
Furthermore, all kids want to be strong at everything (it’s always cool to be strong) and the pull up bar inevitably represents strength to all kids. In this light if you can show kids how to systematically develop the ability to physically pull their own weight and succeed week after week, month after month in front of their friends, you’ll be astounded at how motivated most kids become over learning to do pull ups.
Once that goal is achieved it’s a simple matter of saying yes to the things that make them strong and no to the things that make them weak. That is to say on one hand the pull up bar naturally encourages kids choose the fruits and veggies over the pizza and curly fries. On the other hand, it naturally encourages kids to choose active, physical play over sedentary, couch potato inactivity. In other words, it automatically rewards good eating and exercise habits, and automatically punishes poor ones. That’s built in.
Undermining the Obesity Industrial Complex
If they test themselves once a week (10 to 20 seconds) in order to make sure their pull up performance remains intact, kids will know for sure that they’re winning the war and the obesity industrial complex is losing. In the long run this strategy defunds the culprits, they’ll die off for lack of passive victims, and they’ll be unable to undermine well armed, pro-activated kids. That’s how we can turn the tide and win the war against childhood obesity once and for all.
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