no more obesity

i have a cold. it's almost amusing to say that i have a cold when it's 95 degrees outside, but there you have it. my kid has one, and several clients and friends either are in the middle of or just finished up being sick. i wonder if the dramatic temperature changes have anything to do with summer colds. it's 95 degrees outside, but then it's barely 70 in your office building and you have to keep your sweater on. i know "they" say that colds don't have anything to do with the temperature, but i'm just sayin...

anyway, since my temperature was hovering around 101 this morning, i decided to do the mature thing and reschedule my clients so that i could stay home and rest. i have been working on the evaluation of a supplemental media cd from the publishers of the textbook for the lifespan development class i used to teach. i have done a couple of projects with this particular publishing company, and they rock, to use layman's terms. =)

i just finished looking at an activity covering the topic of childhood obesity. i learned that the usda has yet another food pyramid to shove down our throats (ahem) - this one is specifically designed for children. what almost made me lose my lunch was the fact that they decided to eliminate one major word: obese. yes, OBESE!! they say that the word has too many "negative connotations." um. so now, if your kid is in the upper 80-95th percentile in weight, they are "in danger of becoming overweight." if they are in the 95th percentile and above, they are "overweight." yes, the 7 year old who is 4.5 feet tall and weighs 150 lbs. is overweight. not obese...overweight.

while i generally do not get excited about labels, i have always considered obesity a health problem that needs active management - much like diabetes or depression. but i don't think that "downgrading" the word depression to sad would help. in fact, that would minimize the problem and i'd probably be less pro-active about managing it. i just don't understand why, in this society where kids are constantly bombarded with wars, murders and other violence through the media, the things that they really should be aware of are sugar-coated! that's just messed up.