PLC activities

Task F: An obesity epidemic?

Readings:

Burrows, L. (2008), “Fit, fast, and skinny”: New Zealand school students ‘talk’ about health. Journal of Physical Education New Zealand , 41(3), 26 – 36.

Gard, M (2006). HPE and the ’obesity epidemic’. In Tinning, McCuaig and hunter (eds), Teaching health and physical education in Australian schools (pp. 78-87). NSW, Australia: Pearson Education Australia.

Xavier.F & Pi-Sunyer (2002).The Obesity Epidemic: Pathophysiology andConsequences of Obesity. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/

Instructions:

Read the article, discuss and record answers to the following questions.

1. Where do teachers (including ourselves) get messages about what it means to be healthy?

We found through the articles and discussion that we got our ideas of what it is to be healthy from our families, TV and reality shows, Magazines, doctors, our teacher Ed classes the internet and self-diagnosis.

2. What are the implications of you (and classroom teachers) ‘buying into’ these messages, both at a professional and personal level?

·         We can be convinced of something that isn’t true

·         Have prejudice over certain foods

·         Be overly aware of what we and the children are eating and doing physically.

·         The media influence can give a narrow view.

·         Doing lunch box checks to look for healthy foods in our students.

3. How do we see particular assumptions about ‘fit and healthy’ being played out in schools? (What sorts of school policies, curriculum/programming decisions, and teacher classroom practices/comments/behaviours have you observed?)

·         At one school on practicum for the shared lunch the teacher was only allowed to bring fruit.

·         Having to wear a hat at playtime in summer of not being able to go out and play with the rest of the kids.

·         Skipping sessions before school bell for “chubby” kids.

·         Candy was and probably still is banned at Peachgrove Intermediate.

·         Having fitness sessions at school to get them to “run around”.

·         Implementation of the “Healthy snack time”.

·         Classes going out for 10-20 minute “fitness sessions” in the mornings.

·         Having lunch boxes checked to make sure the children are eating and to see what they are eating at school.

4. What messages about themselves, others, bodies, and health might primary schools children learn if teachers buy into ‘obesity’ messages?

·         That the kids are lazy and worthless.

·         When the media is seen as gospel and anything outside of the expected norms is criticised then disorders like anorexia and bulimia can become commonplace.

·         Aware of the connection between body shape and diet.

·         Children who come from economically disadvantaged families find that the less healthy option is often the cheaper option than healthy food.

·         Some people may be genetically disadvantaged and find it difficult to be in that “normal” range of weight but still be healthy and function normally and be physically fit.

5. What might you do as practicing teachers to reduce the impacts on young people, and support them to feel healthy at any size?

·         Be aware that thin does not necessarily mean that someone is healthy.

·         We are all unique. Genetic and environmental factors create us and help to shape our physical appearance.

·         Many cultures have different diets and concepts of food, body image and what is healthy and it is not our place to judge them by our own physical criteria.

Readings for PLC

Fit, fast, and skinny: New Zealand school children talk about health. By Burrows, L. (2008)

Healthy eating and exercise regimes are prolific with our young people both in school and outside the school system. The results of the questionnaire that this is based on, is how children perceive their bodies and health. We are constantly being told about the sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating choices that pervade the youth culture, and how we are all getting fatter by the day. This has seemed to have grabbed at the consciousness of the country and one can say the world. Children across a large socio-economic and cultural range were chosen and all identified food and exercise as the key strategies for getting healthy. The older the children the more was emphasised about the “wrong foods”. Children believed they could assess someone’s health by looking at their size and shape; smaller is seen as better. They saw fitness as non-fatness and were pre-occupied with appearances as indicators of health. But the older children did associate being too thin with unhealthiness. Body aesthetics were the key components to whether someone was considered healthy or not by their peers or themselves. Younger children generally had a better perception of their bodies and were happier with themselves but the older children were more critical and girls especially had a difficult struggle with self perception. The encouragement of students to negatively evaluate themselves and their bodies in schools is seemingly done without thought, with lunchbox checks, and diet and exercise diaries and calculating a child’s BMI in class, how do these affect our dysfunctional relationship with food? The students also need to understand the social, emotional, spiritual and cognitive areas of HPE too!

HPE and the “obesity epidemic” by Gard, M (2006)

It seems as if everything is in crisis, healthcare and obesity seem to be the catch cries along with “the cotton wool  generation”  or Generation “O” for obese. 50 years ago Western scientists began the talk of an obesity epidemic and that as Western health has improved, obesity has increased along with it. We have all been confronted with newspapers and reports claiming that our parents will outlive us because of our lifestyle or that there is the need for a “war on obesity” to go with the other modern wars like drugs and crime.

For many it seems the answer is simple, like the de-emphasising of the role of PE in schools and that is the key to obesity. Schools have taken up the challenge with passion with some ideas that range from dubious to dangerous. The word “crisis” puts fear into people and can cause reactionary procedures rather than the required action. While some researchers are claiming that being overweight and obese are massive health and societal problems other state that body weight by itself has no bearing on medical health other than cases of extreme obesity and being underweight can have negative health consequences too.  He does point out that this is evidence and not proof, just because scientists say it is so, does not make it true. Some say we are a society of “couch potatoes” or “cotton wool children”, there is a lack of evidence to support this and that the decreasing physical activity levels over the last decades may be an assumption, rather than a fact. There are perceived links with TV and computer use and obesity. We need to be sceptical of generalisation and be open to a range of ideas and perspectives on this issue, stay informed and open.

The Obesity Epidemic: Pathophysiology and Consequences of Obesity by F. Xavier & Pi-Sunyer (2002).

In this article the writer discuss how some of the unintended consequence of the economic, social, and technological advances of the last several decades have affected people’s lives. How available food is low in cost and abundant and tasty foods with a high caloric content are readily available in pre-packaged forms and in fast-food restaurants. They point out that labour-saving technologies have greatly reduced the amount of physical activity we do that used to be part of everyday life. Finally, the widespread availability of electronic devices in the home has promoted a sedentary lifestyle, particularly among children. They look at how his problem is related mostly to those of lower socio-economic status, minorities, the elderly and women were more likely to be considered overweight or obese than men by BMI figures. They also determined through their testing that some people were genetically predisposed to gaining weight while others were not. They used metabolic predictors to see what the likelihood of weight gain was (These were a low adjusted sedentary energy expenditure, a high respiratory quotient (RQ; carbohydrate-to-fat oxidation ratio), and a low level of spontaneous physical activity).

The next part of the article dealt with the health risks associated with being overweight and obesity. These were type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cancer, gallbladder problems, Dyslipidemia (high blood cholesterol levels) and CHD (coronary heart disease).