WHAT! WORKING MOTHERS = FAT KIDS???

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on May 21

The latest charge to be leveled at working mothers is that we are responsible for the epidemic of childhood obesity. This theory has been around for a while but gained some visibility last week after CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta aired a segment about it. One of the more prominent proponents is Chicago Public Health Commissioner Terry Moran, who notes that American women started entering the work force en masse in the 1980s, at the same time that American children started tipping the weight scales. “There’s a direct correlation,” he claims. Moran is backed up by Lew Fuller of The Obesity Society. “We don’t have the traditional approach of a woman being at home cooking dinner, taking care of the kids, getting the kids outside, getting the kids exercised,” says Moran (have to say, my own stay-at-home mom was pretty oblivious to whether or not I was excercising, and most of her home-cooked casseroles were starch-heavy).

It’s true that 17% of children age two and and older are overweight or obese, triple the percentage from 1980. The number of obese adults has also skyrocketed over the same period. But most nutrition experts place the blame not on working mothers but on high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), introduced in the 1970s. Because the federal government subsidizes corn production HFCS is cheaper than many other sweeteners. As a liquid it’s also easier to process, making it a favorite of soda, snack and candy makers. Thanks to HFCS, high calorie sweet foods are abundant and cheap. As a result, says a much referenced study by the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Louisiana:

The consumption of HFCS increased 1000% between 1970 and 1990, far exceeding the changes in intake of any other food or food group. HFCS now represents 40% of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the United States…The increased use of HFCS in the United States mirrors the rapid increase in obesity.

Incidentally, in 2003 the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture reported that consumption of various sweeteners has risen in the United States from an estimated 113 pounds per person in 1966 to 147 pounds in 2001.

So, working mothers are most definitely not the problem. But that doesn't mean there isn't a problem. It's more like a crisis. Just last week Medco Health Solutions, which tracks prescription drug trends, reported that the number of U.S. children taking medicine for Type 2 diabetes more than doubled between 2001 and 2005, while the number of adolescent girls taking Type 2 diabetes drugs nearly tripled (the days when type 2 was called adult-onset diabetes are long gone). In addition, an alarming percentage of children taking Type 2 diabetes drugs are also taking drugs for serious chronic conditions that normally afflict adults, such as hypertension and high cholesterol.

Some communities are taking action. The town of Somerville, Mass., targeted first, second, and third graders with a city-wide fitness progam, with notable results:

More fruits and vegetables were added to school lunches. Restaurants offered smaller portions. Crosswalks even got a fresh coat of paint to encourage walking and biking. The whole city of Somerville went on a diet to curb childhood obesity, and researchers say it worked. Tufts University nutrition experts found public schoolchildren in this Boston suburb avoided gaining about a pound of excess weight compared with their 8-year-old counterparts in two nearby communities. The results of the study were published last week in the journal Obesity.

If anyone out there has had success with obesity-fighting efforts, through their community, school or their own kitchen, please share. Working mothers, and fathers, are not the problem, but we could start being part of the solution.

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