Quote from Tsing Tao:
I totally think it is an activity (or lack of activity) issue. I teach two classes of juniors in our Jujitsu school each week. Almost all of them have one additional sport they play (most play soccer, or take gymnastics). One fat kid in the class (there's always one). All the rest of them, aged 7 to 13 are thin as rails and in good shape. As expected, the fat kid whines all the time about any of the drills or exertion I subject them to, despite the fact he is in a class designed around throwing people.
I remember eating like you did - McD's, Pizza, whatever I wanted. Do any of us remember actually thinking "Whoa, I need to check my sugar intake". Remember Jolt cola? I lived on it. Poptarts, cheetos, pizza, mac n cheese, whatever. Sure, I ate good things too, but nothing stopped me from finishing a whole pizza in high school, if I had my mind made up. Also drank a gallon of milk a day - and not the non-fat version. My mother would scream at me "I just bought this 4 hours ago!!"
In high school, I took karate and played football. They beat us so badly in football that I barely had energy to do homework before bed. In gym class, we played a sport of our choice - I chose floor hockey in the gym. We checked each other into the walls, the bleachers, played dirty. More than one kid got hurt. That didn't stop our teacher (who was one of the baseball coaches) from barely paying any attention to us whatsoever. When we got hurt in class, we went to the nurse. When we got home, we didn't complain, and even if we did, our dads told us to quit whining. Our moms would just tell us that if we wanted to play rough, we had to expect injuries. No one thought to sue the school.
After football season was over, the bus dropped us off and we got kicked out of the house. We rode bikes. Played "Smear the Queer", or basketball. We invented games with rules that were designed to cause pain, laughed when our friends got hurt (even though we secretly felt bad). When it got dark, we argued about who's mom it was shouting for them one block over. When the street lights came on, we had to be home. If we wore our school clothes outside, we got in some serious shit with mom.
When was the last time you saw a bunch of kids playing some homemade sport in your neighborhood? I can't remember. On Halloween, the kids run around and "boo" each other's house. That's about the last time I can recall it.
Fucking pathetic. You want to curb obesity in kids? Put your foot in their ass.
