Posted: Sunday, October 7, 2007 12:00 am
Whatever else might trouble you about kids these days - their hair, their clothes, their piercings, their lingo, their addiction to cell phones and video games - there's at least one thing about today's youth that everyone should be able to appreciate:
They seem a good deal nicer than young people were in earlier times.
A lot more willing to interact positively with kids a grade or two younger.
A lot more accepting in general.
And that in itself, in today's complicated society, unfortunately is part of what's fostering one of our country's biggest problems: Obesity.
How's that, you say? A few decades ago, when kids were, generally speaking, both leaner and meaner, there were a couple factors at work that seemed to help most youths keep their weight under control.
One was that, because there weren't nearly as many overweight people in, say, the 1970s, they tended to be a lot more noticeable among their peers than they are today.
The other was that those peers - not all of them, of course, but a number of them - were prone to teasing those fat kids who stood out from the vast majority who weren't too heavy.
Since most kids don't like to be singled out - at least not for purposes of derision - I imagine the fear of being made fun of was one of the things that kept the baby boomers and earlier generations more or less thin throughout their youth.
All of this is not to say that our nation would be a much better place if only school kids again became more enthusiastic with their verbal abuse of classmates who are different. Among other reasons it would not is that mean children also tend to tease people who are different for reasons completely beyond their control.
It's interesting, though, that whereas being overweight was once socially risky, now it's more or less just one of the norms of student life.
Of course, in our increasingly sedentary, high-calorie nation, two out of three people are overweight, with about one in five categorized as obese - meaning there are plenty of heavy role models for our kids to choose from.
What's the answer to all of this blubber? It remains simple: Sensible eating plus regular exercise equals weight control.
And that schoolmate who used to pick on you for being fat? Send him a thank-you note. Albeit in a cruel way, he was doing you a favor.
Steve Lundeberg is the associate editor of the Democrat-Herald. He can be reached at 812-6110 or steve.lundeberg@lee.net.