I came a crossed two articles that have me dumbfounded. Flabbergasted. Saddened.

The first is an article about childhood obesity. To be plain, it is about a child who DIED from being too fat. Now there maybe some other underlying medical issues, but the bottom line seems to be that the child�s weight was the main factor. Read more�

This is one of the many fears I have about having children in the future. I was a chubby kid, but I was active and mostly happy unless I was being teased mercilessly by other children who thought it was funny to pick on the chubby, quiet, nice girl who wouldn�t fight back� My mother constantly watched what I ate, put me on diets, has me exercise and told me that if I didn�t continue to do so, I would up fat and unhappy, because I carried after my father and unfortunately all of the women on my fathers side were ALL obese. No lie. This is a lot of pressure to put on a child, but she tried to do her best. I personally DO NOT want to repeat this with my children. I want to have them grow up in a healthy environment, with happiness, lots of love, and fun family activities. I want them to find the love of playing a sport and giving a 100%. I want them to love their body and appreciate how it can move and accomplish any task that is asked of it. In short, I want to prevent them having to experience the pain of being a �fat kid�.

It took a long time, but I finally found my voice in the 7th and it hasn�t shut up since. I don�t worry about people picking on me anymore. Instead I say BRING IT ON! But how would I handle my precious child having to deal with being chubby and being picked on? I can�t very well go and kick every little kids butt. That would surly get me on the front page of the paper or the breaking story on the news! Not exactly a good thing for me or my child�s reputation. Things to ponder�

Then I go and read this article and it makes me shake my head. What is the world coming to? The world is being overrun by FAT!!! Read the article here

�As China strives toward its goal of a xiaokang or moderately well-off society, many Chinese are trading a venerable lifestyle that emphasized restraint for something closer to Western indulgence. The public health consequences are as predictable as they are deadly. From 1995 to 2025, deaths from diet-related illnesses such as heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes and adult-onset diabetes are expected to increase 10 times faster than population growth, according to Barry Popkin, a University of North Carolina economist who studies dietary changes in developing countries.�

�Over the past 20 years, the amount of fat in the diet has more than doubled. In cities like Beijing, where fast-food restaurants such as KFC have proliferated, one-third of the calories in the typical diet now comes from fat � an amount equal to the USA's unhealthy levels. Even vegetables have been corrupted. One popular dish that makes doctors cringe is zha qiehe, eggplant stuffed with pork and then fried.

�There is no legal drinking age in China and television advertising of liquor is common, unlike in the United States, where it is prohibited.

Still, based on experience elsewhere, as drinking becomes more pervasive, China is likely to experience higher levels of liver and sexually transmitted diseases, violence, work absenteeism and fatal traffic accidents. One Chinese insurance company last summer even began selling a special policy for people who often drive drunk, which critics assailed as encouraging more drunken driving.

If nothing is done to halt the spread of unhealthy eating and drinking, China will face substantial financial costs. In 1995, China spent almost $12 billion to treat diet-related diseases. Popkin says that by 2025, that figure is likely to increase by at least 25%. Heart disease, strokes and adult-onset diabetes, linked to unhealthy diet and inactivity, already are on the rise.

If China achieves its goal of quadrupling the size of the economy by 2020, its people will enjoy a standard of living roughly comparable to that of the West in 1990. But as it rushes to duplicate the comfort and convenience of life in the developed world, China risks copying the Western lifestyle's worst attributes, some Chinese health professionals are warning.�

(Engaged 9/16/05)