Overweight – What kids say – by Robert Pretlow

As someone working exclusively in the field of obesity, I was approached by Dr Pretlow to ask if I would review his book “Overweight – What kids say“. I was delighted to be asked. (Dr Pretlow’s main site is here).

The book is based on comments made by overweight kids and teenagers on two identical sites run by Dr Pretlow: www.weigh2rock.com and www.blubberbuster.com. The sites look fun and interactive and the comments in the book reflect the value that young people get from them. The book content is almost entirely provided by verbatim comments made by the people using these sites. Dr Pretlow provides a narrative and asks questions for which the comments provide answers e.g. What do overweight kids say about their parents? We then get many examples of responses, as a factual illustration of what kids say in answer to this question. The title of the book is a well chosen one.

I must admit that the unedited verbatim comments don’t make comfortable reading for anyone used to writing for a living. You can read pages before finding one comment that is even close to being spelled properly, let alone grammatically correct. I know young people use text speak, slang  and abbreviations, but saying “board” when they mean “bored” or “choose” when they mean “choice” makes one wonder if there will be any authors in the future!

If you can tolerate reading 300 pages of essentially ‘text messages’, the content will in turn make you laugh and then make you cry. More will make you cry and they should all make us, as adults, feel guilty. We have failed these children. We have put profits of the food industry ahead of the health of our next generation and we have created, as just one example, a 500lb “Fat boy 15” who has to be home schooled as a result of his weight. We have cut him off from the world before he is even an adult himself. What is he then most likely to do to overcome loneliness and boredom? Eat.

The minimum that these kids feel is embarrassed – embarrassed to go out, to be themselves, to have slimmer friends, to do activities required of them at school – to even be alive. Some have considered suicide. Weight, fat, size and diets are totally dominating and ruining the lives of these young people. The exhaustion of trying yet another diet and the despair of failure is palpable. It really is heartbreaking. It also made me angry. We didn’t have an obesity epidemic until we changed our diet advice away from what we evolved to eat – meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, vegetables, salads and local fruits – foods provided by nature – to grains, grains, more grains, breads, cereals, man-made spreads, low fat this, low fat that. The food industry profits have got as fat as our children. The joy of shareholders is equal and opposite to the despair of the consumers.

We have been watching Jamie’s Food Revolution on TV in the UK these past few months – it aired first in the USA. My heart sank when I saw the USDA custodian for the region, ‘Rhonda’, saying that kids must have two breads with every meal and I nearly threw something at the screen when she confirmed that fries counted as a portion of veg. Carbs are uniquely addictive and uniquely fattening – processed carbs especially. Why is the USDA not insisting that children eat the most nutritious foods at school lunch? Where is the campaign to get liver, sardines, eggs and real milk (not low fat rubbish) into the school meal plan? How long will it be before Dr Pretlow is reporting overweight kids as saying “my government made me fat”?

The most commonly asked question on www.weigh2rock.com and www.blubberbuster.com is, unsurprisingly, how do I lose weight? There are the usual platitudes about ‘eat less/do more’, which the site would do well to counter and provide evidence for the futility of this route. Since Benedict, 1917, through Keys, 1945, and Stunkard and McLaren-Hume, 1959, to the most recent definitive study that I have seen – Franz et al 2007, all evidence confirms that ‘eat less/do more’ does not achieve sustained weight loss. Stunkard & McLaren-Hume quantified the failure rate as 98% – a statistic we often hear today and may not know from whence it came. What can work is eating better, eating what we ate before we had an obesity epidemic, eating the food provided by nature that we have evolved to eat.

I was encouraged by the number of children who had worked out the right advice for themselves – cut out the junk and stop snacking were tips that will have a significant positive impact. There were also some excellent tips for dealing with cravings and the support that kids get from each other in the site will undoubtedly help.

Dr Pretlow addresses the very real issue of food addiction – a topic that has also been a key area of interest for me. I was very pleased to see Pretlow exploring ways in which kids could eliminate the foods to which they are addicted from their diet. 68% of the respondents to one survey reported feeling addicted to food and 66% feeling out of control with food. My only surprise was that these figures were not in the 90% range. People cannot be addicts in moderation. We should no more advise food addicts to eat sugary processed food in moderation than we should tell alcoholics to drink in moderation. We need to start treating food addiction for what it is – a serious addiction with serious consequences. The work that the sites do in this area is invaluable.

This is a unique and important book. I have not before seen so many comments from so many young people about so many different aspects of one issue – their weight. We adults need to take responsibility for the part we have played in making our children overweight – starting with dieticians, who are little more than sales reps for the food and drink industry and whose professional body is sponsored by a who’s who of the food industry.

Even in this area, the children have clear views as to who should help them. 74% want an advisor who was overweight, but isn’t now. Only 5% want an advisor who has never been overweight.  Whether we have been overweight or not, whether young people can relate to us or not, we can all play our part. We can read this book, hear what young people are saying and do anything and everything we can to stop this horrific (childhood) obesity epidemic. For my part that means campaigning for a return to real food and a condemnation of the processed food that made us fat and sick. What will your part be?

9 thoughts on “Overweight – What kids say – by Robert Pretlow

  • July 24, 2011 at 2:32 pm
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    Dear Zoe
    I found the reference to your website in a Sunday supplement on 17th July. I ordered the books on Monday and received then on Wednesday. I am a retired nurse with a life-long weight problem and arthritis. I have tried diets before for both weight loss and to help with arthritis. Reading your extensive and impressive research – I too am a researcher, I did an MSc in Medical Sciences at Warwick- has been a revelation. I hope you get the exposure and rewards that this work deserves. Thank you.

    • July 24, 2011 at 4:54 pm
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      Hi Marilyn – many thanks for your lovely comment. The connection between grains and arthritis is well known in the ‘real food’ nutrition world – not in the traditional world. Mark Sisson documents his huge improvement in arthritis by going grain-free. My hubby did the same about 10 months ago – he has arthritis in the family and normally suffers especially in the winter months. Last winter he had not one symptom. Real food, 3 times a day and manage carbs and you’ll lose weight and gain health!
      Good luck
      Very best wishes – Zoe

  • March 22, 2011 at 11:18 am
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    Would appreciate your comments on the recent RSA article on obesity.

  • February 15, 2011 at 8:56 am
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    And now of course we have the coagulation govt in bed with the Food Industry the situation is less likely to improve. I forsee a lot more ” its your fault for not following our advice” being meted out and used as ammunition to put taxes on the very things that are good for you.
    Small wonder kids are being targeted, Theres too much to lose for the vested interests.

  • January 26, 2011 at 10:04 am
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    I don’t think we can say it’s neglect when parents feed their kids in such a way that they get obese. Most of these parents are obese themselves and so feed their kids the way they feed themselves.
    I blame the wrong messages that we get from so-called health institutions to what constitutes a healthy diet. Most of these parents have probably been on a diet sometime in their life where they followed the low-fat high-carb, low-calorie way and found moderate success which could not last. If they were advised to eat a proper wholesome diet then most would succeed with weight loss and maintenance and pass this on to their kids.
    Also, we need to acknowledge that not all kids, eating the same diet get obese. There are reasons why some kids fatten easier than other kids and should be addressed.

  • January 22, 2011 at 10:20 pm
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    This is such a serious and important issue and the way things are going with child obesity, it will have a massive impact on generations to come. It’s awful to see children suffering most often because of their parents. Letting a child become obese is neglect. Packing chocolate and crisps in their lunch boxes or even worse – giving them money to buy their lunch is irresponsible and calling for a disaster. My brother gives fruit or vegetables as a treat to my niece. She is almost 3 and hasn’t tasted chocolate yet. Or crisps. Or fast food. And of course she never asks for them as she doesn’t even know what they taste like. That’s responsible parenting.

  • January 19, 2011 at 9:13 am
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    Hi, Zoe,
    I’ve just scrolled down on the Daily Mail website to comment on the ‘more than 5 a day’ article and there you were! Very good post.
    One thing – the article said people who eat lots of vegetables are healthier. The Daily Mail included the fruit. Talk about poor reporting!

  • January 19, 2011 at 6:21 am
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    Hi Zoe,

    would you be able to recommend any good research articles or reviews that address the treatment of obesity in children and/or teenagers speicifically? I study dietetics and am writing a paper on the topic, but am afraid that if I only refer to research done on adults, it won’t be convincing enough.

    Br,
    Ildicca

    • January 19, 2011 at 8:30 am
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      Hi Ildicca – I would recommend checking out Dr Pretlow’s site. I would recommend getting the book too – it really is a great way to see first hand anything and everything related to weight and what overweight kids think about each aspect.
      You can also use the main journal site that many researchers use: pubmed.org. You can use search terms to suit – children, teenagers, infant, obesity, cravings, overweight – whatever may help your planned paper.
      Hope this helps
      Best wishes – Zoe

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