Not much on the telly tonight, so I ended up watching "My 600 lb. Life" --- the show where folks go to Houston for bariatric surgery… some successful, some not so much.
After watching a couple episodes, I'm left with some mixed feelings.
Is super morbid obesity:
1) a disease along the same lines as alcoholism and drug addiction?
2) a lifestyle issue (poor food choices, lack of exercise, laziness)?
3) a mental health issue (poor self esteem, depression, etc.)?
What have you seen in your practice re: number of super morbidly obese admissions, bariatric surgeries, disease processes related to super morbid obesity, difficulty caring for super morbidly obese patients.
Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).
This is actually a really good discussion and many good points are being made. I am fascinated by how many intolerant and cruel people there are in the world. It's true that obesity is in essence a "Life Style" disease. I learned to eat at my mother's knee and learned all kinds of pathetically horrible eating habits in my youth. Still by the time someone has reached a truly unhealthy weight there were plenty of people along the way to see that the train was going off the rails. Case in point - while shopping today I watched a very obviously heavy child - maybe 3-4 years old throw a screaming fit because mom said no to a candy bar. She ultimately caved and bought it for him.
I can't tell you how many times I left a full cart at the store and physically carried my screaming toddler out of the store rather than give in to something I had said no to. Once he even bit me drawing blood. He's 13 now and I look back on that and laugh.
Nobody goes from a healthy weight to over 600 pounds overnight and there has to be a point where we recognize our responsibility for what we have become. For me that stop sign was 300 pounds. I have been on every restrictive diet known to mankind and I have very real medical problems that prevent me from doing aggressive exercise. Still I have finally latched on to something that seems to be working and I am happy and moving towards better health.
Inside every fat person is a healthy person who wants out - but in order to communicate healthy living strategies you have to present the message in a receivable way and shaming someone is rarely received well.
I am an alcoholic/addict /codependent in recovery and while I was deeply immersed in my disease process I was not able to take responsibility for the choices I was making. People who are morbidly obese are food addicts and need to be detoxed and rehabbed the same way any addict is. They are addicted to sugar and fat and their thought processes are often not rational.
I would be dead in a gutter today if I had not encountered kind compassionate medical professionals along the way! I don't usually make statements of Faith on these forums but Jesus did say "judge not lest you be judged." People remember kindness and when it sticks they are able to pay it forward and show kindness to others.
I used to be very angry person but found that it just took too much energy to maintain. If you are crazy fit I am happy for you - if you are 600 pounds I feel compassion for you.
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
Quoting Spideys Mom:
I'm married to Spidey's dad! He's a great guy...
As a school nurse, I see so many kids who start out in Kindergarten, who are overweight...I walk the hallways at elementary and high schools here and the percentage of overweight kids seems more than when my oldest were in high school...
What a mean mom....[/
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I could gather you are married. Im glad he's a great guy! Can you gather I'm happily divorced?
Trying for humor!
Yes we moms gave to be sneaky to find ways to incorporate health into our kids lives!
Seeing the increase in obese children has bothered me for years. I started seeing it when my 19 year old was young. But it does appear to be more common than it used to be.
But the other thing I noticed is that the kids are also taller and more physically developed sooner. (As well as often obese) Beards and beasts and hips and height in middle school or younger.....
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
Me too, in more ways than just food. Not that we eat the healthiest, but my kids often "complain" that we eat dinner at the table and at dad's "we get to eat by the TV". I tell them that this family eats together.
Honestly... I know I'm the mean mom. I own it. Yes. I have more rules than dad. I have higher standards. I do, however, try to over compensate for the unhealthy habits at his home. It's difficult, but I don't want my son to end up with the health issues every single person (grandma, grandpa, uncle, great grandma, as well as dad) in that family has . (Obese, htn, DMII)
I kind of study them from a distance because they are walking examples of the potential for me to see that these problems might be genetic, since all members of their family have them. Then again, I see how the food is made by grandma, and how her grand kids copy those exact lard filled recipes.
I make my son eat with me at the table as well. It's our quality time. At first he didn't want to, but now he's okay with it. And it's "healthier", as well. It has health benefits, anyways.(-:
I make my son eat with me at the table as well. It's our quality time. At first he didn't want to, but now he's okay with it. And it's "healthier", as well. It has health benefits, anyways.(-:
I can't imagine eating together in front of the TV. We get to sit and discuss our day at the dinner table and at least one of the kids helps me prepare dinner. It's a bonding time. When my kids have had friends over for dinner a few of them are visibly surprised that we eat at the table. During our dinner conversations, their friends have called me "the coolest mom ever" and "really really fun". One also said "You sing a lot. Like, a lot."
It's true, I come from a singing family. My best friend will tell the story of the first time she ate dinner with my family when we were 13- how we all finished dinner and as we got up to start putting our plates in the sink we started singing songs from "The Sound of Music" with no advance warning. She stared for a second, shrugged, and joined in :)
Honestly... I know I'm the mean mom. I own it. Yes. I have more rules than dad. I have higher standards. I do, however, try to over compensate for the unhealthy habits at his home. It's difficult, but I don't want my son to end up with the health issues every single person (grandma, grandpa, uncle, great grandma, as well as dad) in that family has . (Obese, htn, DMII)
My ex sets bad examples with his eating habits as well. (and in many other areas, but that's another issue all together). I hope they will see ALL the issues as they grow older (my oldest is 10 now and my twins just turned 7).
Good health is very important to me. Because of this, I am careful about what I eat, I try to stay active, and I work on developing good coping mechanisms. But overall, in the grand scheme of things, what I think is most important is whether a person is kind.
As a school nurse, I see so many kids who start out in Kindergarten, who are overweight...I walk the hallways at elementary and high schools here and the percentage of overweight kids seems more than when my oldest were in high school...
What a mean mom....[/
QUOTE]
I could gather you are married. Im glad he's a great guy! Can you gather I'm happily divorced?
Hppy - I've not given in to temper tantrums either. I'm not a perfect mother but I'm firm in that aspect as it drives me a bit crazy to see kids get their way by misbehaving. You can just see the power infused in the child as he/she sees how easy it is to manipulate mom or dad into getting what they want.
Kalycat-I love it that someone else is talking about the microbiome. The bugs in our gut serve a purpose. ... I used to think obesity was a matter of self discipline. Not any more. If you have more firmicutes than bactiodetes in your gut you will absorb 150 more calories per day. That antibiotic you took ten years ago may still haunt you. It plowed under your bacterial diversity. ...
Darn I just found these statistics that refute the connection between microbiome and obesity
It is terrific that so many AN posters have excellent access to healthy and fresh foods and who believe that they are not more costly for people in general.
Unfortunately that is not true for everyone. I know for fact that fresh vegetables and fruits can be prohibitively expensive in Alaska and the more remotely and rurally one lives the more expensive and rare they are. Similarly, processed and unhealthy foods travel and keep better and are therefore prevalent in remote trading posts and stores.
The available data from USDA that FRAC is compiling in this report measure median food spending against the cost of thegovernment-created Thrifty Food Plan.†But spending at or even modestly above that level is not adequate. The ThriftyFood Plan was originally created by the federal government during the Depression to guide families at a time when theydidn't have enough money to maintain their prior expenditures for food. The government said then that the plan (calledat that time The Economy Food Plan) was for restricted diets for emergency use,†and that a different government plan– the low cost food plan,†an amount more than one quarter higher – should be the standard [for] a
reasonablemeasure of basic needs for a good diet.â€In other words, the Depression's Economy Food Plan (later renamed the Thrifty Food Plan) isn't enough for a healthydiet. It has been redesigned by USDA since then, but always under constraints that the redesigned elements not exceedthe cost of the plan it replaced – i.e., the purchasing power hasn't increased.The Thrifty Food Plan amount is still farbelow that in the government's Low-Cost Food Plan. For example, in June 2011 the Thrifty plan assumes $611.70 in food
purchases for a family of four in a month, while the Low-Cost Food Plan is $796.10.
Among other defects, the Thrifty Food Plan is predicated on families having facilities, food storage, time (about 3 ½hours/day) to prepare many items from scratch, in-depth knowledge about nutrition, and inexpensive transportation tosupermarkets or warehouse-type grocery stores that many low-income households do not have.
I have given anesthesia to many patients being worked up for their bypass procedures and many of them would talk about going to McDonalds (or worst) ASAP. Makes me wonder if psychological or educational screening is going on. I've had patients who have gained weight to qualify for the minimal BSA requirements. One patient taught me about eating a jar of mayonnaise to make possible to get food past the doughnut hole. It's complicated. Having said that, I'm seeing more stupid people.
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
It is terrific that so many AN posters have excellent access to healthy and fresh foods and who believe that they are not more costly for people in general..
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I think you're trying to make a statement that we nurses are in a better financial situation than many struggling families. I agree that is at least part of the problem. Money is a factor in healthy eating.
But I also think that a lack of education is a key part of the problem. People don't know how to 1) cook and prepare meals from scratch 2) they also don't know what nutrition is, and I don't think our govt is the best source. 3) they don't know how to budget their money, calories and therefore calculate cost per unit.
I used to be poor, er, "on a budget". But I was never academically challenged. My old school food stamps (from the 1990s) had info on how to calculate cost per unit in order to stretch my food dollars. I still use these calculations while grocery shopping. My dad also taught me how to stretch food dollars.
I think there are many reasons why people eat unhealthy and I think the cost of food only 1 part of that problem.
He's a great guy...
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I tell them that this family eats together.
TexMex22
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