I have a Bone to Pick Mrs. First Lady!

I'm all on board with upgrading the health of the nations children, and I certainly think that school meals could do with less tater tots and pizza. I applaud the First Lady for wanting to do something about those things, but I do not like the way she is going about it at all. Why focus on overweight children? Why not focus on healthy weight for all children, be they overweight or underweight? I understand that being underweight is not nearly as prevalent in our society as being overweight, but it can be just as harmful. Do we just forget about the health of those children and adolescents because they are the minority?

Shouldn't we take into consideration the countless stories of anorexics who started that dangerous journey because they had a poor body image and thought themselves overweight. Do we not run the risk of driving some children to the other extreme by focusing on their overweightness? Frankly, a 77 pound teen is going to be just as unhealthy as a 200 pound teen. An extremely underweight child or teen runs the risk of developing permanent heart problems, heart attacks, and osteoporosis, among other issues. Is there national outcry over that? Some, but not much, and it seems to be because being underweight fits better with what society finds aesthetically pleasing. Apparently the closer you are to the beautiful people "norm" the less society cares about your health.

Why, Mrs. First Lady, are you keeping the issue polarized by focusing on overweight children? Why stigmatize the children and subject them to the hate and ridicule that is torturous to handle as an adult? You speak of your experience with your own daughters, and being told they needed to loose some weight. Was that their fault, or were you making their food choices for them? Isn't it the same with children all over the country?

When do we stop being counter productive and focus on healthy weight for everyone? When do we start teaching children how to have a healthy relationship with food. Let's make nutritional counseling a regular and repeated preventative service that starts when our children first start solid food, instead of waiting until the weight problems (over OR under) are already there and more difficult to combat. Start by teaching the parents, and as the child grows, teach the child. Most importantly, let's teach children, in school, at home, and at the doctors office, that everyone will have a different body, and as long as that body is healthy it is beautiful and natural and worthy of love and respect.

I know the First Lady will never read this, and it's entirely possible that not many other people will either, but if you read this and it makes sense to you, tell someone about it.

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

- George Washington Carver -