The only point on which I agree with the author is that information on nutrition, exercise and health can be very confusing.

The latest confusion is kids' dental health and plans to add fluoride to bottled water.
Although fluoride will prevent cavities, so do good dental hygiene and a healthier diet. T

There are different professional opinions on the (longterm) effect of fluoride on our body.
Is adding fluoride to bottled water a quick, cheap fix and is any money going to be allocated for proper education on sugar intake, on dental hygiene and improving the dental health system?

People are still as confused about the truth about fluoride as they are on some other dietary advice.

The author says, "...usually involved forcing school students to do boring, repetitive physical activity and eat dull food."

Who says that exercise has to be boring? And since when is a healthy diet 'dull'?
Exercise can be fun.

A healthy diet doesn't have to be dull; and it doesn't mean that you can never have a treat. When I do my shopping I make sure I buy us a treat for the weekend, such as one bottle of softdrink and a cake and some chips. For the rest of the week, our diet is healthy and consists of fresh foods and juices.

Why do people insist on blaming advertising for their kids eating habits? Dont buy the food and the kids wont eat it. Learn to say no early on, and you'll save yourself some heartache later. Stick it back to the retailers that place chocolates and lollies at te checkouts. My local woollies has choc's and chupa chups where my toddler can reach them from in the basket. I try and stop her getting them of course, but if she does while I'm unloading groceries, then I refuse to buy them. If she sticks them in her mouth, then I put them back n the shelf, in full view of the staff. As far as I'm concerned, its their fault for putting them there, so they can wear the economic cost if they choose to throw it out once mouthed. I buy the occasion lolly for her, but its usually 2-3 weeks between treats.

As far as kids eating less fatty foods years ago, that's baloney. My parents grew up in the 40's and 50's, and Dad stil talks about the 2 sponge cakes a day that he and his siblings demolished. Full fat cream and milk (cream so thick that you used a knife, not a spoon), bacon, fatty chops, and also lots of fresh vegies. They did tend to be a bit round in the middle by middle age, but still a lot fitter than a lot of townies.

Our bodies turn Sugar into fat.

Low-fat yogurts are full of sugar.
Soft drinks are full of sugar.
Many "low-fat" snacks and bars are packed full of sugar.

These high fat-producing foods are advertised as "low fat" (implying healthy)

Could it be that kids are not eating very much "fat", but still turning into big fat bastards, because they are stuffing their fat faces full of sugar.
Take a kellogs LCM bar for example, it is sweet enough to make a normal person vomit, yet kids are given them for their lunches.

Cola, for example, enough sugar to power a small city, you can clean brass with it, yet children are allowed to drink it.

Is it me, or is everyone else stupid ?

@ Lizzie4, I'm the last person to put down the State School system, apart from working for them, I choose to stay there on principle. My curiosity on the competition, that is, the kids from the private schools on the train evoked a thought. It was just from one observation.

Maybe mentioning this confused the whole issue.

My main point was towards the bottom line. There is a link with depression. They get depressed--they eat. They eat--they get depressed. There is a new age argument that there is literally a case for "mind over matter", that if you really think a cake will put on fat, chances are it will. Now I don't know if I fully believe that. If you are less depressed, you may be more likely to work it off doing things in physical activity. You may be less likely to eat the thing in the first place.

Getting tough on obese people will only make matters worse, I think there is a self esteem issue perhaps tied up with a socio-economic issue.

I don't have the answers.

There are still problems with eating disorders in the other direction.

For a laugh, remember this one? Fat can be beautiful ; )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwh_yOzJ6AY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqk1UdnEPi8&mode=related&search=

c'mon, laughter is the first step to recovery.

Bless U Tube

A point that no body has commented on yet is the complete turn around of the ...food pyramid..for want of a better name, during the 1970s.

When I was growing up, if anyone wanted to lose weight and went to their friendly GP for advice...it was, to eat lean meat, salads, vegetables, cut out potatoes,and other starches, anything sweet, except fresh fruit, cut out or reduce bread. However, meat, eggs, cheese in other words protein featured heavily in our everyday diet as well as the losing weight one.

In the early 1970s, nutrition advice changed. By this time, I wanted to lose some weight myself and was told to eat whole grains, pulses, brown rice and spaghetti, fresh fruit and vegetables but to cut back on butter, oils, meat, eggs. (I have never lost weight by following this advice.)

Today's advice is still similar to the last paragraph, except more emphasis is placed on reducing fat in most forms. We are still advised to eat quite a lot of carbohydrate, as long as it is the whole grain variety. No body seems to mention sugar very much, although chocolate, junk foods, and sugary drinks always rate a mention.

I just wonder whether the amount of carbohydrate (meaning whole grain foods) despite its being healthy, and the amount of sugar hidden in lots of processed foods, is causing a lot of weight problems.

wondering and waiting for a miracle pill!

I don't believe that there are more obese kids today than there were years ago. I know my within my kids friends and my family and from what I see at school etc., only a minority are obese.

Where are all these obese children? Or does it depend where you live and your cultural background.

I know one thing, they tried to tell my daughter she had to loose weight when she was 12 years old. She was a fully developed girl and was about 5ft and she weighed 52 kg and they told her she had to loose about 4 four kilos; They measured a fully developed female against the charts for a child! Had they measured her weight in line with her physical development they would have found that she was in a very healthy weight range.

My daughter and I both looked at each other and thought. Ridiculous.