Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

42° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Helppie-Schmieder: The heavy case against childhood obesity

Last Friday, I once again found myself drunk and belligerent at O’Hare International Airport. I was being charged $25 to check a piece of luggage. “Why?” I questioned the airline worker.

“Because extra luggage weighs more, and the heavier the plane is, the more gas it has to use.”

“The heavier the luggage? The heavier the luggage! What about the heavier the people? Why don’t you put a scale at the front of the line to decide how much extra everyone should pay?”

As I was being handcuffed and escorted out of the terminal, I got to thinking about other inconveniences caused by people of a certain XL size. More than once I have found myself pressed up against a plane window, trying to avoid chunky rolls of fat spilling over into my lap, while the smell of cheap mustard and Dr Pepper floated through the cabin.

But as much as I knew I had been victimized, I felt more sorry for them than I did for myself. And that’s because obesity, like many of our country’s other enormous problems, starts at childhood.

It’s true youth obesity often leads to adult obesity. And it’s no exaggeration to call childhood obesity an epidemic. Of all the sizable troubles facing America in 2010, childhood obesity takes the cake.

Which is why I’m in full support of Michelle Obama’s recent initiative to combat this growing problem.

This isn’t a political issue. Obesity has no bias and no motive. “One-third of all individuals born in the year 2000 or later will eventually suffer from diabetes over the course of their lifetime,” read the Feb. 9 Presidential Memorandum to establish a childhood obesity task force. “Too many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and asthma.”

Beyond these health issues affecting the individual, unhealthy corpulence burdens all of us when it comes to health care. The current estimate for Medicaid spending on childhood obesity totals $470 million, according to research by Medstat, a health care business of the Thomson Corporation. (That could pay for 18,800,000 suitcases to be checked!)

Additionally, childhood obesity leads to adult obesity, which leads to global warming. It’s a well-accepted fact that obese people release substantially more carbon dioxide into the air than thin people. “Moving about in a heavy body is like driving in a gas guzzler,” said English doctor Phil Edwards of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

I couldn’t agree more.

At least Michelle Obama is doing something about it. In fact, if there’s one thing the Obamistration is finally doing right, it’s tackling America’s fat kids.

Weinberg junior Brenna Helppie-Schmieder can be reached at [email protected].

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Helppie-Schmieder: The heavy case against childhood obesity