We seem to have fixated on weight as THE prime health determinant. A lot of research has shown that exercise is just as important. However, we don’t give our kids – especially the boys – any chance to be fit. Pick-up basketball at recess is not going to cut it. The kids who are already fit will play, and the ones who need it the most will sit and watch. We need regular gym classes several times a week with a teacher who knows what they’re doing, with activities that are noncompetitive and where everyone participates. (This might also make a magical reduction in the number of kids diagnosed as ADHD or autism spectrum. Children and teens were not meant to sit an entire day in class 6 days a week..) The girls have it better in this respect, but they’re also at risk from extreme dieting.
As adults we know what we should be doing, even if a lifetime’s habits of inactivity are making it difficult. We could at least give our kids a healthier start.
BTW, has anyone checked out the aisles and aisles of junk and soda at their local kosher grocery? Back in the day you had to eat healthy if you ate kosher because there simply wasn’t that broad of selection. We don’t need twenty kinds of chips and thirty kinds of soda. And the cereals? You might just as well pour the sugar bowl into the kids’ breakfast bowls.