It was never rushed. Granted, I lived two blocks from school.

It was in West Allis, WI, in elementary school.

I was too far away to go home, and usually ate at the school cafeteria for 35 cents. Typical lunchroom cooking with canned everything heated up. We usually finished enough to get in some playground time, and also had a 15 minute break in the morning and another in the afternoon.

it takes a while to "feel" full even if you are physically full.

Longer lunch periods = slower eating = lower total consumption in the long run as your body has a chance to feel full before you've stuffed yourself.

an hour and a half.

...every public school has an organic fruit and vegetable garden that's planted, tended and harvested by the students and watered by recycled water. The lunch menu includes at least one thing from the garden, every day, if possible. Wouldn't that be great?

Urban environments have a lot of under-utilized space, such as empty lots, porches and patios, and rooftops. You can grow a lot of food in a container garden. Canning, pickling and freezing can help it last into the colder months where food can't be grown year-round.

Window boxes can be used to grow some foods: http://voices.yahoo.com/urban-gardening-windowbox-gardens-8485793.html

Buying pots, dirt and seeds, canning equipment and jars costs money I don't have and even if I did have a large enough freezer I can't afford the electric for it. I have to keep my kwh under 5 to afford my electric bill.

No to mention I am disabled and would find it difficult to keep up.

schools out to have green space to produce food for the students (obviously just as a supplement) and teach the kids about biology, agriculture, food preparation, health, nutrition, etc.

Give them some outdoor physical activity that incorporates education and provides for a healthier diet.

Seems like a win-win. If done right it could actually cut down on costs for the school too.

desperate to loose weight follow a diet to a T NO cheating at all and STILL end up gaining 5 pounds.

it was a bad diet.

Just calling something a diet doesn't mean it is necessarily healthy.

First; Over the last 30 years or so we have seen the advent of a first in human history, simultaneous obesity and malnutrition. IOW, eating way too much food that has little or no nutritional value.

Second; The genetics thing. Much has been made of the fact that when one diets (as in severely limiting caloric intake) the body goes into "famine mode" and slows its metabolism. It's true.

But what they don't ever say is that famine mode is the natural state for the human body. Once you've made that switch, you simply don't need the caloric intake that is considered normal in America. If you're not running away from a saber-tooth tiger or doing 4 or 5 hours of hard physical labor before breakfast, you simply don't need to eat so much. The average meal at an American McCorporate diner easily provides enough food for two people.

The classic yo-yo weight loss/gain from dieting is due to putting your body into famine mode, losing weight, then going back to your old eating habits and constantly over-eating, which puts the weight back on plus more. Lose 20, gain 25. Lose 25, gain 35, and so on.

The answer is that once you're in famine mode, stay there. You'll be shocked at how little you really need to live and it is accompanied by a drastic reduction in food cost.

This absolutely does not apply to children, they need nutritious food in relatively large quantity to grow strong and avoid a plethora of developmental problems. But once you're past puberty stop eating like you may have to go days before eating again. Conversely, you can start burning calories like an athlete, but that takes a lot of time and hard work, something few of us have and fewer of us want to do.

Someone who has dieted to lose weight is permanently in "famine mode." E.g., if you look at two 200-pound men, one of whom lost weight to be 200 and one of whom never weighed more than that, then the formerly fat man must eat fewer calories than the other man to maintain an identical weight, and probably for the rest of his life. That was one of the most interesting take always from the recent HBO'S Weight of the Nation for me.

I never let it go too far, about 50 lbs., but I eat very little & have done so for over a decade. It's not like I'm hungry, I just stop being hungry fairly quickly.

Those that have been fat for a long time have a whole other set of issues (organ function, neurochemical, etc.) that have to be addressed and really complicates things.

low thyroid, diabetes, lots of other conditions cause weight gain or loss. Diabetes causes weight loss. if you have untreated diabetes you burn fat instead of sugar. A hard way to lose weight.

Lots of likely contributors. AD-36 is the really big item, probably 25-30% including majority of morbidly obese.

I started a new health program (don't call it a "diet," they get upset) last month. In the first four weeks, I was at home, and stuck to the program just fine, and I lost 28 pounds. Yay me. Hardly had cravings at all.

I don't have TV at home.

I spent the last two days in a hotel room, and stupidly had the TV on most of the time. Every commercial break I was exposed to the worst food porn I could imagine--every 30 seconds, some decadent, sugary, fattening, yummy thing was being splashed in front of my eyes. Before too long, I was craving junk food badly. I did pretty lousy the past two days.

Yes, we absolutely have to stop feeding our kids "tasty" crap because it's easy and because they whine for what they see on TV.

When I was growing up, I ate EVERYTHING, with very few exceptions (I only developed a taste for asparagus as an adult). If you put it in front of me, I ate it. That's how it was. Even 40 years ago, however, I was aware that I was an anomaly. Lots of kids of my generation were plied with junk and the proto-junk that has been perfected today. And lots of kids of my generation who are adults now STILL don't eat vegetables or fish. Because their parents didn't push them to? My parents never offered me the option of "if you don't like it, go make a peanut butter sandwich," but other parents did, which gave the kids permission to opt out of eating foods that maybe took some time and sophistication to acquire a taste for.

But, the "mac and cheese" syndrome has been recognized by some in the medical community as a real disorder. No doubt that parents not enforcing good eating habits have helped make this problem worse, but there are kids out there who exist on mac and cheese and chicken nuggets. It's called "White Food Syndrome" and it's more common in boys. But it definitely exists.

Everybody, everybody, everybody. People that have trouble storing fat are very sick. Untreated diabetics come to mind (insulin is important in lipogenesis). Fatty acids play an important role in human metabolism. You can think of its role as buffering. Fat is used to spare glucose usage between meals. Fat is not some toxic chemical that needs to be avoided at all costs.

Also, I want to point out that .5 lb of pasta (which is a big heaping plate of spaghetti) is far better for you nutritionally than an apple. An apple is basically fructose plus barely-above-trace amounts of a handful of vitamins. According to a box of pasta I'm looking at now, .5 lb has 28g of protein and about a full day's worth of four B vitamins and half a day's worth of iron. You'll be far healthier eating that pasta than that apple. 1/3 lb pasta (33c) plus sauce (30c) and some frozen green vegetables (25c) makes a cheap, healthy, satisfying dinner.

I guess. We tend to avoid processed food nowadays though, for one thing you have no idea of where the ingredients come from... too much is sourced out of China these days... and what is GE or is not. Now spaghetti squash, that makes up a good plate of healthy non-processed noodles.

both directly and by allowing food stamps to be used for junk.

And an increasingly sedentary lifestyle with few options to walk/ride your bike places.

Our genetics haven't changed in the last 20 years. Evolution doesn't work that quickly, not for humans.

And the poor haven't always been obese.

I could scream. (and now they are concerned about the popcorn). What they don't seem to see from their million dollar penthouses is that: Low income people don't buy $12 movie tickets!

For those on a tight budget the goal is quantity per dollar and that is completely understandable to those who have lived without money.

First, the metric used is bogus: Cost per calorie rather than cost of nutritional value. Second, when you get the junk and pre-packaged convenience foods out of your diet, it's amazng how much money is left for good food. I'm not talking about organic/free range, just good nutritious foods that you can get at any market. Third, INTENSE exercise 30-60 minutes per day will regulate your metabolism, enhance your cardio capacity and build lean muscle. Who doesn't spend at least 30-60 minutes each day in front of the TV.

Running in place and jumping jacks: Zero cost.

Resistance bands: $5 at a second-hand sporting goods store.

And you can still watch TV while you're doing it, although the effects on brain health have to be considered.

Two thirds of American adults are overweight or obese and it's not because of genetics or the scarcity of organic apples.

Take your shots at me, but I'm watching my own family members dig their own graves with forks and spoons--and inactivity--and there's nothing I can say or do to prevent their chronic diseases and premature deaths. It's breaking my heart and I'm tired of hearing their excuses.

18 minutes. At 10:30 in the morning. Oh and you're not allowed to eat anywhere in the school except the cafe so no snacking.

She comes home ready to eat the refrigerator at 3:30 and if I'm not right there with the healthy stuff she'll choose the fastest, fattiest, carb she can lay her hands on.

I do agree that some of this is scheduling and feeling hassled and rushed for the kids.

Sorry, but that represents a small percentage. You can get very healthy canned vegatables for a reasonable price point (MUCH cheaper than the fast food joints that are every 1/2 block in lower socio-economic areas). Education is the key.