"The weighty issues of body size"
Jan. 24th, 2003 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldFrom "The weighty issues of body size", by Andrew Ryan.
Friday, January 24, 2003 – Page R2
None of us should be watching daytime television, naturally, but it's unavoidable when you have a TV in your office.
Invariably the TV is on CNN or CBC Newsworld, just in case there's a news flash that war has broken out somewhere or that Earth is about to hurtle into the sun. I worry about these things.
It seemed a frivolous fit, wedged into CNN's endless Countdown to Iraq coverage and all, but it is obviously a serious matter, both there and here, because of the inherent health implications. Rarely a day goes by without a news item that we Canadians are getting tubbier, too.
Tonight'sW-Five (CTV, 9 p.m.) has two solid stories related to self-image issues and some potential health hazards therein.
The first report examines the apparent epidemic of obesity among Canadian kids. One in three are overweight, according to the stats, and the number of kids considered medically overweight has tripled in the past 15 years.
It's a case study by senior reporter Wei Chen, who spends time with Joseph, an 11-year-old lad who weighs in at roughly 180 pounds (82 kilograms). He seems a pretty good kid, but he eats mostly fast food and spends four hours a day watching TV and playing video games. Hence, he's a chunky monkey.
The cameras were there last July when Joseph tipped the scales at nearly 200 pounds.
As a last-ditch effort, his parents went into debt to send him to a weight-loss camp for kids, located in the Catskills in upstate New York. The damage: $5,000.
It starts with a heartbreaking image of the chubby little guy, walking into the camp gates with his tennis racket and fishing rod. He's immediately homesick and is sent in tears to the infirmary with an anxiety attack.
The camp handles 500 kids in each three-week session; Many are there to lose the 35 pounds they lost the previous summer and then regained. Three kids are caught going over the wall and hauled back, à la Cool Hand Luke, in the back of a truck. They were making a break for the local McDonald's. Seriously.
Almost all the kids at the camp are pale, flabby and look entirely miserable.
They're put on a 1,500-calorie-a-day diet and trundle through a daily military-style exercise regimen. Joseph is game and gives his best.
In the end he drops 15 pounds and feels better about himself. The program follows Joseph in the weeks after, when he's shed a few more pounds. He's going for daily walks and is off the fast food.
The kid still watches a lot of TV, but I'm not one to throw stones there, since I have a TV in my office. You go, Joe.
The second report, by medical correspondent Avis Favaro, concerns the dangers of cosmetic surgeries performed in private clinics where there are few, if any, regulations. It is downright scary.
Turns out some people are willing to allow liposuction and other surgical procedures performed on them by non-licensed surgeons or by non-trained general practitioners trying to make money on the side. It's a bargain-basement road to physical perfection.
There are horror stories here. A Calgary woman tells of undergoing liposuction to eliminate fat around her midsection. It only cost a few hundred dollars but landed her in the hospital with a life-threatening infection.
While there, she met two other women with similar infections; they'd been to the same doctor.
In all there were four women who nearly expired from the lipo procedure, all courtesy of the same doctor. Each subsequently underwent painful, disfiguring surgery to save their lives. You don't want to know about the slap on the wrist given to the doctor who botched their original surgeries.
Be warned: There is some gruesome footage in the segment, especially of the repair jobs to these women's bodies. It is more than enough to scare off anyone considering the cosmetic-surgery route.
Friday, January 24, 2003 – Page R2
None of us should be watching daytime television, naturally, but it's unavoidable when you have a TV in your office.
Invariably the TV is on CNN or CBC Newsworld, just in case there's a news flash that war has broken out somewhere or that Earth is about to hurtle into the sun. I worry about these things.
It seemed a frivolous fit, wedged into CNN's endless Countdown to Iraq coverage and all, but it is obviously a serious matter, both there and here, because of the inherent health implications. Rarely a day goes by without a news item that we Canadians are getting tubbier, too.
Tonight'sW-Five (CTV, 9 p.m.) has two solid stories related to self-image issues and some potential health hazards therein.
The first report examines the apparent epidemic of obesity among Canadian kids. One in three are overweight, according to the stats, and the number of kids considered medically overweight has tripled in the past 15 years.
It's a case study by senior reporter Wei Chen, who spends time with Joseph, an 11-year-old lad who weighs in at roughly 180 pounds (82 kilograms). He seems a pretty good kid, but he eats mostly fast food and spends four hours a day watching TV and playing video games. Hence, he's a chunky monkey.
The cameras were there last July when Joseph tipped the scales at nearly 200 pounds.
As a last-ditch effort, his parents went into debt to send him to a weight-loss camp for kids, located in the Catskills in upstate New York. The damage: $5,000.
It starts with a heartbreaking image of the chubby little guy, walking into the camp gates with his tennis racket and fishing rod. He's immediately homesick and is sent in tears to the infirmary with an anxiety attack.
The camp handles 500 kids in each three-week session; Many are there to lose the 35 pounds they lost the previous summer and then regained. Three kids are caught going over the wall and hauled back, à la Cool Hand Luke, in the back of a truck. They were making a break for the local McDonald's. Seriously.
Almost all the kids at the camp are pale, flabby and look entirely miserable.
They're put on a 1,500-calorie-a-day diet and trundle through a daily military-style exercise regimen. Joseph is game and gives his best.
In the end he drops 15 pounds and feels better about himself. The program follows Joseph in the weeks after, when he's shed a few more pounds. He's going for daily walks and is off the fast food.
The kid still watches a lot of TV, but I'm not one to throw stones there, since I have a TV in my office. You go, Joe.
The second report, by medical correspondent Avis Favaro, concerns the dangers of cosmetic surgeries performed in private clinics where there are few, if any, regulations. It is downright scary.
Turns out some people are willing to allow liposuction and other surgical procedures performed on them by non-licensed surgeons or by non-trained general practitioners trying to make money on the side. It's a bargain-basement road to physical perfection.
There are horror stories here. A Calgary woman tells of undergoing liposuction to eliminate fat around her midsection. It only cost a few hundred dollars but landed her in the hospital with a life-threatening infection.
While there, she met two other women with similar infections; they'd been to the same doctor.
In all there were four women who nearly expired from the lipo procedure, all courtesy of the same doctor. Each subsequently underwent painful, disfiguring surgery to save their lives. You don't want to know about the slap on the wrist given to the doctor who botched their original surgeries.
Be warned: There is some gruesome footage in the segment, especially of the repair jobs to these women's bodies. It is more than enough to scare off anyone considering the cosmetic-surgery route.
