Should parents lose custody of their overweight/obese children?  Currently, the court of public opinion is running amuck, with the recent debate of an Ohio mother losing custody of her 8 year old child who weighed in at an unimaginable 200lbs, when the average 8 year old weighs about 60lbs.

Cuyahoga County removed the child because case-workers considered the mother’s inability to get the child’s weight down, and classified it as a form of medical neglect. The county’s Children and Family Services agency said they stand by their decision to remove the child, which was approved by a judge. “We have worked very hard with this family for 20 months before it got to this point,” agency Administrator Patricia Rideout said.

There should be no debate when we’re talking about the welfare of a child, bad parenting is bad parenting. If the parents are physically abusive to a child we would have “NO DEBATE”. If the parents were starving a child we would have “NO DEBATE”. If the parents were on drugs and not caring for a child we would have “NO DEBATE”.  When the parents are slowly killing a child with food we have a “DEBATE”. Why doesn’t NEGLECT mean NEGLECT like NO means NO?

A judge in Texas was suspended from his job and prosecuted in the court of public opinion for abusing his child for illegally downloading music, was this abuse or discipline? No matter how we look at this situation or the mother in Ohio’s situation, neglect is neglect and abuse is abuse.

I believe what people should be debating is, at what point should the state step-in to save a child’s life not debating the fact that the state did step-in to save a child’s life. Should the state have waited until the child developed a preventable medical disease or had a near death experience before this action was taken?

We all understand removing a child from a parent can be a difficult decision for anyone, based on the emotional effects this will have on the child. Overlook the effects of a child being removed from his or her parents for a moment, and think about the harm that can be caused by not removing a child from an unhealthy environment. The ridicule alone from a child being obese would be too much for most adults to handle; we need to consider the seriousness of childhood obesity, it’s become an epidemic. If we would just think about the overall welfare of a child, we would have “NO DEBATE” about removing a child!

By Adrian M Williams

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With the drug related deaths of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley and the violent deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie.  In addition to the health related deaths of Big Pun & Heavy D and the recent health scare of Rick Ross & Erick Sermon. When will we see the need to change our unhealthy lifestyle?

In October, Rick Ross suffered two seizures in one day and a little over a month later, we lost Heavy D who died suddenly weighing in at 344 lbs.  Although the cause of his death has not been determined I am certain a unhealthy lifestyle played a major roll.  Sermon’s health scare came few days after Heavy D’s death.  Sermon who is still hospitalized, urged his fans to take their health more seriously.  “Go out there and check yourself, it don’t matter what age you are.” stated Sermon.

Understanding MJ and Elvis had a drug problem, Tupac and Biggie had a thug problem and Heavy D and Big Pun had a weight problem, which all leads back to an unhealthy lifestyle. Whether its violence, drugs or bad health, until we decide to make healthy lifestyle changes, we will all be headed down the path of self-destruction.  The perfect example of someone making a healthy lifestyle change is Fat Joe. After the death Big Pun and having diabetes for more than 16 years, Fat Joe decided to change his lifestyle, to-date he has lost over 100lbs.

By Adrian M Williams

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With more than 90,000 new cancer cases a year in the US, A new study has shown that 30 minutes of physical activity per day can help decrease the risk of cancer and many other chronic diseases including heart disease and diabetes.  The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) in Washington, D.C., cites as many as 49,000 cases of breast cancer and 43,000 cases of colon cancer are linked to a lack of physical activity.

“This gives us some idea of the cancers we could prevent by getting people to be more active,” says epidemiologist Christine Friedenreich of Alberta Health Services in Calgary, Canada. Calculations are based on U.S. physical activity data and cancer incidence statistics. “This is a conservative estimate,” she says. “The more physical activity you do, the lower your risk of these cancers.”

With the overwhelming health benefits of daily exercise, why is it that less and less people are participating in physical activity to improve their health?  Which leads me to the question, should we have mandatory conditioning?  With the rising cost of health care, prescription drugs, co-pays and insurance deductibles, companies should have the right to have a mandatory conditioning program.  There is no excuse for the Government not to have a mandatory conditioning program; all government employees should follow the same conditioning program as the military. Many people are outrage over “Obamacare” but aren’t taking responsibility over their lack of care for themselves. If we want to put a major dent in our growing deficit, we all need to take more responsibility over our physical health.

By Adrian M Williams

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