I am one of those suckers who loves a good study. The problem arises when studies conflict. A new "My Health News Daily" article piqued my interest lately with a byline that said "11 Surprising Things That Can Make Us Gain Weight." Now I am always trying to find ways to eat smarter, especially since I can't seem to get to the gym to save my life. By the way, my 17 year gym contract finally expired. Some of the things on the list were actually surprising. Like did you know that children exposed to a certain strain of the common cold virus have a greater chance of becoming obese? Some factors were kind of obvious, like not getting enough sleep and genetics. But one of the other findings just really floored me. Case in point:
"Having a working mom. Kids with a working mom are more likely to be obese than kids whose moms stay home, according to study published in May in the American Journal of Epidemiology. University College London researchers followed 8,552 kids in 1965 and compared their weights to 1,889 children in 1991. They found the 1991 children whose moms worked were more likely to be obese than children whose moms stayed at home."
I am not entirely sure I believe this one. I am always talking about my Catholic guilt which has especially increased since becoming a mom (an no, being Catholic is not one of the factors). So now, not only do I feel a little guilty that I can't be a stay at home mom to Liam, but now I have to worry about this statistic? While the article does not explicitly say this, I would assume that working moms have less time to prepare meals, so the meals they do prepare are probably loaded with preservatives, starches and carbs.
However, shortly after reading this article, a friend of mine (also a working mom) sent me an article talking about how the children of working moms watch less television. Frankly, because they are not home all day. The article went on to say how because these children watch less television, they are usually more engaged in outside activities. And yet, there are other articles that discuss the correlation between watching television, inactivity in children and obesity.
It is absolutely madening! Who are we supposed to believe? But I guess as long as people keep finding funding for these conflicting studies, and as long as we keep reading them, they will keep finding...well...that everything causes something.
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I think (and because my opinion is oooh so important) that most people are just trying to find an excuse/reason/rationalization as to WHY, as a society, we tend to let our children become inactive and obese. Dont listen to any of these studies because frankly, correlation in this particular matter does not imply causation. Working or not, its the parents responsibility to their child to engage them in physical activities and foster a love an "active" lifestyle instead of the sedentary. There are plenty of moms who work and stay at home who make it a priority to feed their kids well and sign them up for sports and there are an equal amount of stay at home moms and working moms who use T.V. and video games as babysitters and depend on Mickey D's to support their food pyramid. Sorry for the rant... this is a topic I can go on for days about (obviously) but thanks for sharing it and hopefully, if nothing else these "studies" will stop making moms feel guilty about their roles as either working or stay at home moms and instead open their eyes that they need to take action! xoxo
Daily, moment-to-moment choices choosing for that day and moment what we know is right, that's what we're to do and believe. The rest of it can just start you spinning and you'll be so dizzy you won't know what to do!
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