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Home Front: Culture Wars
AFP propaganda: More babies, young kids going hungry in US
2005-06-13
BALTIMORE, United States (AFP) - Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese. In 2003, 11.2 percent of families in the United States experienced hunger, compared with 10.1 percent in 1999, according to most recent official figures, released on
released by who? Cat got yer tongue?
National Hunger Awareness Day held this year on Tuesday, June 7.

Some pediatricians worry that cuts in welfare aid proposed in the evil President George W. Bush's 2006 budget will only exacerbate the situation. By contrast Bush plans to keep tax cuts for more affluent sectors of the population, they note.
Ah, the gratuitous slap at tax cuts
In the working class port city of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Maureen Black, a pediatrician, sees numbers of underweight babies in her clinic specialized in infant malnutrition located in one of the poorer areas. "In the first year of life, children triple their birth weight," said Black, "and if children do not have enough to eat during those very early very times, you first see that their weight will falter and then their height will falter."

"If their height falters enough and they experience stunting under age two, they are then at risk for academic and behaviour problems" at school, said Black.
My good Dr. Black, we have various women and infant nutrition and welfare programs that are considered 'entitlements' -- paid regardless. It's not the fault of the federal government if these women and infants are having problems. There just might be other factors in this -- I paid attention to this when I attended med school.
Dr. Deborah Frank, a professor of pediatrics at Boston University's School of Medicine, who also runs a specialised clinic for malnourished babies, has similar concerns. "We are seeing more and more very young babies under a year of age which is a particular concern because they are most likely to die of under nutrition, and also their brains are growing very very rapidly," said Frank, in a telephone interview. "A baby's brain increases 2.5 times in size in the first year of life," she says, adding that if the baby fails to get the nutritional building blocks he or she needs for the brain to develop, a child can have lifelong difficulties in behaviour and learning.

But infant-child protection centers do not exist in the United States, unlike it other countries, such as France, ...
*sniff* the US is so disgusting compared to France
Because we handle it differently -- we have aid checks and clinics, whereas the French centralize the system.
... which makes children below the age of three or four years old somewhat invisible to authorities, laments Frank. "They don't come to my clinic until they are already quite underweight.

"Recently I have been alarmed because we are getting more children who are so ill that they go to hospital rather than they come to the clinic first" a situation which, in 20 years of practising medicine, Frank had seen reverse.

Some children in the United States occasionally look like the malnourished children we see in some parts of Africa, however, welfare programs targeting society's poorest ensures that problem is generally avoided, the pediatricians say.

Paradoxically, malnutrition is not always due to lack of food -- rather to the quality of the food being consumed. "People often ask me how many children go to bed hungry. The answer is the parents work very hard so they don't go to bed feeling hungry. The parents try to fill the baby up with french fries and soda pop," said Frank.
Bullsh*t alert! Fries and soda pop (and junk food in general) are expensive relative to non-junk food
And it might be that the mommies in question are making poor choices -- that's also not the fault of Pres. Bush.
In some areas, green vegetables and fruit are impossible to buy -- even in a can, because there may be no supermarket. Moreover, such items are costly.
Oh give me a break. More expensive that junk food?
There are supermarkets even in poor neighborhoods. And poor neighborhoods have plenty of small grocery stores that take WIC and food stamps. I drive past a couple every day when I come to work; I know they're there.
"What happens in America is -- what seems bizarre -- that some of the recommendations that we give to families to prevent underweight of children are the same as we give to prevent overweight," said Black. "We recommend families not to give their children junk food."

In some families, eating junk food will mean one child is obese while the other is underweight, said Black. "The first will eat junk food and nothing else, the second will eat junk food and everything else."
I've rarely read such pure, unadulterated anit-American, anti-Bush bullsh*t. Argh! Goebbels would be proud.
Wonder if the AFP reporter wrote the story from Paris? It's easier that way.
Posted by:Spot

#12  I read about a "survey" a number of years ago (sorry, no link - too lazy to look for one) that had a quarter or some such of American children going to bed hungry every night.

Then somebody got hold of the questions.

Seems "hungry" meant the kids didn't get what they wanted to eat.

It wasn't that they didn't have food - they did. It was just that they wanted pizza and had to settle for hot dogs.

So you can understand why I have such a hard time even bothering with these kinds of stories.

Bullshit stinks. But then so does the Phrench AFP. For the same reason.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-06-13 16:21  

#11  mm821 yur being robbed produce wise. Never pay more than 80 cents for lettuce
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-13 16:18  

#10  It takes a lot of work to make progress on social issues like this.... Let's just blame it on Satan Bush and move on to the next subject.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2005-06-13 15:33  

#9  Puked up your dinner along with the dozen tequla shots, hungry Lol rj! Been there, done that.
BH - that's right, lots of produce is wasted in any supermarket. Besides, they could still buy frozen or canned.
Those evil right-wingers forced me to eat the big mac and supersized fries!
Posted by: Spot   2005-06-13 15:09  

#8  In some areas, green vegetables and fruit are impossible to buy -- even in a can, because there may be no supermarket.

It's true. There are areas in my city where the supermarkets, such as they are, don't even have a produce department. They had a big write-up about it in the local indy rag, moaning about what a tragedy it was. For me, the crucial quote came from the manager of one store who pointed out that they stopped carrying produce because NOBODY WAS BUYING IT.
Posted by: BH   2005-06-13 14:22  

#7  Fact is if you take a poll in the US and ask if you've ever gone to bed hungry you'll get a lot of yes responses. Sent to bed without dinner, hungry. On a diet, hungry. Didn't get the second slice of cake, hungry. Puked up your dinner along with the dozen tequla shots, hungry.

Hunger is a relative term and I think they are misusing the term here through confusion or deception. I'm guessing deception.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2005-06-13 14:13  

#6  You know, my wife is from the Philippines and she is amazed by our welfare and 'the government will take care of you' systems. Where she comes from they simply don't have such concepts as 'Welfare' - if you are out of work you depend on your family and friends to help you out until you can find something.

She could not beleve that people would be paid money (and a lot of it by Philippine standards) for not doing anything. She also could not beleve that people would accept (much less expect as a right) such without remorse or any shame at all. But here people (and politicians) feel that it is a right that the lazy and slothful (I am not talking about the truely disabled here) get a free meal at the expense of the hard-working.

But then the left (this story is form Boston isn't it?) feels that the State is the 'family' - the state is 'all'.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2005-06-13 13:46  

#5  "A baby's brain increases 2.5 times in size in the first year of life"
As this AFP reporter proves, even a full-sized brain can be useless, especially if it is programmed in French.
Posted by: Tom   2005-06-13 13:19  

#4  Whatta load of BS!

IMHO, if any children are malnourished in this country, the parents of said kids (virtually all moms, I'd guess) belong in jail or, at least, to lose custody.

Posted by: Xbalanke   2005-06-13 13:09  

#3  If we grind up all the baby ducks and kittens we can find into a nice, tasty gruel, that will help Save the Children™!
Posted by: Dar   2005-06-13 13:02  

#2  First we're too fat....now the kids look like Ethiopian refugees?

I wonder what's next from the AFP. Maybe an update of Swift's "A Modest Proposal"?
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2005-06-13 12:42  

#1  Bullshit. Pure Bullshit. Americans are the biggest and tallest people on the planet because we get more food at a young age. Our average height is near 5'10 for men, 5'8" for women. Other countries (non-first world) the average is 5'7" for men, 5'4" for women. Also, our IQs are increasing (see rantburg archives) because of better food and education.
Green veggies are not THAT expensive. We have to have all of ours shipped in and you can still buy a head of lettuce for $1.20. That and a 1lb bag of carrots for $1.50 will make you salads for several days.
Posted by: mmurray821   2005-06-13 11:24  

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