Sometimes in life size isn't everything


By Ellen Gillette correspondent
November 2, 2002

Size does matter.

It matters to Barbara Hewson, injured on an airplane last year because of the "obese passenger" seated next to her. Virgin Atlantic settled last week for about $20,000.

Accompanying the news story was a poll: If girth requires two seats, who should foot the bill, passenger or airline? (I'd bump them to first class at the coach rate -- unfair to those in the cheap seats but better than offloading expenses for other accommodations or lawsuits onto everyone anyway.)

Size matters to 15 percent of children in the United States 6-19 who are, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, overweight. As kids' waists have expanded, so have juvenile rates for gallbladder disease, sleep disorders, and Type 2 diabetes.

Parents (and let's face it, it's their fault) can avoid this by breastfeeding, taking charge of meals (i.e. parenting), eating with kids at home, turning off TV during meals, watching for signs of diabetes, and encouraging exercise (formerly known as "playing").

Size matters to the health care industry. Adult obesity is a factor in myriad diseases. It matters to insurance companies who say policies for overweight clients are a bad risk. It matters to food manufacturers searching for the elusive combo of metabolic magic and "Mmm."

Froma Harrop: Jetting in the breast milk "... Let's start with the company. I wonder how DeAnne's partners really feel about suspending their meetings so she can go off and breastfeed. How about the assistant who finds herself toting her boss's breast milk around hotel lobbies? Wasn't there a time, not long ago, when secretaries would complain if their male boss asked them to buy birthday presents for his wife? By the way, father Alvaro runs his own investment company right in town, but I bet you don't see toddlers running around his conference room."

Babies to spend decade in study to curb diabetes/a>
Researchers hope to prove suspected link to cow's milk
?
Jodie Sinnema, Journal Staff Writer
The Edmonton Journal



Each day at 3 p.m., Destiny Smith knows she can haul out her box of Halloween candy and have a treat: a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup or a string of licorice.

Any more could be dangerous for the five-year-old. She has Type 1 diabetes and hopes her baby sister, Isabella, won't have to endure the same, sometimes painful daily routine of needle pricks and blood tests she does.

Destiny's parents, Gaylene and Cam Smith, are participating in a 10-year trial to see if they can prevent their newest daughter, three-month-old Isabella, from acquiring juvenile diabetes by delaying her exposure to a protein in cow's milk.

"It's a good cause because we might be able to prevent her or other babies from getting diabetes," said Gaylene, as Destiny got her insulin kit filled with needles and a glucometer to test her blood sugar.