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Title: Parents of seven told: Your children are too fat, so you will never see them again
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URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... n-fat-again.html#ixzz1WyRMTqES
Published: Sep 6, 2011
Author: Jane Simpson
Post Date: 2011-09-06 03:22:20 by Tatarewicz
Keywords: None
Views: 112
Comments: 5
Four obese children are on the brink of being permanently removed from their family by social workers after their parents failed to bring their weight under control. In the first case of its kind, their mother and father now face what they call the ‘unbearable’ likelihood of never seeing them again. Their three daughters, aged 11, seven and one, and five-year-old son, will either be ‘fostered without contact’ or adopted. Torn apart: The parents, far left and right, with six of their children who they fear will be taken away from them Torn apart: The parents, far left and right, with six of their children who they fear will be taken away from them Either way, the family’s only hope of being reunited will be if the children attempt to track down their parents when they become adults. More... Obese at the age of 11: The towns where children are fatter than their parents 'Shocking' levels of salt and fat in your favourite takeaway The couple, who have been married for nearly 20 years and are not being named to protect their children’s identities, were given a ‘draconian’ ultimatum three years ago – as reported at the time by The Mail on Sunday. Warned that the children must slim or be placed in care, the family spent two years living in a council-funded ‘Big Brother’ house in which they were constantly supervised and the food they ate monitored. Fears: How the Mail on Sunday reported the case in 2008 Fears: How the Mail on Sunday reported the case in 2008 But despite subjecting them to intense scrutiny, social workers did not impose rules on what food the children should eat, and there was apparently little or no improvement. News of the decision to remove them was broken to the couple, from Dundee, on Tuesday. Critics called it a disgraceful breach of human rights and a chilling example of the power of the State to meddle in family life. In an emotional interview, the 42-year-old mother said: ‘We might not be the perfect parents, but we love our children with all our hearts. To face a future where we will never see them again is unbearable. ‘They picked on us because of our size to start with and they just haven’t let go, despite the fact we’ve done everything to lose weight and meet their demands. We’re going to fight this to the bitter end. It feels like even prisoners have more human rights than we do.’ The couple have not committed any crime and are not accused of deliberate cruelty or abuse. Their solicitor, Joe Myles, said there was ‘nothing sinister lurking in the background’ and accused social workers of failing to act in the family’s best interests. ‘Dundee social services department appear to have locked horns with this couple and won’t let go,’ he said, adding that the monitoring project caused more problems than it solved. ‘The parents were constantly being accused of bad parenting and made to live under a microscope. 'We have tried very hard to do everything that was asked of us. My wife has cooked healthy foods like home-made spaghetti bolognese and mince and potatoes; but nothing we’ve done has ever been enough' The couple have three older children who are all distraught and angry at the ruling. Speaking through tears, their 15-year-old daughter said: ‘The social workers should hang their heads in shame. A person’s weight is their own business and only we can do anything about it, not them. My parents are good people and they love us all. The four little ones don’t know what is about to happen to them.’ Social workers became aware of the family in early 2008 after one of the sons accused his father of hitting him on the forehead. In truth, he had fallen and hit his head on a radiator – a fact he later admitted. However, the allegation opened the door to the obesity investigation. While the couple admit experiencing what their lawyer calls ‘low grade’ parenting problems, which would have merited support, they were aghast when the issue of weight was seized on as a major concern. A council report at the time said: ‘With the exception of [one of the names], the children are all overweight. Advice has been given regarding diet but there has been no improvement. Appointments with the dietician have been missed.’ Investigation: The family have been subject to an obesity probe - at meal times social workers took notes and children met with dieticians (picture posed by model) Investigation: The family have been subject to an obesity probe - at meal times social workers took notes and children met with dieticians (picture posed by model) At that point their then 12-year-old son weighed 16 stone; his 11-year-old sister weighed 12 stone; and his three-year-old sister weighed four stone. It is not known how much the four younger children weigh now. The couple were ordered to send their children to dance and football lessons and were given a three-month deadline to bring down their weight. When that failed, the children were placed in foster homes but were allowed to visit their parents. After the couple objected to this arrangement, the council agreed to move them into a two-bedroom flat in a supported unit run by the Dundee Families Project. They insisted on the couple living with only three of their children at a time. At meal times, a social worker stood in the room taking notes. Doctors raised concerns that the children put on weight whenever they spent time with their parents, a claim they vehemently denied. The couple and their children also had to adhere to a strict 11pm curfew. This involved ‘clocking’ in and out by filling in a sheet held by an employee who lived on site. Although the children’s weight was the major concern, other allegations were included in a report. It showed that social workers were worried when the youngest child was found crawling unsupervised. The parents point out they were never far away and the flat had no stairs. They also found her ‘attempting to put dangerous objects’ in her mouth. The family say this is natural in toddlers and she was never successful. To have a social worker stand and watch you eat is intolerable. I want other families to know what can happen once social workers become involved. We will fight them to the end to get our beloved children back. Social workers were further worried when she crawled through the contents of an upturned ashtray – an ‘unfortunate one-off incident’, claim the parents. All the concerns were dismissed by the family’s legal team as ‘low grade’ problems. It is understood the father crumbled under the strain of being so closely monitored in January this year and moved into a council flat elsewhere in the city. In the next few months, the mother breached the lunch and dinner meal observations, by her own admission, on ‘several’ occasions while taking the children to see their father. She personally never broke the 11pm curfew but once allowed her seven-year-old daughter to remain at her father’s flat after she fell asleep. She did not want to disturb her and argued the child had ‘two parents, not one’ and was in ‘good hands’. These breaches led staff to declare the trial a failure and the mother was asked to leave the unit in April this year. She moved in to her husband’s flat but the children were then handed over to foster parents. Her solicitor said he planned to use independent experts to prove that the children want to live with their parents and have been damaged by the social workers’ intervention. He added: ‘We may ultimately look towards human rights laws.’ The father, aged 56, said: ‘We have tried very hard to do everything that was asked of us. My wife has cooked healthy foods like home-made spaghetti bolognese and mince and potatoes; we’ve cut out snacks and only ever allowed the kids sweets on a Saturday. But nothing we’ve done has ever been enough. ‘The pressure of living in the family unit would have broken anyone. We were being treated like children and cut off from the outside world. To have a social worker stand and watch you eat is intolerable. I want other families to know what can happen once social workers become involved. We will fight them to the end to get our beloved children back.’ It is estimated 26 million British adults will be obese by 2030, with obesity levels running at an all-time high among children. Official statistics show those who are overweight spend 50 per cent more time in hospital, placing extra strain on the NHS. Tam Fry, honorary chairman of the Child Growth Foundation, said: ‘This is a disgrace. These parents have clearly attempted to comply. They have, if you like, played Dundee City Council’s game and yet they are still losing their children.’ Dundee City Council said: ‘The council always acts in the best interests of children, with their welfare and safety in mind.’ Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/...-again.html#ixzz1X9bdmYiG
Fatness is likely an evolutionary trait. In times of the great hunger only the fat survived.
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#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
I propose the social workers be put in a very large frying pan, smothered in butter and lard and fried at low temperature until they say Uncle. A thousand times.
With a few fava beans and a nice chianti, delicious!
It is vital to understand that there is no truth without discernment and no wisdom without the truth. What then is “faith” but an effort to confound truth and wisdom?
Mmmmm... you're making my mouth water.
This article is SCREAMING for a visual....... Yeah, fatness really "evolved" with the invention of the television....who new Philo Farnsworth would have such an impact on tubby evolution.
" If you cannot govern yourself, you will be governed by assholes. " Randge, Poet de Forum, 1/11/11
According to John Gray (Men-Mars Women-Venus) fat plays a role in maintaining a healthy pH (alkaline) balance by acting as storage for acidic moieties (recent C2C show). Acidic body state encourages cancer among other problems. Skinny, non-fat people who maintain an acid balance lose bone calcium, developing osteoporosis, whereas fat people in whom acid absorbed by fat don't develop the condition, according to Gray. Some background on pH balance: pH Balance Acidity and alkalinity are measured according to the pH (potential of hydrogen) scale. Water, with a pH of 7.0, is considered neutral. Any substance with a pH below 7.0 is acid, while anything with a pH above 7.0 is alkaline. The body functions best when the pH of most of its fluids range between 6.8 to 7.0 pH. Within the body, different systems have their own optimum pH, with the stomach, for instance, being highly acidic with a pH around 4; the upper portion of the small intestine being an alkaline environment; and the large intestines and colon again being acidic. All organs and fluids will fluctuate in their pH range in order to keep the blood at a strict pH of 7.35 to 7.45, even if it destroys “less important” body systems. This is the reason that saliva and urine pH levels are used to test the overall health of the acid/alkali system. If there is an imbalance within the body, excess levels can be detected in these bodily fluids as they are rushed to or away from the blood. Proper balance is the key to health. Cause & Effect of pH Imbalance When our eating choices are too high in fat, protein, and simple sugars, excessive acid may be produced in the body. To reduce the acid burden, the body links these acids with alkaline minerals (like potassium, calcium, magnesium, and others) and excretes them. Over time this can deplete the body of needed minerals and lead to a build-up of excess acids in your cells. This reduces the efficiency and effectiveness of your cells and tissues, not to mention explains bone loss and osteoporosis! Is it really due to a lack of calcium or too much acidity in the body that steals the calcium to stay balanced? Our bodies can also produce excessive amounts of acid by being exposed to foreign elements by way of infection, pollution, and improper digestion. This burdens the immune system. When the burden exceeds the body’s reserves, a continuous state of distress can emerge. As a consequence, the chemical messengers associated with stress, like cortisol, adrenaline, and insulin, increase. Chronic elevated levels of stress hormones can be devastating to health. With excess acid load, the delicate machinery of your body does not work very well. This cellular machinery is delicately balanced to work best within a narrow, slightly alkaline range. The efficiency of energy production in the cells reduce with even slight excess of cell acid. This induces loss of resilience and repair mechanisms, and you become more susceptible to fatigue, illness, and pain. While your body tries to remove excess acid, even more critical minerals are lost as well. The Dangers of Chronic Acidity To be too acidic in the body can have far reaching consequences that can wreck the body until blood pH is stabilized. Your body goes through many steps: It takes alkaline elements from the enzymes in the small intestine to stay balanced which leaves the intestines too acidic to digest food optimally. The pancreas, liver, and gallbladder are forced to make up for this deficiency. This has a direct bearing on enzyme production, which is literally involved in every biochemical reaction in the body. The result is lowered immune function, fatigue, hormonal imbalances, absorption and digestive problems. The bones will leach calcium, the most alkaline mineral. This can lead to reduced absorption of supplemental minerals and bone density problems. Insulin levels increase and fat is stored instead of being metabolized. When malnutrition or starvation sets in, the body becomes acidic and as a safety, insulin is over produced so that all available calories are stored as fat for future use. As a result, weight gain is common and weight loss becomes more difficult. Electrolyte imbalances occur which have a direct bearing on the “fluid transport system”. Electrolytes are important because they are what the cells, especially the nerve, heart and muscle cells use to maintain voltages across cell membranes. This further stresses the kidneys, gallbladder, pancreas, and other organs. Eating Raw: The 80/20 Rule A basic rule of thumb to follow to achieve and maintain pH balance is to eat 80 percent alkaline-forming foods and drinks and 20 percent acid-forming foods and drinks each day. If a pH test indicates that your body is too acidic, you should eat more alkaline-forming foods and omit acid-forming foods from your diet until another pH test shows you have returned to normal. Conversely, if your body is too alkaline, eat more acid-forming foods and omit alkaline-forming foods. A self test is easy to perform using litmus paper—which can be picked up in our office or at Georgetown Market. We also have a step-by-step instruction sheet on how to properly take your saliva and urine pH that can be downloaded BY CLICKING HERE . Monitoring your pH gives you an indication of how well or how hard your body is working to survive your lifestyle. ***For a list of acidic and alkaline-forming foods please reference our Acid & Alkaline Food Chart*** Tips to Maintain A Healthy pH Balance Chew your food slowly to fully soak and mix your food with saliva and do not overindulge. Do not drink fluids during meals, especially cold drinks. Eat a diet of 50% raw foods. Raw foods not only maintain the correct acid/alkaline balance within the body, but they are richer in nutrients that are easily assimilated into the body and neutralize the acidity to reduce acidosis. Check out our Acid & Alkaline Food Chart! Do not overcook vegetables, as this makes them lose not only their flavor, but also their nutritional value. Eat processed foods in moderation. They are low in nutrients, often contain lots of sodium, trans-fats, and preservatives, and overtax the digestive system. Avoid eating late at night, as this makes the body spend its energy on digestion instead of restoration and healing. Take digestive enzymes with meals, especially if indigestion is a chronic problem. Heartburn and indigestion are often the result of poorly digested food putrefying in the stomach. If you suffer from heartburn, take 1-2 teaspoons of natural apple cider vinegar in a glass of water. If the vinegar method works, this may indicate that you lack sufficient acid in your stomach. Practice deep breathing, especially before sitting down to a meal; postpone eating if you are angry, upset or overly stressed until you have taken time to calm yourself. Do a series of Ionic Footbaths to boost pH balance throughout your entire body & help purge unwanted, harmful toxins that keep your body acidic. Contact us for our Specials & Pricing! Check your pH levels regularly, especially if you are dealing with a chronic condition.
No Planes. Think about it. ... Guaranteed Penetration (no it's not porn)... "To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle." ~ George Orwell... Israelis For 9/11 Truth
#2. To: wudidiz (#1)
I propose the social workers be put in a very large frying pan, smothered in butter and lard and fried at low temperature until they say Uncle
#3. To: angK (#2)
No Planes. Think about it. ... Guaranteed Penetration (no it's not porn)... "To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle." ~ George Orwell... Israelis For 9/11 Truth
#4. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
Fatness is likely an evolutionary trait.
#5. To: abraxas (#4)
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