Dan Nitro Clark

    I stumbled across this article in Time Magazine.  I’m sure it’s going to create a lot of controversy. We all KNOW childhood obesity is an out of control epidemic and it’s only going to get worse until we figure out how to EDUCATE, MOTIVATE and EMPOWER Americas youth. I’m working with a partner to create a program called "Ten Thousand Pounds." It’s our attempt at tackling the adolescent obesity epidemic.

    That being said, I’m not so sure taking kids away from parents is the right solution. Regardless it’s happening more and more.  I think parents are indeed responsible for their child’s well-being, and letting a child become morbidly obese can be critically dangerous for the child’s health. But how much are the parents to be blamed?  We have a food industry that spends over 30 billion dollars a year on only marketing that entices us to eat.  Are we, are parents, are kids, really at fault for succumbing to their desires?  

I think the 33 percent of the population who doesn’t have a weight issue — will say the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the parents.  But what about the other 66 percent of Americans, the majority of the population, who are overweight?  How can they expect their children to do something they themselves cannot?  They can’t.  That’s EXACTLY why we have an adolescent obesity epidemic.  The trickle down effect from parents to kids is immeasurable.  

Here’s part of the article from Time Magazine:  

Should morbidly obese children be taken from their parents? That’s the question an increasing number of countries are grappling with amid the Western world’s obesity epidemic.

The latest case to make headlines concerns a Scottish couple who lost custody of two of their six children on the basis of what was, their lawyer claims, a failure to reduce the kids’ weight following warnings from Scottish social services. The couple lost their Oct. 14 appeal in a case that is far from clear-cut — representatives of Dundee City say they would never remove children "just because of a weight issue." But obesity appears to be the primary reason South Carolina mom Jerri Gray lost custody of her 14-year-old, 555-lb. son in May. She was arrested after missing a court date to examine whether she should retain custody after doctors had expressed concern about her son’s weight to social services. The boy is currently living with his aunt, and his mother is facing criminal child-neglect charges.  Full Article here.

If it was up to you what would you do?  Would you take a morbidly obese kid away from their parents? Take into consideration childhood protection laws have changed, and if you (social worker) don’t report the parent, you could get in trouble.  Again, what would you do?  

Be well,

Dan Clark

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    Amazon.com is the 800 pound guerilla. GRRR!  Hear them roar! I just had a few people email me letting me know they’ve already received their books!  A couple things I find that are absolutely amazing about this.  Firstly, how in the hell does Amazon get their books so early???  WTF!  GLADIATOR isn’t available in stores until Feb 9th.  Secondly, I had a couple people hit my up on my MySpace and Facebook page and told me the devoured the entire book in one night.  That just blows me away!  It’s been such a long journey.  It’s hard to believe that I’ve gone from Nitro and spandex to author.  It’s still really hasn’t settled in.

I’m finding hands down favorite chapter for the guys:  ”Playboy Bunnies, Porn Strippers and Strippers.”  I thought that just as a matter of course… all men kinda went through this phase and experienced this.  I guess not. 

Favorite chapter for the women?  That’s a tough one.  So far astonishingly they seem to LOVE the ENTIRE BOOK (well maybe except for the men’s favorite chapter).  They love the rawness, candidness, the emotionality, and the unflinchingly honest peek behind the veil into a man’s mind and heart.  They love how unabashedly personal the book is.  And, that my friends, pretty much encapsulates the differences between the sexes.  And of course, this is just a generality.  There’s plenty of dude out there (including me) who can roll a tear. 

Above all else — the early readers are telling me that’s it so much more than a book about Gladiators.  It’s a book about a human life that Gladiators and steroids were a part of.  Ugh!  It really feels like I’m selling here.  But I’m not.  I’m just relaying what folks are saying to me.  Hell, after you read, chime in here and let me know what you think.  And once again, here is an excerpt from the book to get you started, so you can see what the hell I’m talking about!

Click here to read an excerpt.

Also (nearly forgot) here’s a little mention in: TIME Magazine.  Click here to see how it actually appeared in the print version.