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Hindsight
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
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 Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:39 am Post subject: Korea, where all the children must be above average height |
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Korea in the news:
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Ambitious South Korean Parents See Tall as All
At his clinic, Kim Se-hyun, a fifth-grader, walked on a treadmill with her torso encased in a harness suspended from an overhead steel bar. The contraption, the clinic maintains, will stretch her spine and let her exercise with less pressure on her legs. *
Nearby, sweat rolled off Lee Dong-hyun, 13, as he pedaled a recumbent bicycle while reading a comic book. Behind him, his sister, Chae-won, the shortest girl in her first-grade class, stretched to touch her toes on a blue yoga mat, squealing as an instructor pushed down against her back.
Two years ago, their mother, Yoon Ji-young, had tried giving Dong-hyun growth hormone shots, which have also increased in popularity here. But many doctors will only prescribe them for exceptionally children with severe growth disorders. And parents have been discouraged by their high cost and fears of side effects.
Ms. Yoon said she was spending $850 a month on the shots but stopped after eight months.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/world/asia/23seoul.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
So what's going on? Korean parents want their children to be taller than everyone else.
And they're doing just about anything... except what makes sense.
When I read this, I thought about all the Koreans that go around in face masks and walking under umbrellas when the sun is out. Koreans have a phobia of the sun. Presumably they want to keep their skin light, but who knows what superstitions are behind their behavior.
Hey, Korea, if you want your kids to grow up big and strong, make sure they get plenty of sunlight. Why? No, it's not because kids are like trees.
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| �Parents would rather add 10 centimeters to their children�s stature than bequeath them one billion won,� said Dr. Shin Dong-gil, a Hamsoa doctor. �If you think of a child as a tree, what we try to do here is to provide it with the right soil, the right wind, the right sunshine to help it grow. We help kids regain their appetite, sleep well and stay fit so they can grow better.� |
Kids don't grow on the production of chlorophyll, Dr. Shin. They do, however, need vitamin D. And the body produces vitamin D when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Is that what you really meant, Dr. Shin?
He is on target with the part about sleeping well, though. Heavy stress and lack of sleep is not good for kids' growth.
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| Production of growth hormone is modulated by many factors, including stress, exercise, nutrition, sleep and growth hormone itself. |
http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/endocrine/hypopit/gh.html
So what is Korea doing to it's kids? Making sure they are under lots of stress and don't get 8 hours of sleep a night. How many elementary, middle and high school students are consuming caffeine daily? Kids, even elementary kids, are drinking coffee, especially since it is sold everywhere, and loaded with sugar.
How about nutritional sources of vitamin D (and vitamin A), which is essential to bone growth? Perhaps the best is liver. You don't see liver sold here, raw or in foods like sausage. Heck, they don't even put it in pet food. No beef liver, no fish liver, no chicken liver. It may even be illegal in Korea. Maybe parents should be buying black market liver to get their kids to grow bigger.
Vitamin A and D, which is made from fish liver oil, is probably the cheapest of all vitamins. A year's supply might cost you all of $3, or less in the States. Try finding it in Korea. If you do, it might cost you 20,000 won for 200 tablets of Vitamin A (I don't think it includes vitamin D), and that's at Costco.
How about giving your kids calcium, instead of acupuncture? Are Korean kids getting enough calcium? They are getting tiny cartons of milk at school, so that's a start, and the milk is fortified with artificial Vitamin D.
But Korean children are taught to detest one of the best sources of calcium, cheese. And I'm not talking about that fake stuff here they falsely label as "cheddar cheese," which might contain 25 percent dairy products, if you're lucky. It's plastic processed cheez in plastic wrappers. Real cheese costs a small fortune in most Korean stores, about 50,000 won a kilo.
One ounce of real cheddar cheese, one slice, contains 200 mgs of calcium, more than a five ounce carton of milk.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/cgi-bin/list_nut_edit.pl
Are Korean kids getting enough calcium?
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Toddlers (age 1-3 years) require about 500mg of calcium each day (about 2 glasses of milk).
Preschool and younger school age children (age 4-8 years) require about 800 mg of calcium each day (about 3 glasses of milk).
Older school age children and teens (age 9-18 years) require about 1300 mg of calcium each day. This higher level of calcium is especially important once they begin puberty (about 4 glasses of milk). |
http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/calcium_requirements.html
Some do because some parents appreciate the importance of calcium, but I suspect most don't.
OK, don't like cheese or supplements, but want calcium? Egg shells are a good source of calcium, but you'll have to grind them up and get them down, somehow.
Canned salmon is good because of the nice soft fish bones, but it is expensive and not at all popular in Korea (it's much cheaper in North America).
That leaves canned mackerel. It's also more expensive in Korea, but at least it is popular. The key is to eat the soft fish bones.
All these are just common sense answers to the problem, at least common sense in the West. Common sense in Korea seems to be putting a kid on the rack with acupuncture needles in them.
I'm sorry if I seem so irate. But the more I get to know Korea, the more I see ignorance and superstition taking the place of science. And Korean kids are the ones who are paying the price for their parents' obeisance to tradition.
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* This so-called doctor wants to reduce pressure on the girl's legs? And he wants her to grow tall? Does this quack know even the basics of human physiology?
The osteoblast and osteoclast cells in the bones, which promote bone growth through remineralization, are activated largely by pressure and exercise. It is common knowledge in Western medicine that such pressure-type exercise is essential to combating osteoporosis, thinning of the bones.
Korean parents: Want your kids' bones to grow? Make sure they get daily exercise that puts pressure on their bones.
How many parks do you see where kids can play, besides the puny playground most schools have for 500 to 1,000 kids? Do kids ride their bike a lot or jog in big cities? Or do they ride a bus to hogwon and home, and sit around inside playing computer games?
Korea should be building a heck of a lot more parks in cities for kids. But Korean adults really don't care about kids. If they did, they would have good schools, and wouldn't need hagwons, and would have parks for kids to play, and would be giving kids a truly nutritious diet, instead of force feeding them the traditional diet of weeds and animal fat held over from the days when their grandparents were starving. |
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Forever
Joined: 12 Nov 2009
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NoSimpleHighway
Joined: 04 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:30 am Post subject: |
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| What Kimchi doesn't cure short stature yet? Wow, and people wonder why so many teens off themselves here. |
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Hindsight
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:35 am Post subject: |
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Thank you for pointing that out, Forever.
It is nice to see that Koreans are getting to read stories about Korea written by American newspapers, in this case The New York Times, which also ran the story in the International Herald Tribune, which it owns, which then was picked up by the Associated Press, an American newspaper cooperative, and then picked up by a Korean newspaper and translated into Korean and picked up by Naver.
Say, what do you mean by "Let them play their games"?
Maybe they need a milk mustache campaign here... on babies. Giving infants and small children soy "milk" is not good for their health, especially boys. Soy contains female hormones. And it contains only small amounts of calcium. |
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shapeshifter
Joined: 29 Nov 2005
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:06 am Post subject: Re: Korea, where all the children must be above average heig |
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| �Parents would rather add 10 centimeters to their children�s stature than bequeath them one billion won,� said Dr. Shin Dong-gil, a Hamsoa doctor. �If you think of a child as a tree, what we try to do here is to provide it with the right soil, the right wind, the right sunshine to help it grow. We help kids regain their appetite, sleep well and stay fit so they can grow better.� |
Kids don't grow on the production of chlorophyll, Dr. Shin. They do, however, need vitamin D. And the body produces vitamin D when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Is that what you really meant, Dr. Shin?
[/quote]
Do you honestly not understand that he was speaking figuratively? When someone says, if you think of a blank as a blank, you might reasonably expect to see a metaphor appearing around the corner.
While I agree with your broader assertion that this obsession with chilldren's height is silly and unfortunate, to make a fuss over this particular point makes you sound like an idiot. |
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amo_jh
Joined: 21 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 7:20 am Post subject: |
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| The op does sound a bit like an idiot... |
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daemyann
Joined: 09 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:11 am Post subject: Re: Korea, where all the children must be above average heig |
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| Hindsight wrote: |
| the more I see ignorance and superstition taking the place of science. And Korean kids are the ones who are paying the price for their parents' obeisance to tradition. |
You're not really sorry, or you would have sincerely thought out your point, and done some field research.
Believe it or not, chicken soup isn't automatically best for colds, and the consumption of fatty foods doesn't always equal fat people... |
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Enrico Palazzo
Mod Team
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 8:19 am Post subject: |
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| amo_jh wrote: |
| The op does sound a bit like an idiot... |
No need for the personal attacks. Address the arguments made. |
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what the thunder said
Joined: 23 Nov 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:45 pm Post subject: |
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While I can agree with some of this (especially the article), the OP's language is dripping with a holier-than-thou attitude. Children are "taught" to detest cheese? That's news to me. Cheese is a new thing in Korea and many people just don't have a taste for it. If the parents never grew up eating it, why would they force their kids to eat it? I have some students that love cheese and some that hate it. I don't think they are being "taught" to "detest" cheese, though.
And the little cartons of milk? They seem to the be same size cartons of milk that I drank when I was a student. And even though I sometimes ate cereal in the morning, it was not like I was happily gulping down milk in my down time just because mommy and daddy said it would make me tall and strong. I was probably with my friends, drinking Pepsi, Capri Sun, or one of those sugar-water "fruit" drinks in the squeezable bottles.
So yeah, I agree with a lot in the article. The lengths some people will go to here for height alone is sad/silly to me. But some of the OP's remarks just came out wrong. |
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exercise_in_futility
Joined: 11 May 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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| it's simple, these parents don't want their kids to be "루저" |
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detourne_me
Joined: 26 May 2006
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Hey OP, liver is readily available at most street corner food stands. It's really cheap and delicious. |
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The Gipkik
Joined: 30 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 4:53 pm Post subject: |
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| I've lived in several Asian countries and Korea, at least Seoul, has a height fixation that I've never seen the likes of before. We can probably thank America for that one. I'd be curious to see how prevalent is the self-concept of height in traditional Korean literature as compared with American lit or English lit or even going back to the Romans and Greeks. |
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jindodog
Joined: 31 May 2007
Location: not seoul
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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There's an obsession with height....perhaps....but do we really have any numbers for how many parents are practicing extreme measures to get their kids to grow taller?
Is it entirely possible that these people are the minority and not the majority?
Also, the kids here seem to drink milk everyday.....and like a PP said, do you have any proof that they are being taught to detest cheese?
At the end of the day, cheese isn't even that good for you. Not to mention there's calcium in yogurt and that seems to be quite popular here, not to mention it's much healthier for the heart and gut.
And what's with the attack on people taking caution against exposure to UV rays?
Yeah sometimes the older women look a little ridiculous, but that's not to say that fairer skinned people all over the world should be following the example and being more cautious of being over exposed to the sun.
Also, it doesn't take that much exposure, and it's impossible to get it in the winter anyways if you live in the north (according to this article
If you're fair skinned, experts say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun�in shorts and a tank top with no sunscreen�will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000 international units of the vitamin.
http://www.usnews.com/health/family-health/articles/2008/06/23/time-in-the-sun-how-much-is-needed-for-vitamin-d.html |
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TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:58 pm Post subject: Re: Korea, where all the children must be above average heig |
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| Hindsight wrote: |
Korea in the news:
[
But Korean children are taught to detest one of the best sources of calcium, cheese. And I'm not talking about that fake stuff here they falsely label as "cheddar cheese," which might contain 25 percent dairy products, if you're lucky. It's plastic processed cheez in plastic wrappers. Real cheese costs a small fortune in most Korean stores, about 50,000 won a kilo.
Preschool and younger school age children (age 4-8 years) require about 800 mg of calcium each day (about 3 glasses of milk).
Older school age children and teens (age 9-18 years) require about 1300 mg of calcium each day. This higher level of calcium is especially important once they begin puberty (about 4 glasses of milk). |
http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/calcium_requirements.html
.[/quote]
You are aware that Asian populations tend to be more lactose intolerant as a whole than Westerners? |
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Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
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| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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This is another one of those stories that newspapers the world over do.
"Other Country has a Small Group of People Following Weird Trend X, Therefore the Entire Country Must Do It"
A few people in Japan (say, for example, in Western papers) do soemthing strange and suddenly its what all the Japanese are doing.
I'm sure Korean/Japanese papers do the same thing for Belgium or Italy.
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And what's with the attack on people taking caution against exposure to UV rays?
Yeah sometimes the older women look a little ridiculous, but that's not to say that fairer skinned people all over the world should be following the example and being more cautious of being over exposed to the sun. |
Well Put.
Darth Vader masks look way better than skin grafts/ malignant melonomas.
Once again, perfect example of the haters argument: Koreans could go right and they'd complain that they should go left. Koreans go left and they'd complain that they should go right.
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and like a PP said, do you have any proof that they are being taught to detest cheese?
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This detestation of cheese is clearly evident in pizza's utter lack of popularity in Korea and the fact that the few pizzas served here are NEVER over-cheesed. |
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