TED Community » Dr. Michael Katz

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Educating concerned parents and friends regarding Teenage Eating Disorders & Childhood Obesity.

Talk to me about

...ways I can spread the word about my work and reach/help more parents. I'm a doc, not a techie. If you can help me rise on Google or post articles that's GREAT! This is hard for some of us :-)

People don't know that I'm good at

...explaining very complicated medical/physiologic concepts to a lay-audience. As the nurses used to say, "Dr. Katz can break it down!"

Comments

• TEDCred score: +2.00 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +9

  A comment on Talk: Malcolm McLaren: Authentic creativity vs. karaoke culture

  May 30 2011: This is totally unwatchable. Worst TED Talk ever.

• A reply on Conversation: Does the lack of physical education classes in many public schools contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic?

  May 23 2011: You're not wrong about lifestyle. In fact, that is why I asked about this subject. If PE classes actually got kids up and moving for 50 minutes on school days that would go far in helping them burn calories and fat, increase metabolism, etc. I'm all in favor of education and life-style modification, but as long as you've got a kid in school 5 days a week, shouldn't you use that time to educate them directly - as well as get them up and moving?

• A reply on Conversation: Does the lack of physical education classes in many public schools contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic?

  May 23 2011: I agree that we can't "dump" this on schools. I didn't mean to. I was only asking if it was part of the problem. The thing about PE classes is that it DOES get kids up and moving. The body responds to this by burning calories, increasing metabolism, etc. It also provides a great forum in which to TEACH kids about nutrition, exercise, etc. It is called Physical "Education" for a reason. Or, at least, it's supposed to be.

• A comment on Conversation: Does the lack of physical education classes in many public schools contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic?

  May 21 2011: You make an excellent point about walking. I can remember walking to friends' houses, or the corner store, or down to the ball field...Is it that parents are afraid to let their kids walk anywhere (news reports of "predators" etc.)?

• A comment on Conversation: How to revolutionize tipping and improve service at restaurants.

  May 20 2011: I KIND OF love this idea. However (and speaking as a former restaurant owner) the waiter is expected to give perfect service each and every time, to each and every customer, regardless of what the tip might be. Does this always happen? No. But, it IS what the waiter is expected to TRY to achieve. Your system would allow for a waiter to do poor work if the posted tip was too low. That's not how restaurants work.
• +3

  A comment on Conversation: How can a talented teenager prepare himself for a scientific career? What do you scientists recommend? (Personal experiences, please).

  May 20 2011: The only thing that really counts is for your child to "learn how to learn." The key to science is that it is always changing. Don't forget that, after Einstein presented his findings - the rest of the scientific community had to start studying them. They had to LEARN something new. Learning how to teach oneself (learning how to learn) is the single most important thing in science.

• A comment on Conversation: What is your favourite single sentence from a TED Talk?

  May 20 2011: This is broken! (Seth Godin)

• A comment on Conversation: How would you like to be remembered?

  Apr 11 2011: My sincere and honest comment is: I would like to be remembered as a guy who didn't give a damn how he'd be remembered.
• +2

  A reply on Conversation: Is the Childhood Obesity epidemic proof that not all parents love their children?

  Apr 8 2011: I see this same thing happen time after time in these online "debates" and I'm beginning to get annoyed. I said what I said and there's no reason to cook up some false extrapolation about what I said. So, let me be clear: Based on what I've seen in my life, as a physician and as a person on this earth, I do not believe that all parents really love their children. I was interested to know if Childhood Obesity could be seen as a proof of that. That's about as far as I wanted to take it.
  
  I think questions should be examined with specificity to the particulars of the question. Your questions are interesting, but not what I asked.
  
  As for your question, "Are you really claiming that it's not possible for a person to love someone and still engage in behaviors that are hurtful to them?" I say that if the behaviors cause actual HARM then NO, it is not. If you love someone I believe you will stop the behavior. By YOUR rationale, the abusive husband who beats his wife out of frustration with his life could still actually and truly love her. I think that is NOT true.
  
  So...if a mom feeds her kids pizza and potato chips and the like on a daily basis, with the kids growing ever fatter (and sicker), can we say she really loves them? I think not.
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Is the Childhood Obesity epidemic proof that not all parents love their children?

  Apr 8 2011: First, I TOTALLY reject the notion that a parent could truly LOVE their child, yet somehow NOT be able to feed the child a healthy diet on most days. ALL the stories you hear about fruits/veggies being more expensive than fast food are lies and I can prove it on any trip to the supermarket. I don't mean to be aggressive here, but I am truly SICK of that kind of false "meme."
  
  Now, to answer your valuable question: The "strategy for a solution" could be based on parental education, or could be based largely on institutional change - like the choices available in school cafeterias, vending machines, etc. If I thought that the majority of obese children came from homes where their parents WOULD NOT feed them properly - regardless of the education furnished to the parent - then I would concentrate on institutions.
  
  That being said, I have always thought that the commonly held belief that "all parents love their kids" was not true. I posed this question to see if perhaps others thought Childhood Obesity was a proof. Perhaps there are other proofs?