Filed under: Health, Kids Korner | Tags: children's health, Health, heart disease, obesity
Why Are We Killing Our Children?
Happy Meals, Coca Cola, Lunchables, Milk, Krispy Kremes; these are the things that we “reward” our children with. We tell them that if they are good at the dentist or the doctor that we will take them out for snacks. We tell them that if they clean their rooms that they can have a cookie. We tell them that if they eat all of their dinner they can have dessert. What are we as parents thinking? This has gone on for generations and I have no doubt that it will go on for many more. What kind of message do you think this sends? Is this how eating disorders and unhealthy attitudes towards food start? I would be surprised if that were not the case! Not only are we fostering these unhealthy attitudes towards food in our children, but are we also killing them?
An article published in the American Journal of Pathology stated that all children who consume the rich western diet, i.e. the American diet, show early stages of atherosclerosis (artery damage caused by fatty streaks) by the age of 3. Let me say that again. ALL children who consume the fatty diets we give them have early stages of heart disease by the age of 3! If this is not a crime against our children, then I do not know what is!
Have you ever been out in public and seen a baby drinking a bottle with Coke in it? Or worse, have you done that yourself to your own children? Maybe people don’t understand the very real danger they are posing to their children by doing this.
We are the product of what we eat. Our children are a product of the food that we feed them. So why would you set your children up for heart disease, Type II diabetes, and even cancer? Our country is plagued by what experts are calling the ‘obesity epidemic’. How do we get fat? How do we develop disease? Are we just one of the unlucky ones if we are found to be diseased with cancer? I don’t think so.
We create the environment for disease to begin within our own bodies and those of our children. Eating fast food, drinking soft drinks, eating a diet that consists primarily of highly processed foods, not eating enough fruits, not eating enough vegetables; this is how we set the stage for disease to grow in our bodies.
If you pay close attention to the news reports, you will notice a trend.
Everyday there is new information out there about the benefits of fruits and vegetables. There is new information about the dangers of prescription drugs.
There is new information about the body’s ability to repair itself. There is
mounting evidence of what we should have already known; your body is the smartest ‘machine’ ever created.
Everyday there are millions of processes that are ongoing simultaneously in your body. You breathe without even thinking about it. With every breath, oxygen is inhaled and poisons such as carbon dioxide are exhaled. Your heart beats constantly without any help from you and supplies oxygen-filled blood to all areas of your body. You eat foods, and while the food is digested, your body takes what it needs from the food and turns it into new cells to replace the old cells that your body then excretes as waste products.
What do you want your new cells to be made of? Do you think cancer can develop if you have spent years feeding your body useless processed food? Do you think cancer can develop if you constantly bathe your insides with the insidious ingredients found in a 12 ounce can of Coca Cola?
How many years of our children’s lives are we going to squander ‘rewarding’ them with the very foods that are killing them? The foods that are creating the childhood obesity epidemic? The same foods that are giving our children adult-onset diabetes long before they are adults! To me this seems unfair.
Do we love our children enough to provide them with high quality foods, or are we just trying to give them whatever we think they will eat because we have tainted their taste buds with poisonous food.
And since when did pus become a health food and something that our children cannot live without? Were you aware that there is pus in the milk that the dairy industry insists that you should feed your children every day? And the government is ok with that. They have set the standards for the number of pus cells that can be in a glass of milk.
Are people just not paying attention when articles with titles like “McDonald’s Meat Sources to Cut Antibiotics” show up in the local newspapers? Cut antibiotics? How many of us were aware that the antibiotics given to the cows to stop infections were ending up in the hamburgers? Of course those are not the antibiotics that they are stopping. It is the ones that promote growth.
Are any antibiotics really ok? Not for my children!
Children will naturally gravitate to fruits and natural foods until, as adults,
we taint their taste buds and ruin them with processed foods. All is not lost, however, as we can get them back on a healthy path. It is never too late to begin reversing the early stages of heart disease. Your children have a right to be healthy! Don’t take that away from them!
For more information on healthy eating and exercise tips for kids and yourself go to my web site at www.familymatters2me.net
Article by Julie S. Rayburn, Lifestyle Coach for Vitality Health and Fitness.
I was appalled! My 15 yr old boy sat down next to me to eat his pizza and turned on MTV. I cannot believe they air this kind of stuff to children. The show is called Sex with Mom and Dad. Sex may be everywhere in American media, but that doesn’t mean American families are talking about it. I know I never discussed it with my Mom and I never had the resources in school like they do today. All I know is that if I ever got pregnant I was a dead person!!. Talking about sex with our kids, it is simply easier said than done.
I am not sure I agree with this kind of programming. Lets just tell everyone it is okay. Why don’t we just tell ourkids it is okay to drink and do drugs. What ever happened to “Do as I say not as I do”
In each half-hour episode, Loveline’s Sex and Relationship Expert Dr. Drew is supposed to help a teen and their parents work through their problems about sex, dating and relationships. Maybe a dad is worried that his daughter uses her sexuality to get attention; a son is concerned that ever since he came out of the closet, his parents haven’t acted the same towards him; or a son’s “ladies man” M.O. has mom worried that sex, and the girls he sleeps with, mean nothing to him. I don’t think this kind of TV is what I want my teenager to watch. I’ll be damned if I am going to tell my kid which position is my favorite. I think this is going a little too far!
Healthier Halloween!
Halloween is not so much about tricks anymore but it is about a lot of high-sugar, high-fat treats for our kids. I know we loved the candy as kids but as parents it just makes my skin crawl. But I believe that keeping my kids from the Halloween experience, candy included, would cause more harm than a couple of days of sugar mania.
If you do not want to send the little beggars off with a sugar bomb, try these alternatives.
These are sure to please all your little haunters:
- Individual packets of dried fruit, raisins, nuts, peanuts
- Peanut-butter crackers, cheese crackers, pretzels
- Fruit juice boxes
- Individual pudding packs
- Sugarless bubblegum
- Buttons, pins, spider rings, trinket jewelry, bracelets, friendship rings, hair barrettes, ponytail holders, shoelaces
- $$Money$$ (coins)
- Pencils or Pens
- Tiny plastic animals, figurines, finger puppets, whistles
- Halloween stickers, coloring books, puzzle books, erasers, note pads
- Crayons
- Trading cards
Dealing with the aftermath
Other parents are not going to even think twice about giving the kids a sugar bomb. Maybe our ideas will pass on once they see these item in their own children’s bag.
Wondering what to do once your children’s Halloween candy makes it home? In terms of dental health, munching on a piece of candy here and there will continually coat the teeth in sugar and acid. This exposure is likely to cause tooth decay. The best thing to do is to let your children eat as much candy as they want at one time and then make sure that their teeth are thoroughly brushed and flossed.
One great thing that works with me is to set a daily limit and keep the candy where only you, the parent, can get to it. My kids eventually forget about it and I throw it out. Hence another reason to give out something kids will use or play with.
Set a limit on how long the candy stays around. For example, any leftovers get thrown away after 5 days. This not only will get them back on a healthy schedule but will remove the tempting goodies from you, too!
For more information on healthy tips and ideas for your kids go to my website www.familymatters2me.net.
Outdoor play can unleash your child’s imagination, strengthen his/her body and foster a love of nature.
Outdoor play encourages discovery and exploration. It builds relationships with both biological and social communities. Children get all the health benefits of exercise, along with the benefits of character building during play. I know it is tough to get kids outside these days. How do we get them to turn off the TV and the video games? Sure parents worry about potential hazards outside, streets to cross and unknowns to encounter. BUT think of the possibilities, trails to create, animals tracks to find and all the stuff you kids will learn from nature. I have some suggestions that will help you get your child connected with nature.
Take indoor toys outside: Take stuffed animals for a wagon ride, or baby for a bike ride. Maybe Barbie would like to go on a safari or to the beach. Use your imagination along with your child’s and you will be surprised what adventures you can come up with.
Start a nature collection: See what you can find. Look for things like feathers and see if you can figure out which birds they are from. Look for empty nest. Identify the different types of leaves. I have a collection of dragon flies.
Think outside the lawn: Get the neighborhood kids to want to come play at your house. Have something special like a tree house or fort. Kids love dirt, make a dirt pile and let them dig or make a race track.
Organize a hike or a walk: Find a path or a park around where you live and pick a day to explore, invite other children and parent to come along.
Discover the hidden creatures: Learn about the animals that live near you. Turn over a brick or a rock, what did you find? Go out to the garden and look under leafy plant. Watch something may jump out at you.
Limit Screen Time: Computers, TVs, and Video games keep us from the outdoors.
Then there is the normal everyday outside stuff: Ride a bike, skateboarding, rollerskating, sidewalk chalk. jump rope, ball games, should I go on….
GET OUTSIDE!
