Parents accused of killing obese children with kindness

Britain’s parents will be accused this week of “killing their children with kindness”, as the government embarks on a new campaign aimed at the growing and deadly problem of  childhood obesity

Graphic examples of children dying early from diabetes, heart disease and cancer will be publicised and the Department of Health will reveal “shocking” levels of ignorance and complacency among parents who are failing to accept responsibility for their children’s health.

The campaign will be based on an unpublished DoH report, seen by the Observer, that has been sent to senior NHS managers. It says that three million families with young children need to be better informed to prevent their children becoming dangerously overweight.

In a section entitled “Killing with kindness”, it says: “It’s hard to say no to your kids, but if you give in every time you’re not being kind, you’re killing with kindness. Kids who eat the wrong sorts of food and sit around all day are more likely to get heart disease, cancer, diabetes and to die young. Some will die younger than their parents.”

Beside a photograph of three young children, it adds: “One of us will die of heart disease or diabetes when we’re older because of the foods our parents let us eat now.”

The document, a briefing on the government’s Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives strategy, details how parents are helping to establish bad habits in their offspring.

“Parents do not value physical activity or accept responsibility for children’s activity levels. Parents believe their children are already sufficiently active at school. Sedentary activity (TV watching and computer gaming) is encouraged by parents. Parents believe it is too unsafe to play outside. Mums lack the confidence to take part in physical activity with their children.”

Obesity experts last night endorsed the DoH’s uncompromising assessment of parents. Jack Winkler, professor of nutrition policy at London Metropolitan University, said: “The government is right to point up this uncomfortable truth. Almost a quarter of kids are already overweight by the time they arrive at primary school, which is the parents’ responsibility. So we need to do something about parents, too.”

Tam Fry, of the Childhood Growth Foundation, which monitors’ children’s weight, said: “We’re really concerned that parents are using sweets, chocolates and fizzy drinks to reward their children. Those less than healthy foods are the last rewards they should turn to, because they are storing up problems for their children’s future health.”

The document classes 1.6 million families with children aged between two and 11 as “high risk”. It states: “Food has become an expression of love in ‘at risk’ families. Parents are prioritising filling up their kids over feeding them the right foods. Snacking has become a way of life.”

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
  Denis Campbell, health correspondent  The Observer, Sunday 28 December 2008

Your Wealth & Your Health

 

Your Wealth & Your Health
Is your baby getting a healthy start in life?
What is on your table?

The global scientific community has constantly acknowledged the negative and at times long lasting effects of small doses of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals on people, especially during the early stages of development as a fetus and during infancy. These pesticides and other agricultural chemicals release toxins into our systems whose effects are still being studied and about which the scientific community finds little consensus due to the lobbying activities of some of the great multinational corporations, whose businesses might be negatively affected in case all the scientific evidence comes to light. So with all this evidence that is constantly being released why is organic food not on every table?

 I grew-up on a predominantly organic lifestyle and I can still vividly remember the reaction I got from my very first chemical grown apple. I got a swollen tongue; there was fluid in my ear drums that caused me to lose my balance thus couldn’t drive and flu like symptoms. After numerous visits to my doctor’s office, to a cardiologist I was finally sent to see an allergist who then figured out I was allergic to pesticides.  I was stumped to say the least; I knew pesticide was used to kill inserts etc. I innocently asked the doctor if someone could have sneaked it into my food. The Dr simple asked me to list all what I had eaten the past couple of weeks, it was easy since at that point I had only bought apples and rice from the super market (still had my food from home my mami made) and she said it is the apples…..little did I know that pesticide was also used in the preservation of food…. That was almost 18 years ago.

We all know organic costs a bit more but I personally believe the benefits outweigh the difference in cost. My experience with the “pesticide-sprayed” apple resulted in about 3 weeks of school and work absence, and about 6 different doctors’ offices co-pays.  I could have saved time, anxiety, and tons of money in co-pays alone!

 You would be surprised to find out how affordable eating organic can be. The key is to try and eat seasonal as much as possible because produce is always cheaper when in season. Other ways of cutting costs include: buying from your local farmers market, joining a local CSA* or a local co-op,  and MOST IMPORTANTLY  avoid  shopping the big name grocery stores for organic foods, that is where you truly throw your $$$$ out the window.

 Also, buying organic helps you prioritize a whole lot better. You don’t buy as much nonsense and junk food and you don’t waste so much. Believe me, when you pay more for your food, you will make use of EVERY item you buy. Society has   trained us to always overindulge, people don’t usually eat because they are hungry they eat because they can afford to buy it. When you buy a $1 bag of chips, you feel free to ingest the whole bag in one sitting because it’s cheap. But when you spend $3-4 on a bag of chips, trust me you will make it last the WHOLE week. Changing your diet and household products to organic can seriously reduce allergies and eczemas and thus reduce the number of doctor’s visits. Therefore at the end of the day, organic is good for your wallet, good for the environment and most importantly good for the health of your family.

Here is the list of the top 10 foods containing the most pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research group based in Washington, DC.

If you cannot buy organic versions of these foods, you can still evade harm by looking for an alternative that contains the same valuable vitamins and minerals.

The List:

• Strawberries

• Bell peppers

• Spinach

• Cherries

• Peaches

• Mexican cantaloupe

• Celery

• Apples

• Apricot

• Imported grapes

If you need more scientific facts on why organic produce is better than pesticide-sprayed goods, please click on the link below:
http://www.yummyspoonfuls.com/why_organic.htm

 

Moving forward into the twenty-first century, humanity must make strides to live better, not only in a technological sense, but more importantly in a culinary sense – making wise food choices.  The smartest savings account you can set up for yourself and/or your family exists in your refrigerator, not your local bank, contrary to popular belief.  When you eat right, you are on the way to saving right, because what ever savings you amass over the years will not be used to combat diseases caused by a lifetime of poor food choices.  To achieve this goal, things just cannot be business as usual – we have to be drastic in our resolve to eat right, and save right.  Your health is really your wealth.

 *CSA =Community Supported Agriculture where you buy a farm share and get a box of produce every week.

 “A Nation is only as healthy as its children.”
 - Harry Truman

OUR KIDS & VEGGIES

• There are lots of helpful books about sneaking veggies into kids’ diets
• But what is wrong with our kids and with our diets that we have to “sneak in veggies?”

On a recent flight from New York to Atlanta, I enjoyed this pleasant conversation with another fellow passenger. She confessed that after watching several documentaries and reading countless how-to books, she is still to have success with making her children eat veggies! This is neither a Northeastern problem nor a Southern concern. In fact, it is increasingly very evident today that our nutritionists and dieticians may have missed the boat on this issue. It is now as American a problem as universal healthcare.

Why is vegetable such a problem? What are we doing right or wrong that kids grow up with such distaste for a fundamental nutritional element? The answers to these questions are not hard to fathom; so look no further than you should. If you are reading this and cannot name one nutritional benefit from veggies then you’re certainly not part of the problem; you are the problem. You can’t fix a hornet’s nest when you don’t understand it.

Firstly, we have to change the concept of what we feed ourselves. It is common knowledge that we feed our kids what we eat. Asking your kids to eat veggies while you feast regularly on burgers or fries is disingenuous. Children are like an open canvass and parents hold the paintbrush. Your nutritional attitude like paintbrush on a canvass has left an imprint on your kids. As children they are open for you to introduce everything. Offer them a serving of fresh organic broccoli and salads today. If they don’t like it, for the next meal try organic Brussels sprouts; but by no means should you stop. There are as many vegetables as the stars, keep changing them until you find what your kids like. Do not limit their veggie intake to processed foods or bland varieties with a long shelf span. Sometimes it may be fresh produce like raw carrots for the crunchiness or celery sticks for the fun.

Did you ever see in a bookstore or on TV a discussion on how “to sneak in” ice cream or fries into the kids diet? While helping our kids to eat healthy by having organic veggies may be a struggle, it is never too late. But parents have to set the example: eat a healthy serving of fresh organic veggies always and the kids will follow. Old habits die hard; they may not like it today but change is on the way.

In the next editions, I’ll focus on getting the parents to eat healthy and then how to “sneak in” the kids into this healthy lifestyle one day at a time.