April 13, 2014
Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants – and stop feeding our children garbage!
For the first time since I started my business 4 years ago, I had to cancel an entire day of work as I got hit hard with a bad cold. So, I caught up on email and read a few articles for work and then turned to Facebook to vent my frustration over the amount of garbage our kids are being fed at every event they attend. Well, it was the most “liked” and “shared” post I have ever had! Clearly, I am not the only one who is fed up!! So, for those of you who missed it, here is the post:
“We could greatly improve the health and wellbeing of our children if we will just STOP feeding them so much garbage after every sports practice, game, play, school event, church, church event, recital, etc. I am astounded at the amount of crap our kids are fed – they DO NOT NEED chips and gatorade after a practice, nor do they need processed frosted cookies and juice after a school performance. It all adds up and they are getting it everywhere. Let’s all band together and insist on fresh fruit and vegetables (fresh cut veggies and guac or hummus is really tasty) and water after these events and we will all benefit tenfold! Just sayin’!”
I am not here to judge you for what you are feeding your kids, as my kids certainly do not eat a “clean” diet. I am just asking that we all pitch in and do better for the long term health of our children and ourselves. I have four kids, so I attend lots of events, and I have to tell you that our kids (all of our kids) are offered junk FAR more often than we think they are offered junk. I believe when you know better, it is your responsibility to do better!!! What scares me is that if this is happening in the SF Bay Area where fresh fruit and vegetables are in abundance year round and people are highly educated and should “know better”, what is happening everywhere else?? It is SCARY!
So, here’s the deal, basically you are “what you digest, absorb, and transfer to your cells”. (Berardi, 2012) Everything you eat gets broken down into smaller molecules, then selectively, nutrients are absorbed into the bloodstream where they are delivered to your cells. Your cells are repaired with the nutrients that have been delivered to them. The problem with eating too many chemicals on a regular basis is that your cells no longer are able to identify these chemicals as foreign invaders and may incorporate them into the cell structure. This could potentially set your system up for a higher chance for cancer, besides the fact that all that junk has a direct link to obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
I know many of you will argue that your dad, grandmother, great aunt, etc, ate red meat, chips and drank coca-cola until they were 97, but if so, their cells were certainly able to tolerate that kind of diet. Most of us know the only risk you have for not wearing your seatbelt is the risk of being in an accident. If you are not in an accident, then there is little risk of danger in not wearing your seatbelt. However, most of you would never let your kids ride in the car without a seatbelt on, much less a car seat! Just as you do not know when you will be in an accident, a child who looks perfectly healthy today may not be many years down the road as the cumulative effects of a bad diet start to appear as early as your late 20’s. And most of us have no idea whether or not we will have damaged cells that start to divide uncontrollably and creating cancerous tissue and tumors. Our best defense is a healthy immune system, a diet of mostly plant based foods, exercise regularly, maintain a healthy weight, and get screened often.