I’m sure you have heard… obesity is an epidemic. We have all heard that phrase at one time or another because it is pretty common knowledge that Americans are overweight. We have seen the commercials about “getting active” and watched Michelle Obama frolic on the White House lawn with a group of kids. We have watched the NFL “Play 60” campaign spots of athletes and kids playing football together. I would call this the very glamorous side of the obesity epidemic because the kids I know aren’t doing Yoga with Michelle or playing football with Peyton. They are regular kids in middle class families who have practically been force fed highly processed food since the day they were born. Their little bodies have been pumped with genetically modified soy, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, trans fat, refined sugar and flour all disguised as food. Their parents haven’t even noticed what they are actually eating. Why? Because they don’t read ingredient labels.
Here are some very alarming facts about obesity in America from the American Heart Association’s website that every parent should know:
- Around 23.9 million children in America are overweight or obese
- 1 in 3 children or teens are overweight or obese, a rate that has tripled in the past 30 years
- Obesity in children is causing health problems previously unseen in children including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and elevated blood cholesterol levels
- Being overweight at a young age is linked to earlier death rates in adulthood
- Overweight children are likely to have low self-esteem, negative body image issues, and depression
- The current generation of children is the first in two centuries expected to NOT outlive their parents… yes it is being predicted our children will NOT outlive us
- In our own lifetime 1 in 3 Americans will have type 2 diabetes
- Obesity will soon surpass smoking as the #1 killer of Americans
I look at these facts and know that I want more for my children. You can classify me as “weird” and even tell me how great your health is even though you have been eating highly processed foods for your entire life. You can reminisce about all the crappy food you ate as a child, but the fact is food has drastically changed since the 1990’s. When we were kids HFCS wasn’t in nearly all drinks marketed to children and sugar beets weren’t genetically modified. So yes, things have changed! Nothing will convince me that consuming these foods is good for anyone.
I discussed the glamorization of the “getting active” campaigns that have been making headlines lately, and while I think these are a step in the right direction, they are missing the biggest issue. Michelle Obama is exercising in one commercial and talking about being “healthy” at Subway in another. There is NOTHING healthy about Subway. Yes, it is low calorie but when you replace calories with chemicals and synthetic ingredients you do not have a product that our bodies are capable of processing. These foods might not look like they are hurting our children now but smokers don’t drop dead within minutes of their first puff either.
So what should these public figures be promoting if they were doing this the right way? Part of the underlying issue in the obesity epidemic are the ingredients that are being put into processed foods (yes exercise and screen time are factors as well). Reading ingredients and defining what they are would help parents make educated decisions about what ingredients they are actually feeding their children. If you asked a group of parents to identify the ingredient MSG in a product they probably couldn’t do it. Why? Simply because the ingredient list doesn’t spell out MSG it is read as Monosodium Glutamate. However, you my not realize that the ingredients yeast extract and autolyzed yeast are also MSG. These are sources of the chemical that excite our brain cells so much that we crave the product. Of course companies are putting these ingredients in foods, its a sure fire way to keep you coming back and giving them money. The foods that contain ingredients like this are filled with sodium, highly processed grains, added sugars and NO NUTRIENTS! Yet we are still feeding them to our children and not questioning why we have chosen these options over fresh, natural foods. I don’t know any parent who would allow their child to swallow a pill that contained unknown ingredients, but a large majority of parents allow their children to swallow unknown ingredients in foods everyday.
I didn’t create this blog to use scare tactics however these statistics are very scary. They are the reflection of a society who has been trained to read fat content and calories instead of reading ingredients. They are the reflection of a generation who were pushed into consuming fake sugars and synthetic fats instead of using self control and moderation. Companies can’t sell more products if they promote moderation so instead they replace REAL ingredients with FAKE ingredients so they can call themselves “healthy” and “low-fat”. They are counting on consumers to march into the supermarket like little ants and buy their products without questioning how these ingredients are affecting their children’s bodies. The only one who can change what your child’s health looks like in 10 or 20 years is you. The government isn’t making necessary changes, and while they are trying a little bit with the new nutritional content panels they are still missing the biggest and most important factor…. the ingredient list.
If you have begun to think about the food your family is consuming I have written up a list of the Top 10 Ingredients to Start Avoiding Immediately. Cutting processed foods is a journey about education and realization. There are so many factors that contribute to the food supply in America and it can be very confusing to weed out bad food and replace it with good. Eliminating these ingredients is a great place to start!
