Saving Our Children
Here is an article written by Cynthia Keyes from a newsletter I receive and it is something that I agree with completely. She makes very important points that I felt needed to be shared so I am reprinting it here in it’s entirety because I could not find anywhere online to link to it.
Saving Our Children by Cynthia Keyes
Once again, our planet has come full circle, bringing us to the beginning of a new year, a new cycle. Each time we experience one of Nature’s great cycles, we are reminded that we are part of the natural world and as such, we need to be nurtured by Nature to grow and flourish. If we don’t, we may be putting our health and wellbeing at risk. And this applies even more so to young, growing children.
Yet, it seems that we are increasingly allowing our children to go without Nature’s bounty, and they are paying a great price as a result. One thing that has been making headlines lately is the obesity epidemic in children that is sweeping our country. Along with this increase, we are seeing an alarming jump in obesity-related diseases such as type II diabetes, which until now was almost exclusively, an adult disease. The primary cause of this rise in childhood obesity is a drastic change in diet that is being fostered onto these children by adults. Instead of nurturing them with food that is healthy and nutritious, they are being allowed and sometimes encouraged (by food processing companies, and fast food establishments with their commercials geared to children) to eat overly sweetened, and overly processed items that fill them up but do not nourish them. In addition, many of our school lunch programs rely heavily on processed foods as part of their menus.
As a result children’s bodies are not getting the nourishment they need to grow and mature into healthy adults. Instead the lack of nourishment and the massive amounts of sweetners (including one of the worst offenders, high fructose corn syrup), trans fats, vegetable oils and refined grains are taking a huge physical toll on these young growing bodies. They are becoming more and more likely to become physically ill with chronic diseases caused by poor nutrition. In addition, their brains are not being properly nourished, so there is an increased risk of developmental problems and learning disabilities.
So much money is spent on research to create high-cost drugs used to alleviate symptoms of diseases like type II diabetes and heart disease, when so often getting rid of the diseases themselves is just a function of proper nutrition. Yet there is comparatively little independent research on just what constitutes proper nutrition. As an example, dieticians and nutritionists, when referring to bad fats, will almost always lump trans fats together with saturated fats when there is a world of difference between them. Trans fat, (Crisco and margarine) which used to be touted by these same people as a healthy fat has finally gotten the bad press it deserves, but not before it made untold numbers of people sick. However, saturated fat (unprocessed tropical oils and animal fat including butter and cheese) when eaten in moderation is natural and necessary to our health. If the fat comes from animals, it needs to be from those raised the way Nature intended, on green pasture and without hormones, unnecessary antibiotics and overfeeding with grains. Saturated fat is a natural fat that we, humans have been eating throughout our evolutionary process. Furthermore, children need these healthy fats, which are full of vitamins A and D, and omega 3 fatty acids to grow properly, and for proper brain development.
It disturbs me when I see schools responding to the obesity epidemic by restricting children’s intake of whole milk. Children need the saturated fat in whole milk, butter and cheese. What they don’t need is trans fat and fat from highly processed vegetable oils like corn, soy or cotton seed oils that are so often being used as substitutes for trans fats. These oils are delicate and become rancid when heated through processing or cooking. When that happens they produce free radicals, which wreak havoc within our bodies, triggering illness and disease.
Children, above all, need fresh, organic fruit, vegetables, milk, butter, meat and whole grains to grow and be healthy. They also need sunshine, fresh air and plenty of exercise. That means incorporating time for recess and physical education as a necessary part of school activities. In too many instances young children are denied recess as a form of punishment for misbehaving. Yet, the very reason for their perceived misbehavior may be that they are not getting enough physical activity. Even when they are home there is often too much time spent sitting in front of the tv or computer instead of running and playing outside.
One of the biggest violations of children’s natural development is what has been happening to the youngest of our children, since the advent of “No Child Left Behind”. Because of the rigid time table of standardized testing that is in place as part of that program’s requirements, children in preshcool, kindergarten, and first grade are being forced to learn reading skills before their brains’ natural pathways have developed enough to do so. It is like expecting an apple tree to bear fruit before it even grows branches. It is impossible.
There is an excellent article, Teaching our Children to read, Write and Spell by Susan Johnson, M.D. in the autumn issue of Lilipoh that goes into the relationship between children’s physical development and the development of the brain. According to the author, it is the movements of the body that create the pathways in the mind of reading, writing, spelling, mathematics and creative thinking. By looking at whether or not a child can carry out specific physical movements, we can determine if a child is developmentally able to accomplish certain mental tasks like reading.
If we as parents, grandparents, educators and legislators don’t begin to recognize that our children need to be nurtured and raised in accordance with their natural developmental requirements, which have evolved since the beginning of the human race, we are dooming ouselves to a failed society. One in which illness and mental disabilities will be predominant eventually causing an economic crisis beyond anything we can imagine.
To stop this from happening, we need to recognize that for proper brain development our children must be allowed to run, play and develop physically and these activities need to be incorporated as part of the requirements for academic achievement. We also need to take the responsibility of feeding our children away from agribusiness and food processors, and insist that the food we give them be healthy, natural and highly nutritious. In order for that to happen, it would be helpful to get some comprehensive, independent studies on what actually constitutes good nutrition. There is so much confusion, and so much misinformation often slanted in favor of special interests like the big pharmaceuticals, and the food industry that it is no wonder people are confused as to what they should be eating. But when in doubt, natural, unprocessed foods are always a good choice.
January 09 2008 10:58 pm | Health and activism and exercise and food and nature and news and nutrition and organics and parenting and school and society
January 17th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
There’s a quote somewhere about the tie between the health of our soil and the health of our bodies. I think this is so true and this connection is so broken right now with agribusiness promoting practices that diminish the soil even as those same practices pour on the chemicals. Thanks for sharing this interesting article!!