epidemic

Recently I saw two things that scared the shit out of me.

First, a girl of about 10, sitting on a bench in the grocery store while her parents shopped, reading a book, her gut hanging out over her pants.

Second, a pamphlet at our pediatrician's office for a program to address childhood obesity.  Grade school kids can now have a "team" of professionals, doctor, nutritionist, trainer to help combat their weight problems.

I've heard this talk for a while now about fat Americans, and worse, fat American children.  But I was like an ostrich with my head in the sand, looking around at only my super healthy friends and their kids who are all perfectly proportioned. 
Then I went to our town's indoor pool.  Then last summer to the beach.  I sat with my mouth agape.  Oh, my goodness...this is what all the talk is about.  School age kids with the enormous bellies of a beer-drinking couch potato. Just think of how almost impossible it will be for these kids to be a normal weight as an adult.  They will have all those hungry fat cells to feed for the rest of their lives, not to mention a likely host of physical ailments and diseases. 

I know I'm going out on a limb here, but this feels a bit like child abuse.

Hospital and doctors offices now have those "couch" seats that are twice as wide as a conventionally rooms waiting room chair.  The rate of childhood Type II diabetes, previously reserved for the middle-aged and, usually, overweight, is on the rise.

And all the while physical education has been cut to 2 days a week at Ella's school, TV watching is at all time highs and her school cafeteria offers chocolate milk everyday of the week.  Does anyone else see the irony of this?

Recently, I wrote an email to the director of food services for Ella's school district about the chocolate milk.  As a lunch volunteer, I know that about 95% of kids get chocolate milk every single day.  I told her I wondered if it could be reserved for Fridays, offered that maybe it would be better for these young palates to learn to like plain milk along with healthier food so their taste buds and appetites won't be slave to sugar, fat and artificial flavor.  She responded with the patent: "We think it is better for kids to get the milk into them and they drink more if it's chocolate."

I backed down when I hit resistance but recently have gotten fired up about it again and I think I'm going to try to challenge the school policy (and I'm sure make a ton of friends in the process.)

The third thing that happened that scared me silly is that a dear friend's mother, a vibrant, healthy woman living the model lifestyle, was diagnosed with breast cancer.  How could she, of all people, get this insipid disease? The prevalence of cancer, even in the healthiest of people makes me certain that there is a strong environmental component.

Sandi has been reading this book about eating whole foods (as in unrefined, unprocessed) and we have been having lengthy discussions about food and nutrition for ourselves and our kids.  I said to her, "Maybe in order for the general population to start taking pesticide use more seriously there needs to be some massive outbreak of sickness to wake everyone up. (Pause)  Oh, yeah, everyone is getting cancer and still the poison on our food is legal."

As a result of all these startling awarenesses, we have been doing some major revamping at our house.  We've aimed to not buy things in boxes unless they are minimally processed or organic, to try to eat foods in the their most whole, unadulterated form, to buy more organic and swallow hard when it is prohibitively expensive and to be unapologetic about demanding better nutrition for our kids- at least within the wall of our house. 

Their little bodies develop only this one time and it is our job to give those growing and multiplying cells the best chance they've got. 

There is a TON more on this...stay tuned.