Good Food Bad Food

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in America. The incidence of childhood diabetes, high blood pressure and even heart disease is also growing. Behavioral problems such as lack of concentration, and violence are often associated with a high sugar, high fat diet Being a fat kid also has all manner of social consequences, but the far reaching health complications are of even greater concern.

The good news is that childhood obesity and related health problems are completely preventable. It is up to you, as parents, to teach your kids how to make good nutritional choices. If you don’t, who will? Not likely their school. Almost certainly not their peers. Kids must be made to understand how what they choose to put into their bodies today will shape their future likelihood of good health.

Each day in America, 25% of the population eats at a fast food restaurant. Many families no longer make time for meals together, citing stressed-out, overworked, overscheduled, busy lives. Many children don’t eat breakfast, don’t bring a healthy lunch to school, and opt, instead, for the mostly horrible choices offered in the school cafeteria. Dinner is more often take out food on the run than a hot, healthy meal prepared and shared at home.

A child is really captive to the eating habits and choices offered by their parents. If nutritious food is neither available nor offered in the home, then when will a child have the opportunity to learn about what constitutes a healthy diet? A parent’s job is to set a good example. Kids must be taught the difference between “good” food and “bad” food and be encouraged to predominantly prefer and choose the former.

In very simple terms, “good” food is responsibly grown and sustainably and ethically harvested. It is organic, grown without pesticides, antibiotics or genetic modification. Good food is fresh, unprocessed and packed with nutrients. It is easily prepared, has an endless variety and is pleasing to the senses and the palate.

“Bad” food is produced without regard to environmental destruction or the humane treatment of animals. Bad food is injected, dyed, radiated, genetically modified and poisoned with chemicals. It is packaged, processed and preserved with ingredients that are barely pronounceable and have no business being in a food product. In addition to having little to no nutritional value, bad food contains added ingredients like trans-fats, hydrogenated oils, high levels of sodium, and laboratory derived substitutes for what used to be real products, like sugar. This type of “food” is not anything that anyone, especially a growing child, should be consuming.

So, the next time you buy another 12-pack of “diet” soda at the market, swing by the fast food restaurant to pick up dinner, skip breakfast the following morning, (except for your double mocha latte, of course) and slip your kid a couple of bucks to buy something from the vending machine at school for lunch, consider what message you are sending. Consider the values you are teaching your child about what they consume. Consider that knowing the difference between good food and bad food early on will enable your child to avoid childhood obesity and make good choices about what to eat, and what not to eat. This knowledge will follow your child into adulthood, rewarding them with years of good health.

Click here for a list of Easy Kid Recipes to get you started on the right path!

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