Big Food Devours America's Children

The News: It was widely reported today that 1 in 5 American children and adolescents 6 to 19 suffer from unhealthy levels of bad cholesterol. This is part of a broader health census showing increased risk levels for diabetes and heart disease among America's youth. The Office of the Surgeon General reported on 11 January 2009 that

"In 1999, 13% of children aged 6 to 11 years and 14% of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years in the United States were overweight. This prevalence has nearly tripled for adolescents in the past 2 decades."

The Note: Tripled ??? For those who might be math-challenged that means that 42% of America's youth are "overweight". Since people who are overweight are also at increased risk of diabetes and heart disease that indicates that more than "1 in 5" are also at risk for these diseases.

Well... let's not be too picky. We are talking medicine and risks, neither of which are rocket science. Let us assume that the "prevalence" of obesity has only doubled. We can also assume that the government's definition of "overweight" is probably overly generous. Factoring in the cholesterol findings we come up with a ball bark figure of 25% -30% suffering bad cholesterol and / or overweight. By any measure, a more than "exceptional" segment of America's youth is seriously health-compromised.

The Government explains these results by noting that:

• overweight in children and adolescents is generally caused by lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a combination of the two, and

• our society has become very sedentary.....

The Government rises to the challenge by advising parents:

• Let your child know he or she is loved and appreciated whatever his or her weight
• Try not to make your child feel different ...

• Plan family activities that provide everyone with exercise and enjoyment.
• Provide a safe environment for your children and their friends to play actively;

• Follow the Dietary Guidelines for healthy eating (www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines).
• Encourage your child to eat when hungry and to eat slowly.
• Eat meals together as a family
• Carefully cut down on the amount of fat and calories in your family's diet.
• Don't place your child on a restrictive diet.
• Children should be encouraged to drink water and to limit intake of beverages with added sugars, such as soft drinks, fruit juice drinks, and sports drinks.
• Plan for healthy snacks.
• Stock the refrigerator with fat-free or low-fat milk, fresh fruit, and vegetables instead of soft drinks or snacks that are high in fat, calories, or added sugars and low in essential nutrients.

Scandalous! Once again, Government aids and abets corporate criminality  this time feeding America's children into the Maw of Profit.

What is killing American children is high fructose corn syrup and sodium both of which are found in exorbitant amounts in any food that comes in a box or a can. In addition to these major culprits we can note phosphates, bromides, dyes, and a host of petro-chemical food additives that our poor distressed livers, kidneys and intestines must deal with.

To say as much, doesn't even factor in that other killer food: MEAT  -- red blooded American meat. It is not that meat per se is a killer. In fact range-fed meat -- particularl bison, elk, and deer -- are actually pretty healthy. But factory-meat, industrial beef and frankenstein chicken are deadly. They are loaded with substances and compounds our bodies don't need and can't process.

These facts have been known for a long time by those freakoids and vegans who fussed about what they ingested into their Bodily Temples. But even for the rest of the population, the cat has been out of the bag for at least a decade. American Factory Food is a Killer

But not once does our Government's solicitous advice focus on the real culprit. Instead it focuses on all sorts of namby-pamby, feel-good, pseudo psychology measures that are actually tangential to the solution.

Darling, here, have a carrot from our new Slim Family Snack Basket; but I want you to know that I love you and that you're my little cupcake no matter what you uh.... measure up to on the scale..

The Government studiously avoids telling us that the average can of peas (a "good food") contains 500 mg of sodium and the average pizza, chicken nuggets or anything else in a box about 750 to 1000 mg. or more. Instead, the Government's Health Advisory will tell us to sprinkle less salt on our eggs. You know cut back on 5 mg and then open a can of 750 mg.

The Government mentions nothing about avoiding high fructose corn syrup, because it if it did it would be telling us to avoid probably half of anything on the market shelf.... and that would not be good for business. Nor does the Government mention that even diet drinks wreak havoc on our insulin production and are counterproductive to say the least.

But "sweeteners" are only half the problem. The other half is "sugar" -- those instant "sugars" produced by foods like white bread or popcorn. Refined flour = refined sugar. Our body reacts to white bread in much the same way it does to a candy bar: 'Oh goody! A sugar -fix.' But as with all fixes, withdrawal follows and is followed by another fix because somehow we are always hungry. Never once did the Government say outright "NO- chips, cheetos, popcorn, candy, donuts, or pop tarts" and worse yet, it never explained to us why an English Muffin is as bad as a chocolate bar and how an apple would make us feel better.

In addition to not directly focusing on the real dietary issues, our Government also mis-directs attention onto the basically false solution of "more exercise." It is certainly true that all societies have become more sedentary and that this, in addition to being not very healthy, contributes to the obesity problem. But exercise is actually a relatively minor factor in the solution.

The fact is that our bodies are rather efficient organisms and it takes a hell of a lot of sweat to burn off a single calorie. An hour's work humping on the stair master can all but be wiped out by a single "energy bar".... to say nothing of the trail mix. The greater role of exericse in weight reduction is the change it produces over time in our metabolism. Keeping one's metabolic boilers running throughout the day burns calories throughout the day and this can also be accomplished by snacking (correctly) throughout the day. Kids tend to have fast metabolisms and even when just loitering about are actually fairly active physically. What is killing them is not so much lack of exercise as junk food.

Of course, our Government's advisories do cover the bases, but only if one already understands what's there to be covered. It parcels out piecemeal advice (within a haze of psycho-babble) without connecting the dots so as to zero-in on the hidden killers or key solution.

What is key to the whole health process is to eat fresh and eat natural. Anything we have to cut, peel, and cook ourselves is better than anything in a can or box, and it doesn't even have to be "organic". In fact, once a person detoxes from the instant-sugar addiction, anything natural is more satisfying.

Fresh and natural eating is not more time consuming or difficult. One has to readjust cooking habits but with few simple and obvious techniques "from scratch" cooking can be just as quick as plop and pop. Even though most people do not want to be bothered baking their own bread or looking for free range bison, they can switch to breads without high fructose corn syrup and they can, with out precipitating a dietary crisis, eat less but better quality meats and always more fish.

Lastly, there is noting wrong with "fats". Good fats like butter, cheese, yogurt, olive oil and nuts (especially almonds and walnuts) are healthier and more satisfying that their guar gum hydrogenated artificial substitutes. To be sure, where fat intake is concerned one does have to up the exercise. But fats are part of natures biological balance, and throughout out the world there are very healthy and long lived populations that consume a lot of fat.

The Governments "concerned" advisory is itself a kind of junk information, padded with data fluff and high fructose psychology so as to avoid focusing on the real culprits.

Let's be clear, the culprits in this genocide of America's youth are Archer Daniel Midlands, Con-Agra, General Foods, Kraft, Tyson and just about any other big name in the Poisoned Cornucopia of U.S. production.

Genocide? Surely that is a little exagerated -- the sort of hysterical puff talk activist issue-groups are prone to. Actually not. Rafael Lemkin in his 1942 seminal study of genocide (he coined the word), pointed out that genocide proceeds in stages, the initial ones of which focus on undermining a target group's biological health through rationing and/or degradation of food. For example, feeding someone lots of bread adulterated with alum is just as harmful as reducing the amount of good bread. Either undermines the health of the population, makes it less physical capable, more prone to disease and more likely to produce offspring with genetic defects. The effects of a degraded diet accumulate and play out over time, but over time they do take their toll. No , "genocide" is not hyperbole.

Just as banks don't care what they do with our money; just as insurance companies don't care about actually providing us with health care; just as big motor doesn't care if our car blows up on contact, so too Big Food doesn't care that it poisons us. In fact, it is overjoyed to do so: a three or four dollar box of processed breakfast sugar aka "cereal" costs them pennies to make and distribute. That is real good gravy.

The American Corporate State is rotten to the core, and this rotteness includes sacrificing the country's children to the voracious maw of profit.


©Barfo, 2010
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