The Haunting Future of our Food

The reality of childhood obesity is alarming. I am not talking about the alarming increase in the number of fat kids, that is obvious. Kids are no longer chubby, they are obese. An example happened to a friend of mine recently. He teaches outdoor education courses for a school district in Colorado (the fittest state). Grade schoolers get on a bus and go off for a day into nature to learn about the outdoors, it is similar to Islandwood near Seattle. So my friend was taking kids for a nature hike. After a short distance they reach a wire fence. My friend lifts the fence and helps all the kids through; well all except one. The one young child is unable to squeeze his body between the wires. My friend now distraught as all the waiting kids are now helpless to see how an adult can remedy this situation. So my friend decides he can lift the kid over the fence. So he talks it over with the kid and then tries to pick him up. Unable to lift him over the fence my friend has to help the entire class back through the fence and cancel the hike. The class is bummed, the overweight child feels singled out and horrible for ruining the fun for all his friends. Is this anyway to live as a child? I think not.

Tonight I was again reminded of our inability to teach proper fitness and nutrition to our children. I am lucky I grew up on fruits and vegetables from our garden, we canned fruit from the neighborhood orchard, and my protein consisted of mostly game which my father hunted. I know...I am so redneck rustic, but it was an incredibly healthy and economical food source. But tonight I saw a young mother who probably didn't know any better. She was clearly in a rush as she whisked her young daughter around the grocery store. Making incredibly general assumptions, she looked to be a young working-class mother who probably had a tight budget and an even more restricted schedule. Food was a necessity and the preparation had to be minimal. Read: processed food in front of the television; no plates or silverware...only disposable packaging. As she hit the refrigerated aisles she had a choice. On her right was all the packaged meats from the butcher. On her left was the processed foods, cheeses, and ziplocked deli meats. She went left and grabbed three Hormel Refrigerated Entrees. Her young daughter was excited to have Slow Simmered Chicken Breasts in Gravy. Sounds healthy right? Now I have nothing against Hormel, but this is an argument about the issue with teaching our children to rely on packaged food. That "Chicken" had over 1070mg of sodium in a 161g meal. The other entrees she selected were heavy in sodium, sugar, and fats; not to mention the unpronounceable ingredients. Now I don't blame the mother, but this isn't food and this isn't the way we should be raising our kids.

Below is one last example of marketing that makes sugary cereals irresistible to children.