brought to you by
Nature Cure
Keith Spaulding ND LAc
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Being Vital, Simple Ways to Live
Healthy in a Stressful World
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Processed Foods
Make Sick Kids |
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Children are sicker than they once were. More kids have allergies, asthma, chronic infections, depression, anxiety, diabetes and autistic disorders; the list goes on. From the Center for Disease Control, asthma rates in children up to 4 years old have increased by 160% from 1980 to 1994. Also in a CDC report presented to the American Diabetes Association, one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes.
Why are children sicker? And considering chronic infections, asthma and other allergies, why is the immune system developing in such an imbalanced way?
As always, there’s no easy answer: poor air and water quality, pesticides on vegetables and hormones in meats or excessive vaccination could cause havoc to our natural hormone and immune expression. But an immediate effect comes from the food our children eat many times every day, creating a daily barrage of sub-par nutrients flooding the system. These raw materials create a development that looks well enough on the outside – our kids seem well developed and appear strong – but the foundation is brittle and over the years will crumble to the least stress. A three-pronged approach to healthy eating can go a long way to building a strong foundation for our children’s health.
Breast milk as the ultimate food
The American Academy of Pediatrics website states “The AAP firmly adheres to the position that breastfeeding ensures the best possible health as well as developmental and psychosocial outcomes for the infant.” They have clear, easy-to-find articles discussing the benefits of breastfeeding – particularly decreasing the likelihood of the childhood disorders listed above – and ways to encourage women to start up this important practice. Without a doubt, breast is best. So why don’t more moms do it?
Perhaps in practice there isn’t enough encouragement from the medical establishment. Sustained breast-feeding for the minimum recommendation by the AAP of six months can vary from nearly impossible at first to painfully challenging as the family begins to settle into “normal life.” Our culture is not very accommodating of breast-feeding moms.
Normal milk flow may take up to five days to begin, but some doctors want to see the baby eating by the time she leaves the hospital. Obvious solution: formula feeding. After a couple months some women don’t produce enough milk, or it is too painful to continue. Easy solution: formula feeding. And lastly, many moms must return to work full time. Formula fits very easily into a busy life.
I don’t think formula manufacturers are intentionally producing poor quality food. It’s just not breast milk. Formula manufacturers are finally supplementing their products with important fats (DHA and EPA) needed for neurological development, a step in the right direction.
Hydrogenated oils are not real food
Partially hydrogenated oils, hydrogenated oils, trans fatty acids, are all the same breed: unsaturated fats – mostly vegetable oils – that are processed, chemically altered and combined with a food to give the food a certain texture, make the fat solid at room temperature and increase the shelf life. Trans fats, which had been ubiquitous in nearly all foods with fats (chips, all frozen foods, etc.), cause havoc to the human organism. With more awareness of the dangers of trans fatty acids and new ingredient-disclosure guidelines, some manufacturers are eliminating them from their products.
Trans fatty acids increase inflammatory markers, raising the likelihood of chronic inflammation and affecting the functioning of endothelial cells which line the heart, arteries and lymph vessels. This means all those snack cakes and frozen chicken things that kids love to eat will be adversely affecting their immune and cardiovascular system. Low levels of chronic inflammation affect all systems, including the brain and nervous system.
Refined Carbohydrates and Insulin Resistance
Refined carbohydrates and simple sugars (white flour breads, pastas, cookies, candy bars) create a spike in blood glucose soon after consumption. To respond to the glucose, the pancreas produces insulin, which flows into the bloodstream to help shunt the glucose into the cells. There probably wouldn’t be a problem if this scenario occurred once a week. But in the standard American diet for children this insulin response happens five times a day, year after year, which leads to an imbalance in this normal hormone response and gradually insulin resistance develops.
For years it has been known that insulin resistance can lead to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke. These are the widely accepted effects. Other theories state that insulin resistance can lead to cancer, early periods, myopia, acne and other skin disorders.
To a healthy child or adult living on a varied whole foods diet, an occasional cookie, ice cream or pizza – particularly if made from whole grains – is not dangerous. Our physiology has the miraculous ability to sustain stress in many forms without permanent damage; but the sustained stress of chronic processed food consumption will cause irreversible effects. In early 21st century America, this damage is happening younger and younger.