Looking after our kids

05Apr

Our children are bombarded with advertising constantly telling them that McDonalds, Hungry Jacks, KFC, Subway, energy drinks and Coke are good. leading them to believe that it is ok to consume them.

And they are right, as McDonald’s funds the Ronald McDonald house and they wouldn’t do that if they were bad, or put them right near a school if they were bad would they? Or sell them toys to entice them into the big clown store if the food wasn’t good for them… Would they??

This is similar when we go into places we call groceries stores to by so called groceries and all we find is 10 aisles of packed sugar and preservative’s in different colours with different labels.

This is where I was reminded again the influence of marketing and I cant keep it to myself any longer. Watching children buy a bag full of coke, energy drinks, lollies and McDonald’s. This is before school.. My first reaction was I am so glad I am not their teacher.. My second reaction was deep sadness and a sense of social responsibility. Do these kids have

parents and do they know what they are buying and what it does to them.. there is real health concerns with this.. I would even go as far to call it voluntary genocide.

Lets look at just one health concern from this. Diabetics. I will leave childhood obesity, or learning disability for another day. Childhood diabetes is on the rise, Diabetes is seen as the ‘silent pandemic’ we hear that there is no cure for diabetes, however we know it is a lifestyle disease and it can be prevented

“Diabetes mellitus has become one of the most common non-communicable diseases in the world, representing one of the most challenging public health problems of the 21st century.

It is a metabolic disease characterised by high blood glucose levels (hyperglycaemia) which may arise from defects in the secretion of insulin, defects in insulin action, or both. Diabetes results in substantial morbidity and mortality, particularly from cardiovascular complications, eye and kidney diseases and limb amputations.

Approximately 1 million Australians have been diagnosed with diabetes including an estimated 130,000 people with type1 diabetes. Australia has the 7th highest prevalence and 6th highest incidence of type 1 diabetes in children aged 0-14 years, according to Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2010, 2011.

I understand people are busy, I understand that sometimes kids do stuff without their parents knowing, but when are we going to say as a collective this is not OK. When are we going to teach our children as obviously it is to late for the parents but the children that what they eat affects their health. As my 15 year old son says, “it is a simple cause and effect rule”. In this case you eat large amounts of sugar, your pancreas goes into distress, you get diagnosed with diabetes, you end up at risk of losing limbs and eyesight, or having heart disease and you are only 30!! Potentially dying before your parents.

It’s time to educate our children on the hazards of life, and what they put into their mouth is what they become, every cell that is us has come from what we have eaten, lets make it a tree that will bear lots of beautiful healthy fruit!