The exploitation of our future

The cost in real terms? We now have the first gen­er­a­tion with a pro­jected shorter life span than their par­ents and an epi­demic of obe­sity and dia­betes (23 mil­lion chil­dren are over­weight or obese).

I’m all for mak­ing an hon­est buck as long as it’s hon­est and not at some­one else’s expense. Exploitive cap­i­tal­ism has, sadly, been part of our his­tory, but there are times that we, as a nation, have put pru­dence over profit. You don’t see tele­vi­sion adver­tis­ing or even hear radio spots for dis­tilled spir­its or cig­a­rettes. And yet it’s open sea­son for fast-food and junk-food ads aimed at chil­dren and par­ents. But, after smok­ing, obe­sity is the num­ber one cause of pre­ma­ture death in America.

The sim­ple fact is that you can’t build a healthy body or mind with a diet of candy, soda, high-calorie snacks and low-nutrient sweet, salty and fatty foods, sug­ared cere­als and fla­vored milk. It’s esti­mated that chil­dren are eat­ing 19 to 29 tea­spoons of added sugar every day! And we’re just talk­ing about processed food, with­out even touch­ing on the effects on chil­dren of chem­i­cal addi­tives, toxic residues, GMOs, antibi­otics and growth hormones.

The prob­lem isn’t that com­plex. It actu­ally sur­ren­ders rather eas­ily to com­mon sense. What’s the pur­pose of eat­ing in the first place? It’s to obtain nutri­ents the body requires in order to run prop­erly. So, what if there are less nutri­ents in our foods than there should be? We’re liv­ing in a world where many things are not what they appear to be. How much real, nutri­tious food do you get in a diet of hot dogs, ham­burg­ers, pizza, pan­cakes, chicken nuggets, fish fin­gers, ice cream, chips and soda? The answer is clear—far too many of our chil­dren are get­ting fat and sick on cheap “con­ve­nience” food.

The good news is that there is a grass­roots rev­o­lu­tion of con­science among Americans. People are speak­ing out and tak­ing action and con­nect­ing with each other. No less than the health and the hap­pi­ness of our chil­dren depend on it.

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