tOP STORY

FOOD – Friend or Foe?

By GREG TAYLOR with Mary Otto-Chang HBA, MES, PhD (Candidate)

The Critical Role of Childhood Nutrition in Realizing the Potential of Tomorrow’s Humanity

The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” — Ann Wigmore

Childhood obesity rates in the United States have more than tripled over the past 50 years, rising from 5% in the early 1970’s to over 19% today. This alarming increase has led to a surge in obesity-related diseases such as type ll diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers among children and adolescents. What is causing this explosion in obesity levels and health disorders and why have successive governments, healthcare providers, food producers and others done so little to prevent this problem? As so often is the case, in the modern monopolistic capitalism world of globalism, a crisis created by one group leads to profit for another. We are trapped in their doom loop.

What children eat can lead to healthy habits for life. A healthy balanced diet of nutrient and fiber rich food with a variety of fresh produce can greatly aid the health, both mental and physical, of a person as they traverse childhood through to adulthood. Unfortunately, a diet lacking in nutrients and fiber that is overloaded with sugar, fats, salt, and additives can lead to increased weight in childhood that can then develop into health challenges later in life.

When it comes to obesity, we are not talking about a child who is just a couple of pounds overweight. The definition of obese is a child who is in the 95^th percentile, or above, on growth charts. From the 85^th percentile to the 95^th percentile, the child is overweight. To put that into perspective, just under 15 million children in the US are obese. This is not just a few children who are exposed to significant health risks both now and in the future. This is an epidemic that we need to get to grips with now.

Change in Eating Habits

The changes to dietary habits, particularly in the past 30 years, are not an unknown quantity, yet little has been done to combat the issues. Trends in childhood eating include:

Increased consumption of processed and convenience food that are often higher in fats, sugars, and salt.
Fewer in-home cooked meals, as families rushed by current social and work pressures, rely on fast food, takeouts and pre-packaged meals leading to less fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables being consumed.
Higher intake of sugary drinks such as sodas and high energy drinks
Increased low nutrient snacking such as chips, cookies, candy.

These trends are not peculiar to the US. Many countries are experiencing a similar change in eating habits for children that suggests that influences leading to childhood obesity and chronic illness in the US are a far wider problem.

What is Changing Eating Habits?

The past three or four decades have seen huge changes to lifestyle. Go back to the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and children would be playing outdoors, and more likely to have a nuclear family that ate together at the table with good wholesome food. Move forward through the 90’s 00’s, and into the10’s and you see more children focusing on screens and less likely to see outdoor recreational activities as important for a physically active and sociable lifestyle. At the same time, there has been a growing prevalence of both parents going out to work. Time became a valuable commodity in family life and convenience took over from home cooking. Family meals gave way to ready meals, fast food and particularly snacking for children.

The past hundred years has seen the norm of housing an older single relative in the family home to the use of care facilities for our elders. My own grandmother, who lived with us, marked a huge change in our family’s food quality when she moved in. The last photo of her, age 91, was sitting at the kitchen table peeling potatoes.

As time has become more precious to the family, the marketing of convenience foods ramped up including all the usual fast-food providers and soda drink companies that were particularly targeting children. They target children so that they have a lifetime of consumers wanting nutrition-free food and drink, making them lots of money, irrespective of the damage being caused to the children. Their marketing is addictive.

Ultra Processed Foods

For a family that needs two wage earners the convenience of prepackaged, highly processed foods can seem like a Godsend that allows balance between work and home life, but it comes at a considerable health risk.

One of the most significant factors impacting child nutrition is ultra processed foods. These are foods that have undergone significant change from their original form as they go through industrial processes. They often have many ingredients such as oils, fats, sugars, and artificial additives added to them that help maintain some semblance of flavor and increase shelf life. They are high in calories and low in nutrients. After all, this isn’t about nutrition, this is about convenience.

In the US, the most common forms of ultra processed foods are sugary drinks, packaged snacks, fast food, frozen meals, and candy. These are all likely to have added sugars, unhealthy fats, and artificial additives that will contribute to health issues such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

Whilst fats and sugars pose significant health concerns and greatly contribute to obesity, a particular concern also arises with artificial additives. These include:

Artificial colors and flavors that are designed to make food more appealing despite them being linked to behavioral issues with children.
Preservatives such as sodium benzoate and sulfites provide a longer shelf life.
Emulsifiers such as lecithin and monoglycerides and diglycerides bring together ingredients that do not mix well, such as certain liquids and fats. These emulsifiers have been known to affect gut function and health.
Sweeteners such as the artificial aspartame, as well as high-fructose corn syrup. These can add to obesity risk and metabolic problems.
Stabilizers and thickeners such as guar gum and xanthan gum are used to enhance textures, but they can also cause digestive issues for some people.

While the ingredients themselves can cause health issues, they can also lead to addiction to this poor-nutrient food. Ultra processed foods are often high in refined carbohydrates, fats and sugars that can trigger the brain’s bliss point reward system. The artificial additives enhance flavors, add color and texture that make these foods hard to resist. Once hooked, a lifetime of problems lie ahead.

Parents and guardians need to understand the risk associated with the food that they eat. They cannot always do that themselves without an in-depth knowledge of chemistry and medicine. They must rely on the government to help them.

The FDA

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration regulates food additives that go into the packaged and processed foods that we consume. In Europe, the corresponding body is the European Food Safety Authority. These agencies are responsible for working out what additives do to the body and the risk of adverse health arising from their use. Being based on science, one would expect that both the FDA and the EFSA would be on the same page when it comes to what is healthy, but that is not the case. Some examples of that different evaluation include:

Red dye 40, commonly found in candies, cereals, and snacks. These are commonly found in foods in the US without comment. However, in Europe the inclusion of Red Dye 40 requires a health warning that it can cause hyperactivity in children.
Brominated vegetable oils (BVO) are banned in Europe but are ingredients in citrus flavored sodas such as Mountain Dew. BVO’s contain bromine that has been shown to build up in the human body and that can affect skin, nerves, and memory.
Potassium Bromate and Azodicarbonamide are banned in Europe but allowed by the FDA. These chemicals help flour look white in baked goods and have been linked to cancers by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

In a recent article, the New York Times highlighted the issue. In a 15^th November 2024 article titled “Fact Checking RFK Jr.’s Claims About Food and Nutrition,” the paper sought to ridicule Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee RFK Jr.’s statements about the American food supply, including his assertions about food additives not being allowed in Europe. However, focusing on Froot Loops as an example, the article just proved his point, “The ingredient list is roughly the same, although Canada’s has natural colorings made from blueberries and carrots while the US product contains red dye 40, yellow 5 and blue 1 as well as Butylates hydroxytoluene, or BHT, a lab made chemical that is used “for freshness,” according to the ingredient label.” Who wouldn’t want a bowl of addictive lab created chemicals that cause health complications for breakfast?

There are many other examples where there is a divergence in what is safe for humans to consume and rarely, if ever, does the FDA have higher standards than in Europe.

Eventually, someone needs to ask the FDA why there is such a pattern of behavior that puts consumers, particularly children, at risk. Why is human health put at risk in the US when those same risks do not occur in Europe? The answer in one word – money.

The Center for Disease Control

While the FSA looks at the food itself and its labeling, the CDC looks at how to combat disease, and what public health initiatives and education can be employed to mitigate risk. The CDC focuses on data collection, research, public campaign guidelines and community programs. As the growth in obesity and other chronic illness rates suggests, that isn’t going so well. Yet, they do not seem to be able to up their game to combat the assault on children.

Obesity As a Causal Link to Other Chronic Diseases

Whatever leads to childhood obesity, whether it is the amount of food, the type of food, the chemicals it contains or the lack of physical activity, the upshot is that a child is likely to face health complications for life. An obese body needs to work harder to function efficiently and that extra strain can take its toll.

Obesity has been linked to an increased likelihood of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. A 2023 report by the European Society of Cardiology found that “Compared to children with a low body mass index (BMI), those with a high BMI are 40% more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease in midlife. Children with a combination of risk factors including smoking and high BMI, blood pressure and blood lipids have a two- to nine-fold greater risk of heart attack and stroke in midlife.”

One of the main contributors to diabetes, which affects over 280,000 children in the US, is Insulin resistance, that is often caused by obesity. As the body is resistant to insulin, a naturally occurring hormone made in the pancreas, people are unable to regulate their blood sugar levels. Other contributors besides obesity, to those not born with Insulin resistance are physical inactivity, food choices – particularly ultra processed foods high in carbohydrates, and certain medication. Obese kids, with a low physical exercise regime and a diet high in processed foods are highly susceptible to diabetes.

The ultra processed foods that lead to childhood obesity also play a role in the development of cancers. Obesity itself is a known factor in many types of cancer including breast, colorectal and pancreatic cancer. These foods can also lead to chronic inflammation in the body that can lead to cancer. The additives, as mentioned earlier, are linked to the development of cancer.

Consequences

The consequences of the obesity epidemic alongside the other chronic illnesses often associated with it are many. An unhealthy population is less productive. More time is spent seeking healthcare that distracts us from other activities. In times where time is a precious commodity, this is a significant problem both economically and socially.

The US currently spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other nation. The failure to address the basic causes of chronic diseases is merely a wealth transfer from the normal citizen to the rich food and Big Pharma executives. The government just lets the game play out. Money trumps children’s health.

And of course, there are the young lives lost to a largely preventative issue, where only government and big industry have profited.

What Can We Do?

The nomination of RFK. Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services is a positive action. He has for decades routinely called out food additives in processed foods as a contributor to future health challenges.

We need to get children and young people away from their screens and engaging in physical activity. Another newsletter will be devoted to this topic. We need to remember that exercise is the partner of good food, in working towards vibrant health.

We also need to encourage family meals that are home cooked, not just warmed up in a microwave. If you want your body, mind and soul to function as nature intended, then you need to live in a nature-based way. There is no short cut. There is not a holistic health practitioner in the world who will say that sound nutrition and regular physical exercise are not the critical elements of robust health and longevity. Many other factors come into play, but food and exercise set forth the foundation.

We need an FDA and a CDC that work, and work together for the good of the citizens of the United States and not for the companies that are poisoning our children. All too often the link between government bureaucrats and Big Pharma has seen a crisis caused by failure in one industry, e.g., food, turned into profit for Big Pharma. Their goal is selling ongoing cures such as Ozempic or synthetic insulin that brings in vast profits. As Big Pharma highly influences the FDA and CDC, there is no incentive to ban hazardous ingredients, or in enhanced preventative measures by the CDC.

Understanding the risks we face when we make our food choices is critical. Removing all processed foods from supermarket shelves would be to cause food shortages, but a balanced diet is achievable. Parents, guardians, and children need to be educated as to the health issues associated with certain foods. More effort to explain the consequences of taking an easy option is needed.

Medical schools devote an almost zero focus on the informed study of food and preventive health. But that whole deconstructive allopathic system needs to be revamped in its entirety and is fodder for far more discussion.

Lastly, we must hold people accountable for their failures of the past 30 plus years. Big Food has slowly been poisoning the people of the US for many years, creating a crisis from which Big Pharma has profited, and compromised government agencies and officials are complicit in the racketeering.

We have to stop this perpetual cycle of crisis that feeds the globalists at the cost of society’s health.

Feed your children well. Let them play. Boycott the poisoners and demand your government work for you. Help RFK Jr. do the great job he is positioned to do.