Food: Undernourished and Overfed

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Undernourished and Overfed
Monday, December 11, 2006

There is a song by a fairly well known Christian singer that was released bout twenty years ago or so that talks about American Fast Food. What really struck me was the line in his song that says that we are undernourished and overfed. How true that is these days.

These days more than ever before are we seeing young children that are over weight and because of that fact, juvenile diabetes is on the rise. With more kids eating less healthy snacks and opting for salty, sweet or just plain fattening foods. With families spending more time in front of the television; children are spending more time on the computer and playing video games, and adults busier than they ever were before, fast food is the quickest option some nights for dinner. And now that the holidays are here, how many of us gain five or ten pounds during the season because of parties and just plain over eating?

Fast food has been around here in North American almost since the turn of the twentieth century, but has possibly been available in the Middle East for centuries, such as falafel stands and in ancient Rome, they had noodle shops and bread and olives stands. But here in North American, the modern fast food restaurant got its beginnings in Topeka, Kansas and the place was called White Castle, started selling hamburgers for five cents each in 1921. McDonalds opened their doors in the late forties along with A&W followed by Wendys. These companies, more often than not, because of their attention to speedy service and addition of additives along with their processing takes away from nutritional value.

Since the average family is genuinely busy on a daily basis with not only school and work, but with many extra curricular activities such as sports or in our own case with church activities and because the local grocer sells more than an abundant supply of pre packaged food on a yearly basis and by eating many pre packaged foods, many of our families no longer get the nutrients and vitamins that they need.

Obesity is turning out to be almost an epidemic here in North America say experts. The problem is mostly due to increasing lack of emphasis on physical education beginning in the schools and continuing onto adulthood, too many fast food opportunities available, lack of amateur sport development, not to mention the era of the video and computer game which explains why the obesity rates in boys tend to increase faster than girls.

Are the phys-ed programs doing enough in our schools? Some say yes, some say no, but being in shape for children should not only depend upon our schools. This year here in Canada, the provincial government of Ontario has mandated twenty minutes of physical activity per child in elementary school. So even when my girls do not have gym, they still have to be prepared for twenty minutes of something whether it be an active game or a sport outside. But most schools still have vending machines that carry snack foods or sell fatty foods in the cafeteria. These types of snacks are available just about everywhere and with kids beginning work outside the house at an early age (such as baby sitting or even their allowance) and with more spendable cash in their pocket, they opt for the good tasting, high in fat snacks that have little or no nutritional value. And also with our long Canadian winters, people tend to be housebound more. And because we are si busy these days and in order to save time, most kids are driven anywhere they want to go these days by parents who live in a two vehicle household and just don’t have time to walk anywhere with their children, so that too adds to the weight issue.

One of the most serious problems with children becoming over weight and even obese at such an early age is there is more of a risk for the child to stay that way into adulthood. And with obesity in adulthood comes many health concerns such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels which doctors are seeing in younger patients every year.

The Canadian Cancer Society in partnership with The Canadian Produce Marketing Association along with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada has begun a campaign designed to encourage Canadian families to make fruits and vegetables a healthy part of everyday eating. This program, called five to ten a day suggests that each Canadian have from 5 to 10 servings of fruit and vegetables per day, but are we willing to give up our snacks? Both my hubby and I work and while trying to eat healthy, eating ten servings of vegetables a day is next to impossible.

When it comes to our family, we try and make sure the girls have plenty of exercise. In the summer we swim and ride bikes and in the winter, we toboggan and ice skate and while we probably do not eat the healthiest, we try and hopefully the girls will keep up with their healthy lifestyles as they grow.

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