This last week we celebrated Valentine’s Day – the holiday of love…and candy. I posted a blog entitled “A Valentines Day Rant” on my Facebook wall from one of my favorite health and wellness bloggers, Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist. When I read her blog about the barrage of candy on holidays such as Valentine’s Day, she had me saying, “Yeah, that’s right!” Finally, someone who agrees with me that the massive amounts of sugar we give to our kids is just plain irresponsible. I realize that this is a topic most parents just want to hide their heads in the sand about, but I believe it’s time that we do something about it before we destroy the health of future generations.
According to current statistics from the CDC, approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese, and since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost tripled. Because of excess sugar and carbohydrate consumption in the standard American diet, diabetes has become an epidemic in the United States. In a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), doctors noted that not only is diabetes in children on the increase, but that often type 2 diabetes is not being detected because physicians falsely believe only adults can get it. According to the Alexandria, Va.-based ADA, diabetes is reaching epidemic levels as a result of the greater prevalence of obesity and sedentary lifestyles. Approximately 16 million people in the United States have diabetes.
These statistics are alarming. It’s time for us to wake up and take charge of not only our own health but also the health of our children. If you are a believer, you need to understand that your body houses the Holy Spirit and we have been instructed to care for and honor our bodies. The Word tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
If you want to read Sarah’s blog post for yourself, I have posted it below. You can see other posts and information on health and wellness on her blog site at www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com.
Valentine’s Day Rant
by SARAH, THE HEALTHY HOME ECONOMIST on FEBRUARY 12, 2010
in HEALTHY PREGNANCY, BABY & CHILD
How did this happen??
When I attended grade school, children simply exchanged little cards or notes for Valentine’s Day. Somehow, in the years since, Valentine’s Day has morphed into a feeding frenzy with loads and loads of candy and other sweets taking center stage. I was SHOCKED when my two boys came home from school on Wednesday with literally, a shoe box each FULL of candy given out by classmates for Valentine’s Day.
Not only that, each class had a party with juice, cookies, and other refined carbs to stuff the kids with before sending them home with enough candy to keep their sinuses clogged and noses running at least until the Easter candy fest starts all over again.
What are these people thinking? Don’t they know we have a childhood obesity crisis going on in the Western world? Don’t they realize that children as young as 10 are regularly being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a degenerative disease once only found in adults primarily over the age of 50? Don’t they realize that children’s bodies are increasingly made out of “mush” (exact word used by my chiropractor to describe the bodies of children he treats) where injuries and broken bones occur for seemingly little to no reason at all?
These types of injuries rarely occurred years ago when kids played outside a lot more and played a lot harder, for that matter. A friend of mine whose 13 year old daughter plays competitive soccer told me that last year, every single girl on the team with the exception of one or two suffered a fracture of some kind during the season! I played a number of competitive sports growing up including speedball (a cross between football and soccer), and I never saw a broken bone. Not one.
Could people really be that oblivious to the serious and shocking degeneration of our youth that is occurring right before our eyes? Am I the only one who can see it? I don’t think so. I think most people see it but feel powerless to stop it. So, they ignore it.
The commercialization of Valentine’s Day is so complete that folks take it for granted that giving a shoe box full of candy to a child “is just what you are supposed to do”. This is simply not normal, folks! Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it “normal”. Giving that much candy to a child, many of which already show signs of weight issues is just plain crazy. Until “the tipping point” is reached where enough parents rebel and refuse to participate in the sugar madness that has taken over our schools at not just Valentine’s Day, but ANY day that is even remotely a cause for celebration, then the degeneration will continue.
I am happy to report that when my kids came home with all this candy, they each requested one or two special pieces to keep and then promptly threw the rest in the trash. They did this on their own with no comment on the situation from me. I hope more than just my kids did exactly the same thing or something at least similar!
“You teach, you teach, you teach” .. the final words of Dr. Weston A. Price.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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