What Is
Making Our
Children and
Teens Fat?
in nature. Steel cut oats are a processed food. The whole food form of oats found in nature is the oat groat which resembles a grain of rice. When these oat groats are cut with a steel knife they are “processed” into steel cut oats. Even peanut butter is a processed food as pea- nuts that have been ground up from their whole state. We refer to these foods as minimally processed and are the next best thing to eating the whole food. On the other end of the spectrum are foods that are highly processed such as Chee- rios for example. The manufacturer of Cheerios uses
weight and many are even attaining levels of morbid obesity. In conven- tional medicine, obesity is determined by one’s Body Mass Index or BMI which is calculated based on a person’s height and weight. Because a child’s height and weight are constantly changing, BMI is indexed by age for children and present- ed as a percentile. A BMI greater than or equal to the 85th percentile is defined as overweight. A BMI greater than or equal to the 95th percentile is defined as obese. A BMI greater than or equal to the 99th percentile is defined as mor- bidly obese. The tendency for children to de-
O
velop problems with weight occurs at approximately five or six years of age and during adolescence. The causes are numerous and include poor diet, lack of exercise, environmental toxins, the use
14 August 2010
besity in children has reached epidemic proportions. More and more children are over-
of medications such as steroids and/or psychiatric medications, stress brought on by a variety of different factors such as the need to do well in school, bul- lying, death or suicide of a friend or family member, low self esteem, depres- sion, anxiety, family problems such as divorce, sexual, emotional and/or physi- cal abuse, obsessive compulsive disor- ders leading to overeating and binging, and last, but not least, our genes. We are literally killing ourselves and
our children for the sake of convenience. The increase in two income families has left less time for food shopping and preparation of healthy meals at home. More and more families are choosing to rely on takeout, fast foods and eating out which translates into larger portions of lesser quality processed foods being eaten on a regular basis rather than on special occasions. A processed food is any food that has been altered from its original state
www.naturalnutmeg.com
the words “whole grain” to describe the oats used in Cheerios. Although it is true that “whole grain” oat bran is the first ingredient listed on the Chee- rios box, the end product is certainly not “whole grain.” The whole grain is combined with modified food starch, another name for gluten, sugar, salt, tri- potassium phosphate, oat fiber, wheat starch (more gluten), vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) added to preserve freshness and then there is a listing of other added vitamins and minerals. The dry ingredi- ents are mixed with water to form a bat- ter. The batter is then pressed through a mold to create the “o” and then the “o” is dried. After this, hot steam is applied to the cereal in a high pressure cylinder. The “o’s” when then exposed to normal atmosphere within the cylinder puff up. Following this there is a little more dry- ing and then vitamins and minerals are sprayed on the “o’s” completing the pro- cess.
Much of the modern diet consists of
highly processed foods “cooked” up in laboratory type settings and then made for the masses by large manufacturers focused on maximizing profits. Millions of advertising dollars are spent in an attempt (often successful) to sell prod- ucts that feed our addiction to sugar or make false or misleading claims about the nutritional value of these products. Because of this people understand the need to read food labels but often do not understand what they are reading. As human beings, our genes func-
tion or are expressed optimally when we eat food which comes directly from na- ture or is minimally processed. Geneti- cally modified or genetically engineered foods do not fit the bill. The more pro- cessed a food the more it is lacking in nutrients. When we eat processed foods the body must work harder to digest, ab-
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