by Mark Hyman, MD, via The Huffington Post,
Schools have become hazardous health zones full of empty calories, junk food and stripped-down physical education programs that are cultivating a nation of fatter, dumber and more aggressive kids. In the film, “The Social Network,” Mark Zuckerberg tells his friend that there are more geniuses in China than there are people in the United States. The Cold War gave us the missile gap, but now we have something much more threatening to our future and our children’s future — the achievement gap.
When most school kitchens have only deep fryers, microwaves and displays for candy and junk food at the checkout counters, how can children stay healthy or learn? When the food served is as addictive as heroin or cocaine, who is accountable?
General Jack Keane, former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, shared with me that 70 percent of applicants for the military are unfit to serve and can’t pass standardized qualifying tests for military service. The school lunch program was started in 1946 because military recruits were too thin to serve in the military; now, in part because of our school lunch program, our children are too fat and academically challenged to serve.
Kids who skip breakfast and eat sugar laden, additive laced foods, and who get 10 to 15 percent of their calories from liquid sugar drinks like sodas and “sports” drinks not only gain weight and get early diabetes, heart disease and stroke in adolescence, but can’t pay attention, are less alert, can’t solve problems or do math, have a myriad of learning deficits, are more depressed, anxious and even violent. One in six children in America has a neurodevelopmental problem such as learning deficits and attention deficit disorder. Could it be due to what we are feeding our children and the lack of physical activity?
In his landmark paper, Healthier Students are Better Learners: A Missing Link in School Reforms to Close the Achievement Gap, Columbia professor, Charles Basch documents the self-evident premise that kids’ brains don’t work if they don’t eat well and they don’t move their bodies. When one in three kids skips breakfast and the rest have vending machine fare of chips and soda, sugary cereals or worse, how can they learn? When the average kid logs eight hours of screen time a day but only one in five kids meets the recommended levels of physical activity a day developing brains don’t work. Professor Basch has recently met with Arnie Duncan, Secretary of Education, and recommended a series of policy changes that will lead to healthier and smarter kids.
Research shows that food additives contribute to attention deficit disorder that affects almost one in ten children with many more suffering a milder version. A landmark new paper in the Lancet, found that delayed food sensitivities caused attention deficit disorder and removing food sensitivities could reverse attention deficit disorder in 75 precent of children.
Aggression, violence and bullying on are on the rise in schools. In 2005 there were 628,000 violent crimes among students 12 to 18 years old. Twenty-eight percent of these kids reported being bullied in the previous six months, and 8 percent were threatened or injured with a weapon in the preceding 12 months. A prison study in England found that supplementing prisoners with multi-vitamin and fish oil could reduce violent crime in prisons by 37 percent.
So what can you do to help your child and what can we do as a nation to raise a smarter, fitter, happier generation of children? It is a two-part solution. We have to take back our homes and our schools, which have been hijacked by the food industry.
Take Back Your Homes
You have total control over what you bring into your home, and what you choose to do there. Small changes can have a big impact on your family’s and your children’s health and happiness. These changes also impact the food industry, agriculture and marketing practices.
• Eat at home. In 1900, two percent of meals were eaten outside the home. In 2010, 50 percent were eaten away from home. One in five eat breakfast from McDonald’s. Family meals happen about three times a week, last less than 20 minutes, and are spent watching television or texting while each family member eats a different microwaved “food” made in a different factory. We complain of not having enough time to cook, but Americans spend more time watching cooking on The Food Network, than actually preparing their own meals.
• Eat a real breakfast. This is a critical life skill we must reclaim and teach our children. Kids (and adults) who eat breakfast are thinner and smarter. Think real, whole protein-rich food to power up the brain and metabolism for the day.
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