Today I am not myself. I just read a horrific story about a 17 year-old girl in Great Britain who has only eaten McDonald’s chicken nuggets since the age of two. She has never eaten a fruit or a vegetable (other than fries). It’s not surprising at all that she collapsed and had to be hospitalized with breathing problems and anemia. The doctors injected her with vitamins and nutrients and sent her home. Her picture is online, yes it is, and despite being told that her diet is life threatening, she smiles for the camera, holding her precious nuggets next to her face like gold. The nuggets are poison, a scary example of how processed food products impact children’s health. Stacey Irvine admits she is addicted and probably won’t quit eating them.
My God.
It is tempting to think this sort of thing couldn’t happen here, but I believe it already is, in varying degrees. The food products fed to children in school and at home are impacting their health (obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure), and their ability to learn. Two years before I quit teaching, I had a fourth grade class with 14 boys. Six had ADHD, and three others couldn’t add numbers together or understand the words they read in books.
Over the past twenty years, I’ve noticed a rise in the number of children with ADHD, autism, learning and behavioral problems. I’ve often thought there must be a connection between these difficulties and what children eat. The cafeteria offered plenty of pizza, hamburgers, chips, and ice cream. The kids chose that over the salty, canned green beans and fruit cocktail in syrup. After lunch, many of the children in my class had difficulty staying focused and calm. I’m convinced healthy food would have helped.
Think of it like this: For a car to run properly, it needs the right fuel. If I put sand in the tank, the engine gets full of sludge, slows down and dies. If children’s bodies are like cars, we’re in trouble. Most of what they’re getting is junk. There’s huge amounts of information online about diet and nutrition, but I think most of us can agree that diets high in fat, sugar, salt, and processed carbohydrates aren’t good for health. This is not a wild theory. Bad nutrition affects the body and the mind. In 2003, Princeton University published a report, which said that high-sugar, high-salt, and high-fat foods can be as addictive as heroin. Heroin? Sure, look at Stacey Irvine.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a review of two-dozen scientific studies confirms that certain foods and food additives can have an adverse effect on behavior in children. In addition, the effects of a poor diet include lack of ability to concentrate, hyperactivity, and decline in cognitive ability (remembering, problem solving), and poor impulse control. Unhealthy food can also cause developmental delays in vision, language, personal, social, and fine motor skills.
So, we poison kids, and then we punish them when they can’t learn, when they fail the tests, and when they can’t behave.
I decided to look at a few school menus online. I wasn’t surprised to find the usual fare: cinnamon rolls, donuts, blueberry muffins, pancakes with syrup, assorted cereals, chicken tenders, beef ravioli, pepperoni pizza, burritos, and steak sticks. What did surprise me was the availability of some healthy choices: carrots, edamame, mixed vegetables, strawberries, oranges, kiwi wedges, whole grain pancakes, pinto beans, 1% milk, and yogurt. Is there hope for change?
Yes and no.
In the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas, which is mostly Hispanic, there are high instances of nutrition related diseases and poverty. The Lower Rio Grande Valley Nutrition Intervention Initiative was working to find ways to assist communities so that children and adults eat well. Unfortunately, the last report I found on this project was dated 2007.
The Healthy School Meals Act of 2010 provides incentives for schools in Florida to provide plant-based meals for students. Hurray!
Revolution Foods in California prepares fresh lunches for kids with the greatest economic need at a reasonable cost. They are currently providing meals to 600 schools around the country. The food has no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, trans fats, or high fructose corn syrup. Principals say they’ve noticed better focus, fewer discipline problems, less tardiness, and higher test scores. Another hurray!
On January 25, 2012 the U.S Department of Agriculture announced a federally funded 5-year plan to improve cafeteria food in schools and help reduce childhood obesity. The new guidelines will help 32 million kids in grades K-12 by providing them with fresh fruit, veggies, and whole grains, along with healthier choices in vending machines. Fantastic!
But here’s the big one that could ruin it all: In November 2011, Congress bowed to pressure from the salt industry, potato states, and frozen food associations. In the bill fund school food programs, Congress left out sodium reduction guidelines and whole grains. The spending bill does insist that pizza be considered a vegetable because of the two tablespoons of tomato paste smeared under the processed cheese product! Are they kidding? Well, no they’re not. This is all about money, of course. If vegetables were defined as something harvested from the ground, the cost of feeding American’s children would rise by $7 billion over the next five years.
So what? Two tablespoons of tomato paste doesn’t provide the same level of nutrition as broccoli. This is criminal! How is it we can find the money to finance wars, but not children’s health? It’s better to spend the money on good nutrition than on the astronomical costs of treating illnesses from poor diet. I doubt the pharmaceutical companies would agree. Nutritionist Dr. Carina Norris says, “Fruits and vegetables are integral to long-term health. Without them you greatly increase the chances of developing chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer.”
The teenager who has never tasted a fruit or vegetable haunts me. Does she know what’s in her food? Chicken nuggets actually contain little real food. Here’s what Michael Pollan wrote in his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Chicken nuggets are 56% corn and corn products (including the chicken). The rest is synthetic ingredients meant to keep the nugget from looking bad. One is dimethylpolysiloxene, which is added to the cooking oil to produce foam during the fry. This substance is a suspected carcinogen and is actually flammable! The other substance is called TBHQ, a form of butane, a.k.a. lighter fluid, which comes from petroleum. It is sprayed on the nugget and inside the box to “help preserve freshness”.
Imagine what continuing our addiction to processed food means for America’s future. Plant a garden at your school or in your neighborhood. Grow and harvest and eat the vegetables. Children’s health, and our own, depends on it.
