Sunday, December 17, 2006

Childhood Obesity Becoming a Global Concern

How sad it is that there are millions of children in many countries around the world who don't even get one small meal per day and many who might get a few morsels. But it is even more disappointing that there are more children who are getting too many calories and too much food.... too often.

Childhood obesity is becoming a problem around the world and all you have to do is type in Child Obesity in any search engine and you'll find the concern spreading to all corners of the world. If you think about the size of our solar system and relate that to how close a well-fed (actually 'overfed') country is to those that are starving, it seems impossible that everyone on the planet can't get a meal at least twice a day.

But the problem is the spread of calories but not healthy calories like that from fruits, vegetables, fish, etc. Where you see obesity becoming a problem where it wasn't before, you see the growth of fast-food restaurants and soft drinks (which are predominant in those restaurants). It is statistically proven that with the introduction of soft drinks in a country, specific health problems appear that were not present (in any significant way) before.

I was criticized when I brought a lawsuit against Coca-Cola for their ridiculous Drink Choose Live campaign that has only been referred to now as My Coke Rewards, but if those naysayers would look at the bigger picture, the long-term outlook of what is happening as companies continue to push the growth of their high-calorie unhealthy products around the world, they would see that there is no benefit.

Be aware and beware of the repurcussions of letting your children use fast food and/or soft drinks for their drinking or eating pleasure or source of energy. In the long run their health will be compromised. And as my friend Dr. David Katz has said, "There's no reason to think that the current generation of children may not outlive their parents" because of the increase in health problems from a continued decline of a healthy diet.

Choose good nutrition. Choose health. Choose life.

Carpe Diet!
Julia

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