Smart food choices can add years to life
I have worked as a nutrition educator, teaching adults and children throughout Lincoln County, for the past 10 years. I am writing because I am truly frightened at a trend I see that only seems to get worse.
In November alone, five people in our area died who were in their 50s and seven in their 60s. That is 12 people who I’m certain were dearly loved and will be sorely missed.
This is heart-breaking news because in our country today, life expectancy averages around 78. The lives of these individuals were cut way too short. I do not know the details of each of these deaths, but they were not called accidents and would probably be listed by a coroner as “natural causes.”
The sad truth is, there is nothing natural about someone dying in their 50s or 60s in today’s medically advanced world. Just as a frog in a pot, we are growing accustomed to seeing young people pass away and think nothing of it. Somehow we are not putting two and two together.
We must recognize that the food we are choosing to eat is killing us instead of doing what it is intended to do: nourish and sustain us.
Food is directly related to how long we are going to live and the quality of our lives during that span of time.
We have built a lovely new hospital, which will be a great boon to our community. However, it should be a place we go for getting bones reset, the birth of babies, or a place to say our goodbyes at the end of nine decades of life. Instead, hospitals have become a panacea, many thinking: “They’ll fix me up with the right drug or treatment.” We have handed over our responsibility of staying healthy to the medical world, and want a quick fix in the shape of a capsule or pill.
We must come to terms with what we are doing to our children. Right now, the life expectancy of children in the U.S. is five years less than our own. We are not living in a third-world nation. This is outrageous.
I visit first-, third- and fifth-graders regularly throughout the county during the school year and hear first-hand what our kids eat on a regular basis. Many consume at least one soda a day, some three or four, and most start their days with cereals loaded with sugar. This does not include the chocolate milk they choose at lunch, and all the snacks and goodies they get the rest of the day. We need to be aware that heart disease begins in childhood. Studies are showing:
• 20 percent of kids already have plaque in their arteries
• 77 percent of kids who are obese, will remain so as adults
• 13 percent of kids have non-alcoholic liver disease
• 23 percent of teens are pre-diabetic
• 22 percent of teens have high or borderline high LDL cholesterol levels
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found kids are spending an average of 7.5 hours each day using some form of entertainment media and out of that, 4.5 hours watching TV. They are getting far more than entertainment during this daily ritual. The fast food industry spends more than $5 million every day marketing unhealthy foods to children. Even interactive video games are jumping on the bandwagon, with ad spending projected to reach $1 billion by 2014.
Unfortunately, these ads aren’t promoting fresh fruits and vegetables, but products that will shorten the life span of our kids.
No need, however, to pass the buck. Our kids have watched us shovel food into our mouths since the day they were born. Monkey see, monkey do.
In 2010, the CDC reported that 72 million U.S. adults are obese. Third-world countries are battling starvation and malaria. We are battling fat. It has become a national epidemic, with obesity as the leading cause of death in the U.S. Obesity is not about the external. Who cares if we don’t look like supermodels; it’s the damage that’s taking place inside our bodies that matters. Obesity is a signpost warning us that other stuff is happening or about to happen in our bodies, such as heart problems, liver disease, cancer, gallstones, sleep apnea, stroke, arthritis, diabetes.
What can we do to stop the horrifying prediction that by 2050 one out of three people will be Type II diabetic?
Diabetes has become so commonplace that it’s not looked upon with grave concern, as it should. You hear people talking about it as if it were a sore muscle or a stubbed toe. It is a big deal, or will be when you have to start kidney dialysis, or have a foot amputated, or you begin to go blind and can’t see your loved ones.
Perhaps, it will hurt when you have to shell out over $6,000 a year, on top of other medical costs for diabetic supplies and treatment. Wouldn’t you rather take a nice vacation or buy a four-wheeler with that extra cash?
(Annette Galioto is a a nutrition educator with the Montana State University Lincoln County Extension SNAP-Ed program.)