I read an interesting article this morning. A 14 year old boy had eaten nothing else but chips (French fries for my US friends), Pringles, white bread, and the occasional sausage or slice of ham. He went to the doctor and complained that he felt tired all the time. The doctor discovered the boy was vitamin B12 deficient and gave him supplements, but he did not continue to take them. He also did not change his diet.
By the age of 17 he had gone completely blind and was diagnosed with nutritional optic neuropathy, where the optic nerves are badly affected by a lack of nutrients (the boy ate no fruits or vegetables).
At the age of only 17 you are convinced that nothing nasty will ever happen to you. In my opinion it is the boy’s parents who are at fault here; they should have encouraged him to eat healthier food at a younger age and also ensured that he was taking his supplements. However, it’s a sad fact that if whichever parent in charge of cooking food does not like fruits or vegetables, then their children will probably not get served any either. This happened to a friend of mine, who ended up severely overweight and sadly chronically constipated as a child because her mother did not like fruits or vegetables. Luckily she learned more about good nutrition on leaving home, and shed over 4 stones in weight.
Around the mid 1970s, the evil tendrils of a certain hamburger chain spread their way across the pond and into the UK town centres. Now there is not a high street that does not have several fast food outlets, and this high fat food which is low in nutrients is now crippling our younger generation. I see the effects of too much fast food at the hospital where I work. The Diabetic Clinic is bursting at the seams with patients who have grown up (and some who are still growing up) preferring the taste of fast food and sugar laden gunk which are both empty of proper nutrients. So many people are overweight and yet they do not realise that they are malnourished as well.
I don’t know what your opinion is, but to me it’s child cruelty to make a kid so overweight that the only place for it is the Diabetic Clinic. Untreated diabetes leads to bad circulation causing foot ulcers and possible amputation, not to mention the aforementioned eye disease. All a parent has to do is feed a kid with lots of fruit and veg starting from when it is weaned, instead of shovelling high fat junk and sugar-loaded food down its throat. It’s a crying shame.
dgkaye said:
Great post and much truth. Goes to show how the body will fold without proper vitamins and nutrients. And yup, I know well about the mid 70s and the ‘golden arches’, located in front of the bus stop I got off coming home from school. Lots of fries and milkshakes . . .and added pounds, lol. 🙂 x
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Stevie Turner said:
Those golden arches have much to answer for…
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franklparker said:
I agree with you, what soime parents are doing/neglecting to do is child cruely. They should be prosecuted. No doubt then the anti-PC brigade would start compaining about the “nanny state”. Personal freedom is all very well, but it comes with responsibilities, one of which is the proper care and upbringing of your children. I dread to think what will happen to the UK post a no-deal Brexit when the lunatics who dreamed it up are in charge.
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Stevie Turner said:
A lot of parents are just ignorant of what constitutes proper healthy food. There should be a course of mandatory parenting classes for every prospective parent.
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robertawrites235681907 said:
I didn’t notice a lot of fast food outlets when we were in York and Scotland. We found lots of fish and chippies and pubs. I did, however, notice that not a lot of vegetables are served in the places we visited and many didn’t have salads either. That is quite different here in South Africa. I can’t understand how someone doesn’t like fruit and vegetables. I find myself craving plain salads, veg and fruit quite often. I suppose it is what you are used to.
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jwebster2 said:
Interesting whilst I live in part of the north with a lot more fast food outlets that you noticed, a lot of them do include veg or salad
I can no longer eat lettuce or cucumber, I cannot digest them, they give me chronic indigestion.) So I specifically have to ask at places not to include them. So buying a pre-made sandwich is tricky, very few don’t have lettuce or cucumber.Similarly pub meals will often include a salad
Obviously some ‘ethnic’ fast foods, Chinese, Indian don’t.
I would take a lot of the blame (not all of it) off the catering trade and put it on the shoulders of the customer. They are making an effort to actively avoid salads etc.Apparently one outlet started serving a small individual salad in a plastic bag, and they were almost universally dumped.
But yes, on the topic of fat and sugar laden gunk I think there the fast food outlets are really to blame.
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robertawrites235681907 said:
Well, it is really the consumer, isn’t it. The fast food chains provide the food people want to eat – they are all about money. Should the responsibility for what we chose to eat shift to the corporates? I don’t think so, people must be accountable for their own choices.
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Stevie Turner said:
I suppose so, but they’re putting too much temptation in people’s way I think.
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Stevie Turner said:
I suppose at the end of the day it is of course personal choice regarding what is eaten, but the NHS is creaking at the seams with people that choose the wrong options and then want the NHS to make them better!
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Stevie Turner said:
There’s not a day goes by when I don’t eat fruit or veg. I was brought up that way, and so yes I suppose it’s what you’re used to and how your parents fed you as a child.
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Robert Kirkendall said:
When I was growing up in the ’70s and 80’s here in California, there were only a relative handful of overweight children. Now it’s an epidemic. Sorry to hear that the fast food scourge made its way over there. Overeating and undernourishment is killing us.
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Stevie Turner said:
It certainly is.
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beth said:
it’s terrible
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Stevie Turner said:
Yep.
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toritto said:
Indeed Steve. When I was a teen in the 50s it was rare to see a fifteen year old overweight or obese. Today I walk around any mall and I’m astonished at the number of overweight teens. It is not healthy. Regards from Florida.
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Stevie Turner said:
Hi Frank. Same here unfortunately.
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