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.
