We Are Killing Our Children

There is never a shortage of issues to talk about whenever I watch the news.

Today was no exception. I won't go into the specifics, but the gist of what was being discussed was that charity groups were calling for an extra 3 billion pounds to be spent on feeding low income families.

People were considered vulnerable to rising costs associated with a "typical" basket of 33 goods. But here's where the madness begins. The first 4 items flashed onto the screen were:

- baked beans ... fibre drenched in sugar and artificial chemicals

- pork sausages ... a high fat treat from unhealthy, force-fed pigs

- refined breakfast cereal ... hold on, haven't we been told that's a "health" food?

- pasteurized milk ... raw, organically produced milk from healthy grass-fed cows of course would be too expensive, even if it was available

No doubt, the rest of the basket would have included beauties like chocolate, chips and baked goods ... all guaranteed to flood our systems with refined sugar, hidden salt, hydrogenated fat, stimulants and low fibre, refined carbohydrates.

At what point will someone realize that we are creating a nation of dependant people who are virtually guaranteed to be a huge burden on the NHS by the time they are middle-aged ... because they simply don't know any better?

When will education replace handouts?

And when will just one of these so called nutrition gurus stand up and tell people what they really need to know ... that we're not just over-feeding our kids, we're killing them with shockingly bad food and drink choices.

I walked into a supermarket the other day. There was no bottled water for sale and yet there were aisles and aisles of soft drinks, biscuits, chips, chocolates, booze, TV dinners, processed meats, white bread, exotic cheeses ... and cosmetics!

Turn on the television and any station that shows commercials will be seductively extolling the virtues of chocolate, chips and just about any other processed treat you can think of.

So why do we all wonder why childhood obesity is an issue? Why do we create task forces and recruit high profile chefs, doctors and dieticians to "come to grips" with the problem ... when the problem is absolutely, patently obvious?

No-one is prepared to tell the whole truth, because people just don't want to hear it.