Ummm…NO. Obvious, right? Because we all know the dangers of smoking and alcohol and we wouldn’t expose our little kids to them.
But there was a time when those dangers were not as widely understood and social norms were different. We know better now, so we (hopefully!) do better. But it begs the question, ‘What dangers do we accept today simply because we don’t recognize them?’ Here’s one:
According to TheLancet global burden of disease reports, poor diet now generates more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking combined. Up to 40% of those with a normal body mass index will harbour metabolic abnormalities typically associated with obesity, which include hypertension, dyslipidaemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease.
Did you catch that? Many of us would be healthier if we smoked, drank and sat, but ate healthy food. Let that sink in for a minute…that’s how bad a normal American diet has become. The second part of that quote refers to people with a normal, healthy weight. These are people who would look perfectly healthy. When I checked out the references for this quote I found that those normal, healthy weight people included children. And that list of diseases that this diet makes us more susceptible to…hypertension, dyslipidaemia (abnormal cholesterol levels that leads to coronary heart disease and stroke), fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease….they were found in kids as well as adults.
This article went on to explain that these diseases even showed up in individuals who were regularly quite active. Despite the advice to ‘Balance What You Eat, Drink & Do’ on most vending machines, this study (and many others) claimed that there was no balance for a poor diet. An article in this month’s Runner’s World Magazine reiterates this with examples of ultra long distance runners who have been active for decades, but ate poorly, and developed heart disease. If they can run literally thousands of miles and STILL not outrun a bad diet, what chance do you and I (and our kids) have of beating that record?
Ok, you’re probably sufficiently freaked out. So, what do we do about it?
- Start paying attention to what we eat. Read the labels and be skeptical when a food claims to the ‘healthy.’ Healthier than what?
- Look for added sugars. Did you know the recommended serving for added sugar is only 6g per day? That’s 1.5 teaspoons. Most Americans eat 3-5 times that much just at breakfast!
- Eat produce! You don’t even have to cook it. 5 servings of fruits and vegetables is a recommended minimum…how many are our families eating on a regular day? How often are we even offering it to our kids?
- Drink water. Our bodies are made of between 78-55% water…when we replace it with soda, dessert coffees, sports drinks and alcohol it causes problems.
- Make your own food. I love going out to eat as much as anyone else, but we can’t control what’s in the food and frequently have no idea how much fat, salt, sugar, etc is in what we’re eating. As a treat, it’s fine. As a regular source of meals it’s a bit of a disaster. Gourmet meals are not required…simple is fine and probably more appreciated by the kids!
What do we do today? Pick ONE area of your family’s diet and ‘healthify’ it. Practice that for a week or two until it starts to become easier and then pick ONE more area and do it again. Serve apples and oranges as a side dish, offer eggs instead of cereal for breakfast, make some popcorn for your kids snack or grill the chicken instead of frying it. ONE healthy choice, ONE day at a time.
If you’d like to take a peek at the Runner’s World article you can click below:
https://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-weight-loss/a19726348/outrunning-a-bad-diet/
