Fast food chains, snack food companies, and beverage manufacturers that target young people are creating a health crisis that is like a ticking time bomb waiting to explode sometime in the next few decades. Through promotional tie-ins, two-for-one deals, free beverage refills, and access to public schools and other places where kids congregate, corporate pushers of unhealthy diets are seducing our children into consuming too much sugar and fat. Add to this the fact that schools have cut down on recess, and that video games and television promote couch potato kids, and you can see that the next generation may be set on a course to develop heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other health related problems at levels never seen before.
The Centers for Disease Control reports that the number of overweight children ages 6-11 has doubled in the past 20, and for adolescents 12-19 years old, the overweight figure has tripled. Other studies suggest that 80% of all high school students fail to eat the recommended daily allowance of fruits and vegetables, and more than 60% of U.S. children consume too much saturated fat. Only through a concerted effort by the public to improve physical fitness programs in schools, cut back on television and video game use at home, educate our kids on proper nutritional habits, and graphically show them what drinking sodas and eating fries and whoppers does to their physiology, can we turn this coming epidemic around. For more information, including recommendations and resources, click here.
