There is a national crisis that has resulted in the unnecessary suffering and despair that children who are struggling with weight and food dependency face every day. Let’s not turn away from this epidemic in hopes that someone else will take care of it; because no one else is! We, the recovered food addicts who have the knowledge, tools and solution, are responsible for speaking up for and supporting the children in our lives.
I was struck by an article on the front page of the New York Times: “How Big Business Got Brazil Hooked on Junk Food.” The article points out that, due to declining growth of sales in the wealthiest countries, multinational food companies like Nestle, PepsiCo and General Mills have been “aggressively” selling their products in developing nations. These are the same nations where only a generation ago their people were suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Now they are struggling with a new epidemic, obesity, which breeds diabetes, heart disease and chronic illness.
The story goes on to say that there are now 108 million obese children worldwide. This statistic is alarming to me for many reasons, but the biggest reason is that obesity is, in the vast majority of cases, preventable! The president of Coca-Cola International, Ahmet Bozer, is quoted as recently stating, “There’s 600 million teenagers who have not had a Coke in the last week. So the opportunity for that is huge.” Basically, these companies are gunning for our kids to up their sales and profit.
Carlos A. Monteiro, Professor of Nutrition and Public Health, at University of Sao Paulo in Brazil goes on to say, “What we have is a war between two food systems, a traditional diet of real food once produced by the farmers around you and the producers of ultra-processed food designed to be over-consumed and which in some cases are addictive.” He goes on to say, “It’s a war, but one food system has disproportionately more power than the other”!
It is shocking to me that food is actually designed to be “over-consumed.” In other words, food is designed to become addictive, so that kids – and adults – are unable to stop eating it. It’s designed so that our kids – and adults – will lose the choice of whether to eat it or not. All designed so that certain food companies can make more money. This is a harsh reality, but it’s one we need to be aware of and be pro-active about.
Let’s ensure that we don’t end the attention this epidemic deserves. I don’t want any child to go through what I did as an overweight kid – the bullying, shaming, relentless teasing – and then, ultimately, move from an obese child to an obese, food addicted adult.
On this page are two pictures of my niece Georgia (yes, I know I will use any excuse to be able to show her off to all of you). My commitment last month was to refrain from buying or providing her (or any child in my life) any “sugary” treats. It was tougher than I thought it would be; instead, we went on healthy picnics with delicious food, gorgeous scenery and fun games.
I believe the best thing we can do to support our kids is to continue to focus on our own recovery.
With love and abstinence,
Amanda