Time to resolve

The main hope for improvement of these appalling statistics is for people in charge of children’s welfare to resolve to feed children nutritious food and eliminate the anti-nutritious products from their own and their children’s diets that cause weight gain and ill health. No better time than now for a 2019 New Year’s resolution.

A great many in our culture have been taking parental responsibility much too lightly for some time now. With so many leading hectic and stressful lives, too many parents have come to rely on the kinds of food best avoided and neglect monitoring their own and their children’s eating habits. And parents who try to see that their children eat nutritiously have to fight an uphill battle against a culture not concerned about what’s best for its youth and a government more interested in the profits of corporate interests than the welfare of our children.

It’s much too easy to buy a Happy Meal, bring home a microwavable ready-prepared dinner, give money to the kids to use for snacks and to give in and buy cereals like Cocoa Puffs in spite of knowing better. It’s also too easy to go for the over-processed and ready-prepared products than to prepare meals from fresh, whole and natural foods. And then there are parents who indulge in sweet, fatty and salty junk food and pass the habit along to their children. But sometimes even those parents with the best interest at heart lose some control over what their children eat once the kids are old enough to buy some of their own food. By the time the kids become teens, their eating habits can be a disaster, making it even more important that they eat healthfully at home. Largely thanks to those corporate interests, our food culture is so out of whack that it takes a lot of determination for anyone to see that they and their families eat healthfully.

Basically it all boils down to choices, as does so much in life. We don’t have to have those Oreos or sweetened cereals or Pepsi in the house. We can choose to supply the larder with more fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains and healthy snacks. We can at least educate ourselves enough about nutrition so we are aware of what the products are that are best avoided and which ones provide nutrients that promote good health. And we can enthusiastically support any legislation that may result in healthier foods for us all.

In our sincere desire to do what is best for our children (and ourselves), we can drive right by fast-food establishments. We can convince ourselves that it is more important to prepare a simple healthy meal for the family than to pick up whatever looks good to take out. We can learn to prepare some quick, easy and nutritious dishes and recruit the family to be involved. We can make up our grocery list with health in mind. It might help to remember what Michael Pollan wrote in “Food Rules.” “If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don’t.”

Is there any better New Year’s resolution than to embark on a crusade to make sure that what our children eat does not contribute to the possibility of their bones becoming porous, their blood vessels becoming clogged, their blood sugar rising off the charts, their immune system being impaired and/or their weight soaring? Isn’t it a form of child abuse when so many children are left to their own devices to choose what they eat while so much of the food industry promotes so many noxious products? We need to do better than that. It all boils down to how much we value the health and well-being of all. The future depends upon it. A New Year’s resolution is a good way to start.

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words, it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. And the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.” — Eleanor Roosevelt.

Happy New Year!

Since 1984, Dorothy Dimitre has written more than 950 columns for various local newspapers. Her email address is gramsd@aceweb.com.