Cafeteria Plaque & Vending Machines

Parents need to become advocates if they are to see their children eating healthy and growing strong. As a High School teacher of 22 years, I saw the food being served in the cafeteria. We didn’t have the choice of ice cream, pizza, fudge brownies, nachos, hot dogs, sloppy Joe’s and grease-heavy spaghetti and meatballs. A fat kid was a rare breed in our high school - while I was growing up. In 1967 High Fructose Corn Syrup began showing up in all baked goods and many spaghetti sauces, beverages and the list is unending.
Now, if we want to stop this obesity problem, we need to walk into the cafeteria with a camera and take a picture of the menu so conspicuously displayed at the front of the room. If you don’t, you’re starting the attack on the young body of our children.

Would you believe that the above are menu items from Monday to Friday? Sticky blood from cheese, hypertension from high sugar content and blood pressure from high-sodium content–all add up to a formula for disaster.

Would you believe that dieticians help in putting this formula for disaster into the trusting mouths of babes? You stopped the smoking, until people who still do - are considered lacking in good judgment, when they light-up anywhere. Now you can stop diabetes type II, and prevent the build-up of plaque in the arteries of your beloved offspring. The American Diabetes Association reports in their April 2007 letter that there are now 21 million Americans who have diabetes. This year more than 1.5 million Americans will be told they have diabetes. www.diabetes.org can provide you with more information on the subject.

You can confront the administrators of our schools with questions on the rationale behind vending machines in schools and ice cream, candy and potato chips. Your child may have a learning disability that is exacerbated by his intake of bad foods. Ritalin isn't the answer, it may be part of the problem. Eating bad foods can cause serious problems ranging from acid indigestion to nervousness and aggressive behavior. Do you think that the only answer is to buy more drugs?

When’s the last time you had a blood test on your child to determine the effects of these "Super-Size Me" meals? You can read a blood test report and you have the right to sign a release statement to yourself at the time of the test. You CAN discuss the results and read the simple indications of H for High; L for Low and N for Normal. You can learn about good cholesterol like HDL and bad cholesterol like LDL. You can even ask for a copy of the BMI (Body Mass Index) to determine your child’s healthy weight for his/her height. There is so much that you can do to convince your school leaders, dieticians, doctors and your own sons and daughters - that you know what is good for them and what is not. That kind of directiveness was part of growing up in the first half of the 20th century. Giving your child everything they want is not only dangerous to their health, but research shows a growing number of children displaying narcissistic tendencies. With no guidance, they are lost and don’t have a clue until it is too late. They become demanding and we let their tongue be their only guide to what they should eat.
Fill them with all the fresh fruit and vegetables you can supply so that they are full of cantaloupe, watermelon, broccoli, cabbage, fish, and lean cuts of meat. Portion out their meals and fill your home with scents of love - a kind of aroma therapy. As this blog goes world-wide, there are more researchers realizing that treating symptoms is like waiting for your child to fall off his bike before teaching him about balance and caution.
Take a picture of your child’s school lunch menu and enlarge it, then take it with you when you next visit your child’s pediatrician. It’s easier to diagnose the problem when you know what we’re putting in the tank.

Stop allowing the tail to wag the dog - lead by example. Would you let your child grab the steering wheel from the school-bus driver?