The lead story in today's New York Times is that Mayor Bloomberg wants to restrict the size of soft drinks sold in New York City to a maximum of 16 oz. Another way to go might be to restrict them to a minimum of two gallons so you have to be fit enough to carry one if you want to drink it...
Anyway, we'll come back to the mayor's efforts to help us unjunk.
For the moment, let's think about good reasons for... unjunking ourselves.
Think about a child -- or former child -- you love. This should be pretty easy for any parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or just about anybody else who has known a kid or ever been one.
Now, think about that child's growth from year to year and ask yourself: What were they growing out of?
What was the construction material? Matter can't be constructed out of nothing -- it comes from somewhere. If a child's head is four inches higher off the floor this year than last year, then that four-inch platform of extra kid was built out of... something. What?
Food, and nothing else.
Food is the construction material -- the only construction material -- for the growing bodies of children we love.
We are, no doubt, all familiar with the expression "you are what you eat," but given how most of us eat, it's quite clear we don't take it very seriously. And for some pretty good reasons. The human machine, and human fuel tank, are stunningly forgiving. We can throw almost anything in the tank, and run reasonably well for decades. We can't build a machine fractionally so accommodating.
And, of course, we don't look like what we eat. We eat donuts, and don't sport big holes through our middles. We eat French fries, and don't sprout French fry antennae.
But you can't judge what we are made of by what we look like, any more than you can judge a book by its cover -- or a house by its paint.
Our houses are, often, made mostly of wood -- but look nothing like trees. Trees are cut down and, if you will, "digested" in a timber mill to produce wood that is turned into lumber. The lumber is then used to build houses that look nothing like the trees.
But if that lumber is rotten, the house in question may look all right at first -- but it will fare quite badly when the first big storm comes along. The quality of a house is rooted in the quality of its construction materials.
Ditto for us. The growing body of a child is built out of food. Nutrients are extracted from food, just as wood is extracted from trees. Rotten wood makes rotten houses. Rotten food makes... sick kids. Maybe not right away -- but eventually, rotten construction material catches up with us all.
Bodies built out of junk make kids prone to epidemic obesity, to "adult-onset" diabetes. And to much worse.
The kids may look, and even feel, fine for a while. But every cell their bodies build depends on the quality of the available construction material it is offered. Every muscle fiber, every enzyme, every brain cell, every heart cell, every hormone.
No one I know throws any old junk into the tank of a car they hope will run well for the foreseeable future. No one I know willingly builds a home out of junk, or of rotten wood.
Yet as a culture, we act as if "junk food" is an acceptable category. As if it's cute, fun, innocuous -- and acceptable. As if it's all just a good joke.
But food is the one and only building material for the growing body of a child you love. How's "junk" sounding now?
And, by the way, every one of us adults is turning over literally hundreds of millions of cells daily. These need to be replaced, along with spent enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters and the like. Where do WE get the construction material for this job? Right you are.
My colleagues and I at Turn the Tide think it is past time to... unjunk ourselves! Kids and adults alike -- but kids in particular.
To some extent, this involves a nation of loving and responsible adults recognizing that "junk" is not a food group. There was no edible junk in the Stone Age -- there was just food. There was no edible junk in Mesopotamia at the dawn of agriculture -- there was just food! And let's face it -- there was no mention of junk in the Garden of Eden, either! We created junk, and the health consequences that come from it.
Time to get rid of it. To that end, we are launching our newest program -- the latest sandbag for the anti-obesity, anti-chronic-disease levee: Unjunk Yourself!
The program, which will become a whole library of music videos (with help and support from folks like you!), is aimed at tweens and teens. Like the TRUTH campaign that helped get kids outraged about tobacco, Unjunk Yourself is designed to stir up a bit of righteous indignation. (We have another music video, "The Process," in the works: "We've been processing food, and now we're processing you...") It will deliver fun, provocative, engaging, health-promoting information in music video format -- and then provide links to online tools, resources, and programs kids (and their families) can put directly to use. Knowledge, combined with the tools and skills that allow you to USE it, really is power!
And that's what we want to do -- empower kids and their families to take health into their own hands.
Mayor Bloomberg's plan to ban large sodas in New York City is already controversial. Some support, and some oppose, the mayor's approach to helping unjunk us. Personally, I think it can be justified -- but I much prefer the carrot to the stick. And I prefer for us all to take health into our own hands whenever possible.
Whichever side of the line you are on, perhaps you'll agree that we can -- and should -- unjunk ourselves, and our kids in particular. This is not about being food police, health dictators, or nutrition nannies. This is about the fact that to the extent that it is humanly possible, vitality should be the birthright of every child.
This is not about what we take away from kids -- it's about we can give them: a better future. Healthy people have more fun. Health is a key ingredient in creating the best and longest life possible. Unjunking ourselves can help us get there. It's among the most valuable, enduring gifts any adult can give a child.
Please watch the video, and help us spread the word. Show it to a kid. And, if possible, please help us grow the music video library.
Today would be a great day to start unjunking a kid you love. And, while you're at it, perhaps you'll want to Unjunk Yourself!
-fin
Dr. David L. Katz; www.davidkatzmd.com
www.turnthetidefoundation.org
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Bettina Elias Siegel: Bloomberg vs. Big Soda: Portion Size, Paternalism and Politics
Stop guilting people over the things that aren't really junk food. I haven't managed to have a guilt free day ever because I still have my decaf coffee and one glass of wine at night (with some cheese that does something but I don't remember what I just know it helped lose weight the nutritionist recommended it). Why do I crave sodium? Because I have to treat it like a grain of salt makes a food a junk food. It's too limiting. Drinking nothing but water isn't gonna happen when I didn't sleep the night before, yes I have an average of 5 -6 cans of coke a week since everything but water and milk is considered junk too much limitation leads to lack of cooperation.
Well apparently that's unhealthy. Red meat is bad for you and roast beef has too much salt. Cheese is mostly fat, not good for you. Whole grain bread? Sounds great... too many carbs. Don't even know why carrots and spinach is unhealthy but apparently they are. And a fruit smoothie beverage? WAY too much sugar. We shouldn't eat grains, we shouldn't eat meat, we shouldn't eat certain vegetables, we should eat less fruit, etc. etc. etc. Diets never work because they require you to eat a very select kind of food (and its different for every diet: carb-free, grain-free, vegan, etc.) and like most people (I think), eating only certain foods at certain times doesn't feel like we're being nourished. I went on a carb-free diet once, I was ALWAYS hungry because I didn't particularly feel like the food I was forced to eat was nourishing me properly.
Bottom line is, eat what you think is fairly good for you, indulge in sweets and treats every so often, and do a reasonable amount of physical activity (even walking 20 minutes a day is fine) and you're "healthy" in my books. Just cus you have a bowl of chips from time to time, most nutritionists and dieticians would chew you out for it. It's insane.
It's hard to unjunk yourself. I find myself mostly eating nuts fruit, cheese, salad and chicken. Things I used to consider if not healthy then at least not harmful like a baked potato are on a no-no list. I need variety!
That's part of the real problem. It would be easier to stay away from Doritos (I went more then a year without them and caved a little last week) if I didn't feel guilty for putting salami instead of chicken on my salad at lunch. It's still a salad! I find if I am going to have salami I put it on a roll now since I have the guilt anyway. What would a doctor prefer? On the salad? thought so then make it so I don't feel guilty for wanting the salami badly to begin with!
UnJunking our lives would be a lot easier if by doing so there would be a lot more options that count. Some spagetti with chicken catchatorie shouldn't make me feel like I am serving an unhealthy meal. We don't keep ice cream, chips, or cookies in the apartment. It would be a lot easier to avoid the obvious junk foods if some of the gray area foods were guilt free. If you have the guilt anyway, you're more likely to go for the bad stuff. Pepperoni and Cheese has to be better then chips but it has the same guilt factor and chips require less work to get.
I've tried to unjunk myself. All it does is lead to cravings for the things I shouldn't have and really like. I tried moderation and not completely eliminating these things and found that what used to be excellent self control at the beginning of my diet weaken significantly. I sound obese but this is what I was in January of 2011 at the doctor. 5' 3" 132lbs still a healthy weight although a 40" waist made me look bigger (part of that is bloat I won't shake until I'm off the pill). From February of 2011 through March of 2012 I was on a diet. I made sure to exercise everyday and extra to compensate for the bad things. All with the help of a nutritionist. I'm hypoglacemic after 9 years of an eating disorder being 5' 1" 80lbs freshnam year in HS (1995-6) and majoring in Dance in college. I can't overdo exercise since I broke my feet 5 times, including last May. I last checked myself at the doctor this past march 5' 3" 123lbs 31" waist. Healthy BMI. In the time since I still exercise as close to daily as time and nature allow and as much as I can if it's been a while (walking). Averaging 45 - 60 minutes a day sometimes more sometimes less.
There is a growing movement to stress to mothers the importance of breast feeding their babies. Maybe there isn't a call to ban formula, but there is the recognition that it's not good for babies.
You can call us extremists or try to pooh pooh us because you don't have the discipline to try changing some food habits that will kill you. Life is much more enjoyable when you're healthy and active. Taking control of what you eat is taking control of your life.
but when I put these veggies in a container, then puree them with my immersion blender, they take on a whole new taste.
I add salt, pepper and Butter Buds and they are filling and delicious !
JFK instituted a fitness program that called for daily exercise in the schools (in my day, called recess). Children played games, ran around, and generally blew off some steam.
Then the children went home, played in the neighborhood, or ran around outside at daycare, and then had supper consisting of meats and veggies, unless it was summer and you got an all veggie supper with cornbread.
Exercise and a reasonable diet are both badly needed today. But I don't like Bloomberg's heavy handed approach.
Come on, lets face it, it seems the policy has been that everyone is out to make a profit at the expense of everyone else, and even if/'when we want to take our health into our own hands, we cannot, because we exist in a global community that is interconnected. We affect each other.
The only way to get us healthy (and live in harmony) is to become mutually responsible and make broader decisions based on full awareness and consideration on how they affect others. We live in a holarchy and need to look at several layers of context beyond our immediate environment. The emerging next generation needs to be educated about this if humanity has any chance of surviving.