Monkeys, by nature, have enough sense to consume from the earth. They like leaves, bananas and tasty bugs filled with protein. But, we human beings have managed to mess up the healthy, happy lifestyles of the monkey kingdom by pumping them with processed poisons that we know cause disease and death.
I can remember growing up in a McDonalds world and thinking that if I did good on my report card, got all smiley faces on my conduct chart and refrained from getting on my grandmas nerves while grocery shopping that I would get a Happy Meal! Yes, a HAPPY MEAL! There was nothing like being a kindergartner and getting a Happy Meal. My favorite toy had to be the “Pretty Princess Barbie Doll”. It was a solid plastic doll, stood about five inches tall with a thin strip of synthetic blond hair, painted on facial makeup and a seemingly perfect painted smile. That was the life! I don’t remember much about the food — just that I preferred the plain burger with fries as long as it had a toy (even if it was the same toy, which was most often the case). I also remember that if my grandmother bought it I was going to eat it; “waste not, want not”, she would often times tell me.
My memory does not serve me as to how many other places had these types of kid targeted meals — but Mickey D’s (the street name sometimes used to refer to McDonald’s), was my childhood treat of choice. Heck, everybody my age was happy to eat at the place with the “golden arch”.
New research, news stories and an ominous amount of cases of childhood obesity in now being linked to places like McDonalds with a focus on their marketing practices – leaving many thinking that our children’s meals may not be so, “happy”.
Is it just me, or have you noticed that kids are getting, um, bigger…faster than when you were a kid? And I am not just talking about height. Some of these 10 year-olds have so much “meat on their bones” that even Oprah is soapboxing about childhood obesity. (And I am not trying to imply that Oprah is big boned…I am just saying, it’s not like the media icon was winning “Presidential Fitness” championships in high school.)
Apparently, childhood obesity doesn’t only impact your ability to run around the playground. According to a new study by the Journal of Pediatrics, it can also make you start puberty earlier, especially if you are a young African American girl. Get this, almost 43% of African American girls had started puberty by the age 8! That’s 25% higher than white girls!
We’ve all heard about the “childhood obesity epidemic,” but the truth is it’s not about kids who are too lazy to exercise or parents who are too lazy to cook healthy food. It’s about the ways that we’ve built our communities and designed our food system over the last fifty years. Why don’t our schools stay open after hours so that families have a safe place to hang out and play? Why don’t local stores offer anything besides liquor, cigarettes, and junk food? The 40 youth leaders who run werefedup.com get that obesity is a lot more complicated than people making bad choices, and they’re doing something about it.
Let’s tip the scales after the jump! … Continue Reading
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