Question: What do you get when Whole Foods (Earth Fare wannabe), the YMCA, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and government join forces to organize and implement a boots on the ground, neighborhood-focused, childhood anti-obesity campaign?
Answer: Fatter kids!
This is exactly what is happening in Sulphur Springs, an underprivileged community near downtown Tampa, Florida. Startlingly, at least 40% of first grade children in Sulphur Springs are already overweight or obese!
The Embrace A Healthy Florida initiative which Whole Foods, the Y and Blue Cross are involved with aims to change these sobering stats.
Problem is, their recommended healthy breakfast is bagels and fresh fruit which will do nothing but pack more pounds on these children already struggling with weight issues.
Not only does this type of breakfast provide basically no fat or protein, it is also high in sugar (fruit) and refined carbs (bagels – even if organic and whole grain) which will spike and then drop the blood sugar in these children who are already on a blood sugar see saw – the inevitable fast track to diabetes and other chronic illnesses.
What these children really need is 2 eggs, preferably free range, fried up in butter for breakfast. Now that’s a breakfast that will help trim the backside, steady the blood sugar, and provide excellent concentration during school for optimal learning.
Even a full fat yogurt smoothie with some fresh fruit blended into it would be a huge improvement over the bagel with fresh fruit approach! A sprouted or sourdough bagel loaded up thick with butter would be fine too but you can be sure that there was no Real Butter to be found at this neighborhood sponsored “healthy” breakfast.
It is very sad to see such well meaning programs that have failure stamped on them from the get go.
Until the entrenched thinking that whole unprocessed fats such as butter and eggs are somehow unhealthy changes, however, American children will continue to get fatter and fatter as they are plied with whole grains and fruit for breakfast – the most important meal of the day and a real trigger for overweight unless done right.
It is the parents and caregivers who are able to think outside the box and realize that the USDA Food Plate and Food Pyramid are nothing but a political sham and that Traditional Foods for breakfast are ideal which are high in fat and protein with no refined carbs who truly have a fighting chance to preserve and protect their children from the ravages of the childhood obesity epidemic.
What I have realized is that parents are not educated and they believe souly on what the FDA, and other organizations say so its sad that they don’t know. I know that some parents are too lazy or don’t care to change their diet.
It’s simple, change their diet and see what happens. Nothing can hurt from where they already at.
I agree that these aren’t the most healthy foods…it’s much better then what they serve at the public schools here where I live. Nothing but boxed cereals (Lucky Charms, Coco Puffs, etc) and pancakes drenched in syrup. And here they do the (government run) free luches in the park during the summer…and those lunches are a nightmare! They always affer lost of fruits and veggies, but the other options are frighteningly unhealthy! They had a “protein bar” that had 40g of sugar! And a chicken sandwich that was so processed it didn’t resemble meat at all! I have taken my kids a couple times and I am so thankful that they are such good eaters…all they will eat are the fruit and veggies. They know fake food when they see it…and they are 2 and 4!
the breakfast they are serving is also exactly what would be served in any USDA CACFP program in a day care, school, or elder care home. Wow.
Don’t you know it! I worked as the Snack Aid for a private preschool here in town and was given a budget and suggestions for snacks. They used Pillsbury canned biscuit dough for just about every snack (boy can that be made into a lot of food items!) and of course fruit juice with everything. When I tried to do better foods, I was met with resistance from the staff, most of whom were overweight by the way. They wanted more junk foods and less fresh fruit, veggies, cheese, etc. I finally quite after the frustration and boredom set in! One of the teachers was so happy that a preschool she visited served……doughnuts and orange juice!! I said, “Well, that will jack their blood sugar up and make for some real behavior issues.” It fell on deaf ears. Sigh.
I remember the day long, long ago where I had to fast for blood work. I was then sooo hungry that I stopped at the local Bruegers for a Bagel with cream cheese. I cannot remember what I had to drink. At this time I ate more than I ever ate at breakfast and was famished throughout the entire day. I knew I made a BIG mistake. I cannot see how a kid is supposed to sit through school like that.
I do struggle with my 12 year old eating the right things in the morning though.
The processed carbs like bagels and fruits really are a problem, even though those foods are billed as healthy… especially because they are not getting any type of healthy fats or proteins to go along with it. These organizations do a lot of damage to people’s perceptions of what’s healthy and what’s not due to their massive marketing and influence upon our society.
Hi Sarah – WF bombs again! I worked at my local YMCA for 3 years, and spent a lot of my time and effort trying to head up an initiative to develop a healthy nutrition education program for kids and parents. I taught a nutrition class once a week in the Youth Activity Center and brought handouts and healthy snacks for the kids. The kids loved what I brought – raw cheeses and nuts, organic fruits and vegetables, real hummus with olive oil, almond butter, etc. And the parents raved about it. But the staff was, as you might imagine, my biggest roadblock. The person I worked with, The Fitness and Wellness Director, was a graduate of the conventional-farming-and-agriculture curriculum, so her head was as thick as a wall. She opposed me at every turn and was very beligerent toward my philosophy (no surprise). After 3 years, I decided to leave because I was getting nowhere but frustrated. From what I’ve seen, the YMCA continually pushes the exercise and eat low-fat, low-calorie mantra, and offers the most horrific food at their snack bar for members to eat. The kids were invariably eating those foods or something they’d brought in from the surrounding area – Taco Bell, Subway, or something similar. Some of them would be stuck at the Y all day while their parents were at work for 9+ hours, with little or no lunch money and no home-packed lunch. It made me so sad, and I was often to be found giving kids a dollar or two here and there so they could go buy lunch (albeit an unhealthy one). Before I left in the summer of 2009, they decided to eliminate the nutrition class until school started up again because the Idaho Food Bank was offering free lunches to kids every day on the Y premises. And their lunches were the lowest of the low: sandwiches with processed lunch meats and cheese, hormone and antibiotic filled chocolate milk, a piece of fruit, and a cookie or some other processed dessert.
Yes, the YMCA is completely clueless about Real Nutrition and what keeps folks healthy and kids from getting fat. They just exercise, exercise, exercise which gets these kids absolutely nowhere as they have no energy to work out as they are eating grains and sugars all the time which makes you dead tired. And, after the sports events the kids are given gatorade and refined snacks to eat. What a bunch of nonsense.
For about the past two weeks, I’ve been reading about and following an eating plan that sounds so much like what you are saying here. I have no idea if I”m losing weight (my ultimate goal), but I do know that I’m less tired in the past few days, so I’m going to work on it some more. Thanks for giving me more confirmation that this is a good plan for me.
I agree. Protein is SOOOOO important to fill you up, get your brain working and all without jacking up the blood sugar…sigh. I am VERY disappointed in all of those organizations.
That’s so true. I was just thinking yesterday about how most of our society is getting it all wrong. We pay attention to limiting fat and calories, and reason that a food is a food is a food. And it’s okay to splurge on treats every once in a while as long as we balance it with exercise. It’s truly so eye opening to go from this mentality to learning what particular foods do to your gut for example…or your blood sugar. Unfortunately many people won’t find out about this wrong way of eating until faced with some kind of health challenge (however minor). I know for me, I wouldn’t know probably half of what I’ve learned had it not been for searching for answers to our family’s allergy issues.
Weight issues, attention issues…yeah. This is why my kids get eggs and vegis for breakfast. Sometimes oatmeal. My oldest focuses sooo much better in school because of the switch.