As parents, we are responsible for so many health-threatening bad eating habits and chronic diseases our children suffer from in their adult years. We are programming their subconscious with habits and beliefs that they will carry for life. We are doing it because we are passing on what we and generations before us have been programmed with.
We reward them with sweets and candy, cakes and cookies. When they are ill or upset, we comfort them with these same types of food. We even program them to expect fizzy drinks and coca-cola as a treat, and many children drink fizzy drinks like water.
We are teaching them that comfort and treats come in the form of trans-fats and refined sugar, which not only have have milder side-effects such as tooth-decay, but also far more serious ones. Diabetes Type 2 is now an epidemic among children, teenagers and adults, and the main cause of this is because they are subjected to sugar throughout their lives.
Sugar, trans-fats and junk food are the leading causes for today's leading killers - heart disease, strokes, cancer, obesity and diabetes. We, as parents, have a major role in these chronic diseases our children suffer from later in their lives.
Obesity in children is rife and sugar is addictive.
Emotional eating causes severe health problems in adults who binge on sweet foods whenever they are stressed, angry or upset. Why? Because of the association between comfort and sweet food our parents gave us as children, to make us feel better if we hurt ourselves or got upset. We think of sweet food as nurturing.
Many parents don't encourage their children to eat their vegetables for a quiet life and to avoid the tantrums, even though we are making a rod for our own backs... and even more so for theirs.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Up until a certain point in time it wasn’t our fault. We lived in ignorance and access to information was extremely limited.
But now, in the 21st century, there is no excuse because health information, nutritional information is everywhere we turn, we just need to reprogram our minds and most of all, we need to educate ourselves.
Imagine the health of Western society if our children had instead been conditioned to expect fruit as a treat, or some vegetables and hummus for example.
Unfortunately, we are also being fed lies by the advertising industry and it’s all about money, after all the Big Pharma is worth billions. Our sickness is their profit.
I strongly urge you to read 2 of my blogs “The Dairy Deception” HERE
and "You Really Are What You Eat" HERE
Also, here is a short but excellent TED talk by a lady who completely turned the health of her children and husband around purely by researching the food she had been giving them, and changing their eating habits. It really is informative. See below
The key is to educate and reprogram your way of thinking so you can pass the valuable and life-saving information on to your children.