While reviewing for test 2 tomorrow, I found myself stuck thinking about the nutrition section of the “Physical Growth and Development in Infancy” assigned reading. In this section the text states, “Caregivers play very important roles in infants’ early development of eating patterns.” Later, a study is cited that provided the percentage of four to twenty four month old infants in America who eat enough fruit and vegetables per day. The study revealed that one third of babies consume no fruits and vegetables, about half were fed sugary foods, and French fries were the most common vegetables that American babies eat! Can french fries even be considered a vegetable??
I am an applied health major at Montana Tech, so maybe this is why my desire for health is strong. However, either way I believe this is a huge reason why our nation is extremely obese. One third of females will get cancer in their life time, and one half of males will get cancer in their life time. Those statistics are scary, but what is scarier is the fact that cancer is the SECOND leading cause of death in America. Heart disease is the number one killer, and almost completely avoidable with proper nutrition and exercise.
In conclusion, I would like to ask why you would have a precious child only to bring them into a world where you feed them junk. Most of the babies that I know are fed Gerber cans of fruits and vegetables daily, but once they are old enough to talk they choose to eat the crap that mom and dad provide. Our bodies are not designed to consume processed, fried, or not natural foods.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Katie-- I agree with you 100% as caregivers we should be feeding our children the most healthest food possible not fast food (french fries.) In my option french fries are not consider a vegetable because after all the oils they are cooked in it doesn't make them a HEALTHY vegetable. Children don't know what's right or wrong to eat and it's our job to teach them what to eat and what to stay away from. Yes, most parents in the United States do not do this, which has led to obese to many American children and adults. I would love to see a change with how citizens of America eat and hopefully lower the percentage of obese people in the world.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult for me to grasp some of the findings in these sudies. The study sited that reaveals one third of childeren ages 4 to 24 months old do not eat fruits and vegtable is truely shocking! At four months of age, I can undersand, these babies are most likely still on rice cereal. After 6 months however this is hard to believe. I wonder what effect this has on a babies temperment? Can you imagine feeding a one year old a bunch of sugar and greese, things like french fries. This is hard on an adults digestive system, I can't imagine an infant or toddle feels very good after such a diet.Also, childeren are learnig so much at these stages of development, I wonder what sort of impact these types of diets have on this process? I will look for some studies.
ReplyDeleteStacy
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI to agree with you on this subject. Children do not have a choice on what they get to eat. It is the parents choice on what the child gets to eat. Today most parents jsut try to get their child fed quickly, with little time and effort on their part.
My oppinion is that time is the number one reason that the nation is obese. People do not want to take the time to perpare proper meals for themselves, let alone their children. This is a devastating situation for people and childrens nutritional developement. Being a parent myself, my wife and I paln a two week dinner schedual in advance. We do this so that we can have nutrious meals set for our family. It is time consuming, but it is best for our family. If every body just took the time to take care of this it would not be such a problrm.