Unhealthy children often become unhealthy adults and new research backs up the sad reality of America's never-ending health epidemic. But how much does the perpetually sick state of America have to do with our access to healthy food?
United Health's Center for Reform and Modernization this month published a paper entitled "The United States of Diabetes," which estimates that 52 percent of American adults will be diabetic or prediabetic in 10 years.
They note that currently about 15 percent of American adults are diabetic and project "that over the next decade, the nation may spend almost $3.4 trillion on diabetes-related care."
Type 2 diabetes is largely preventable through healthy eating and exercise, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that there are certain genetic factors that increase the likelihood of developing it.
The CDC says that while kids are usually diagnosed with the hereditary type 1 diabetes, "in the last two decades, type 2 diabetes has been reported among US children and adolescents with increasing frequency."
Type 2 diabetes is most usually triggered by obesity, which is an indicator of a sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits.
"The epidemics of obesity and the low level of physical activity among young people, as well as exposure to diabetes in utero, may be major contributors to the increase in type 2 diabetes during childhood and adolescence," according to the CDC.
But because eating healthy food is expensive, obesity and diabetes often plague both adults and children who are considered low-income more so than wealthier Americans.
According to research conducted by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), 46.6 million children under age 18—or 42 percent of American kids—live in poor and low-income families, up from 37 percent in 2000.
Their research also suggests that the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) isn't a realistic measure of the true costs of living in the U.S. While the FPL in 2010 was $22,050 for a family of four, the NCCP says that doubling that figure provides a more realistic amount of money needed by the average family to pay for basic necessities.
So how are these millions of kids and their parents supposed to decrease their risks of becoming obese and developing type 2 diabetes when they're having a tough enough time earning enough money to put any food on the table at all?
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act could provide some assistance. With a similar bill passed by the Senate earlier this year, everyone from government officials to food activists are urging the House of Representatives to pass their version of the bill before the session ends next month.
The bill would increase funding to schools across the country to help offer healthier school lunch foods and create "national baseline standards for all foods sold in elementary, middle, and high schools to ensure they contribute effectively to a healthy diet."
But it seems to me that while the passing of this bill would help in getting healthy food to kids whose families have trouble providing healthy meals at home, it's not an end-all solution to those grim diabetes predictions over the next decade.
After all, even in wealthy places like Blind Brook, where there's an above-average amount of money to fund healthy food, there are still vending machines offering soda and junk food. After spending just an hour observing a typical lunch period in the high school's cafeteria back in April, I can tell you that the lines for the vending machines are much longer than the lines for the salad bar. Even though school districts like Blind Brook offer some healthy options, there's a lot of work ahead if schools are to altogether stop offering unhealthy corn syrup and preservative-laden products.
While wealthier school districts can more easily obtain healthier food for students, poorer districts rely on meager government dollars to help feed kids what is often the majority of their caloric intake for the entire day. And when you need to purchase more food for less money, you're going to turn to the cheap stuff like refined grains, cheap processed meats and very few whole foods.
So while the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act may bring some extra dollars to school districts, I think the way we think culturally about food has to change if we're going to reduce our obesity and diabetes rates over the next decade.
Every day I notice a new glimmer of hope, though. Just last week, the House passed a bill that designates October as National Farm to School Month, which will make it easier for schools to access locally-sourced food for their cafeterias. Hopefully this will mean less frozen, preserved stuff going onto kids' lunch trays, especially in communities where families are struggling to feed their children.
It's never too late to turn around the sick state of America. The costs to our bodies is catastrophic, as are the social and economic burdens that we all share.
So while people like Sarah Palin may knock Michelle Obama's childhood obesity campaign by saying it's just another government intrusion into peoples' personal lives, I think it's more practical to use the political process (however crooked and corrupt it is) to our advantage as everyday Americans.
By teaching our kids why it's best to know where you food comes from (and feel good about it) as well as the ability to use willpower to make smart eating choices, we're taking small steps in the right direction. Whether our policy makers choose to make the big steps they need to—including reducing subsidies on cheap grains like corn and helping our nation's struggling families by passing meaningful legislation—well, I guess that remains to be seen.
source: rye.patch
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