Foods Damaging To Children's Health

We're here to warn you, this stuff is not for kids. It's time for parent tips. There are some things that will totally ruin your children's health, yet are marketed as fun kids' food.

You've seen them before. They come dressed in freaky fun colors, emblazoned with wild gleeful characters, and they may even have a gotta-have-it toy sequestered deep within the box. It's the kind of food that, once your kids see it, will make them turn into "mommy-can-I-have-it-mommy-can-I-have-it" monsters until you give in to their demands.

What's Wrong With the Food?

A recent study, conducted by the Prevention Institute, has spilled the beans on the unhealthy foods that are causing a negative effect on our children's health. The institute conducted a random sampling of children's foods to get a scoop on what's in the so-called children's food. Added sugar is in nearly (95%) of all children's food items. A whopping 57% actually edged into the "high sugar" category.

One-quarter of the children's food contained high amounts of saturated fats (that's the bad kind of fat). 21% contained artificial food coloring (food coloring which contains undisputed side effects, most of them negative). To top it all off, many of the foods were packaged and advertised in such a way that they touted possible health benefits. Some boasted labels with healthy marketing jargon. Others highlighted the presence of some "healthy" grain like oatmeal, despite the fact that said oatmeal is congealed into a blob of chocolate-flavored high fructose corn syrup. Other children's food resorted to slogans like "25% less sugar," or "vitamin fortified," perhaps hoping that you won't comprehend that vitamin fortified sugar bombs are really just sugar bombs with vitamins in them. Below the belt techniques aimed directly at kids and their food lacked the upside of a healthy pseudo-promise using flashy colors, free toys, movie characters, etc marketed directly at our kids.).

We're just sayin', this stuff is not for kids. Come to think of it, it's probably not for adults either.

Where to Find the Bad Food So where do you find these evil foods lurking? You don't have to look to far, sadly. In fact, you may just have to glance back at your kids' menu for the past week. Have you had a sip of fruit juice? Did they eat some cereal? A granola bar? A Pop-Tart? A sandwich? Some soup?

Then chances are, they imbibed an ingredient with too much sugar, too much fat, too much artificial junk, and too much nasty. Seriously.

In the Prevention Institute Study, researchers took a random cross sample of children's foods and tested them against mediocre health standards. Here are some of the things that they tested-and which failed the test:

What to Do if You Give In? As you glance over the list above, do you find yourself guilty of giving your kids unhealthy food? Chances are, you've done it at some point. Well, we promised you parent tips, not a parent scolding, so here it comes. Daycare, school and friends are dangerous to your children's health, only you can really prevent. You're in the driver's seat. You should be making choices that benefit their health.

Did you know that one-third of American' children are overweight? It's the improper marketing of children's foods and the resultant capitulation of children's parents (that's you) that have plunged us to such disturbing lows in terms of children's health. It's time for a change. Your children's health is your children's future. As part of a plan for type 2 diabetes prevention and overall well-being, steer clear of the junk and opt instead for whole foods, fresh foods, fruits, and vegetables.

Good nutrition doesn't happen by accident, but neither does bad nutrition. Every time you reach for another sugary product on the shelf or order another grease-fried-preservative-loaded-artificially-flavored french fry carton, you're making a choice. A bad one. At the end of the day, we can demonize the evil food manufacturers or marketing people as long as we want. That's not going to change a whole lot. The decision to buy or not buy the trashy food is completely up to you—the parent.