BeanDiet

Obviously, I must comment on today's headline. You know, the one where children who are at risk for heart disease (occurs in family members, or children are obese) are to have their blood cholesterol screened as early as age two, and are recommended to be given med.s (statins) as early as age eight.

Anyone else thinking, "Instead of giving kids cholesterol-lowering meds, why not change their diet? I mean, why not change the root cause instead of treating the symptom????" Oh yes, I bet you are.

So here's Bronwyn's scoop on why children as young as two years old are obese and have high cholesterol: First, let's ask ourselves, have very young children had a long history of obesity and high cholesterol? No, in fact this is a very recent phenomenon. So then we ask, what has changed in our food supply and in our food consumption? Now, this is where it gets interesting...

1) Milk consumption

As I've mentioned before, cows in the U.S. today are treated with more steroid hormones and more antibiotics (which mimic steriod hormones: "endocrine mimicking properties") than ever before in history. Also, toxic substances have a way of concentrating as they move up the food chain - known as bioaccumulation - and toxins as have "endrocrine mimicking properties", or act like steroid hormones in our body. So, if we give our children cow milk today, we can be sure they are receiving PLENTY of growth hormones. Unfortunately, those steroid or growth hormones cause fat cells to grow faster and bigger, as well as cancer cells.

Now it's being recommended that obese or potentially obese children are given lower fat milk. But again, this would not remove the growth hormones we find in conventionally produced cow milk. Also, even organic milk will contain naturally-occuring steroid hormones meant for a calf, not a human baby.

Also, if that child is drinking milk from a bottle after one year of age, he's being set up for obesity. Children self-soothe with bottles (as they do with pacifiers or thumbs), but during this soothing, they consume myriad unnecessary calories and create a habit of self-soothing with food that will likely last a lifetime.

2) Meat, eggs, cheese and yogurt

Everything I just wrote about milk would be the same for these foods, although in their first few years most children consume far more milk than these foods.

3) Trans-fats

Along with children with high cholesterol, trans-fats in our food supply are also relatively new. In fact, I believe they coincide rather ironically. Trans-fats play a large part in contributing to LDL (bad) cholesterol. These fats come from partially-hydrogenated oils found in almost all processed foods - even those that say "No Trans-fats", since legally they are allowed to round .5 grams trans-fat/serving down to zero. Particularly disturbing is that studies have even found trans-fats show up in breastmilk.

So, what should we do about high cholesterol and obesity in children? I think the answer is just a tad obvious, but just to be clear: get these kids on a unprocessed, plant-based diet. It's really not that hard. Most kids love legumes like beans, nuts, seeds, and lentils. Most kids like whole grains when there's no other option. Almost all kids like fruit, even if they're not crazy about vegetables. And most kids like soy, rice or almond milk when switched off cow-milk.

So if you know someone struggling with an "at risk" child, will you please let them know there's a solution much better than drugs?