Posted on 03/21/2005 2:28:06 AM PST by CarrotAndStick
Recently, in a tête-à-tête with fans, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he wants to ban all sales of junk food in California schools.
He disclosed he wanted vending machines that dispense fresh fruits, vegetables and milk in their place.
Radical? Not really.
Talk to dieticians, school counsellors, even educationists, and you will find that Schwarzenegger has probably said something very close to their heart.
Says Swati Popat, director, Podar Jumbo Kids, Mumbai, "We have a whole generation of kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. And the reason for this is largely [the kind of] food [that children eat]."
If you think your child is naughty and half an hour of him/ her is enough to exhaust you, it might be wise to check the food you are giving your child. Junk food might just be the culprit.
Please note, though: there is a difference between junk food and fast food.
Sports nutritionist and child counsellor Sejal Mehta says, "Fast food is food that is fast to cook. Idli is fast food and highly nutritious. [But] Junk food harms the system with empty calories. It has no proteins and vitamins. For instance, aerated drinks fill your stomach with carbon dioxide and decays the food in your intestine. The high sugar content slows down the blood circulation in the brain.
"The child feels full and is instantly energised. The energy then dissipates and the child is left lethargic in half an hour. S/he then wants more of the stuff, thus causing addiction."
So what is junk food, really?
Junk food is a slang word for foods with limited nutritional value.
To put it simply, foods high in salt, sugar, fat or calories and low nutrient content can be termed junk food.
Salted snack foods, candy, gum, most desserts, fried fast food and carbonated beverages are some of the major junk foods.
So if your child has fries at McDonald's or decides to wolf down vada pav at the roadside, or simply have some good old pav bhaji that mommy made at home, s/he is consuming junk food.
Any over-cooked food or food that is cooked in high heat kills nutrition. What you consume then is fibre.
All packed food contains preservatives. Most contain food colouring. But both are harmful and often contain carcinogenic substances.
When your child consumes foods like these, s/he could develop allergies like asthma and skin rashes.
Homeopath Rajiv Menon says he categorically tells parents to stop their children from eating all pre-packed snacks and stop aerated drinks when they come to him for prolonged allergies and asthma attacks. "Half the time, they don't even require medication after that," he says.
A step in the right direction
Some schools in India are taking a stand about children's diet, though. Take the Podar schools all over India. They seem to be imposing good eating habits among their students.
Says Dr Devika Paul, a parent, "I was surprised when my kindergarten-going daughter Priyanka told me not to pick up a packet of Ruffles [pre-packed crisps]. She told me it was bad to eat and her teacher would not allow her to carry it to school."
At Podar Jumbo Kids, parents whose kids have gained admission to the pre-primary school are surprised when they are counselled about food.
"The right diet is important for school-going kids," says Popat. "We give a food timetable to parents. They are free to work around it. For instance, on Monday, children are allowed to bring in cooked or uncooked cereal. On Tuesday, it is only fruit. On Wednesday, they are told to bring bran bread or chapattis with vegetables.
"We tell parents to avoid chapattis, though. They tend to get rubbery and can be hard on tender jaws. We also tell parents mandatorily that children cannot bring in pre-packed food, wafers and sweetened water in any form. We encourage children to drink water. The more water [you drink], the more oxygen [supplied] to the body."
As for parents, Popat says, "Mothers don't like it. It is so much easier to pack a Peppy [pre-packed crisps] for dabba along with a Frooti."
A school teacher at Arya Vidya Mandir, Bandra, Mumbai, says she noticed all 40 children in her class brought packed snacks to school. This causes a chain reaction. If ten children bring packed food to school, the rest, too, want to bring the same thing.
It is better if the school bans junk food at school, says another school counsellor.
Parents, heed this!
Perhaps an easier way would be to educate adults and children on how to judge the food you eat.
i. First, while buying pre-packed, convenience food, check the list of ingredients and nutrition facts label found on packages.
Keep an eye out for sugar, fat or salt as one of the first three ingredients. If any of these are listed high in the ingredients, consider that food to be very high in sugar, fat or salt.
The high sugar content in junk food causes tooth decay, increased tendency for blood clots, decreased levels of good cholesterol, increased levels of blood fat associated with diabetes and heart disease, and childhood obesity.
Says Meenal Rajani, "I just spent Rs 7,000 on root canal treatment for my 11-year-old son."
At Chaturbhuj Narsee Memorial and ND Parikh pre-primary school, Mumbai, children are served healthy snacks, like sprouted bhel, sandwiches, idlis, khichdi curry, patties stuffed with vegetables, unmashed pav bhaji. "And the children love it immensely," says a teacher.
ii. The nutritional information on the label also registers the number of calories per serving, grams of fat, sodium, cholesterol, fibre and sugar content. This information will make you more cautious and select the foods to reduce your child's nutritional health risk.
iii. Studies show that the colour of food affects us, too.
According to Monisha Bharadwaj, writer of Indian Luck Book: How To Bring Luck Into Your Life, the colours of some food are important. Some can calm you, while some act as anti-depressants. Some are stimulating, while others can be antiseptic (see below).
So are all junk foods bad?
"Not really," says Anjali Bose, dietician. "If you can balance junk food with a fruit or a whole vegetable, it is okay, really. Junk foods may have higher levels of fat, salt and sugar, but they still contain nutrients and can be considered a small part of a healthy diet.
"A general rule of thumb is to eat fresh, healthy foods about 90 per cent of the time, and indulge in junk foods no more than 10 per cent of the time."
Here's to healthy eating!
How colours in food influence our health
~ Blue
Examples: Raisins, blue plums, mushrooms. Characteristics: Antiseptic, soporific. They affect: The mouth, throat and respiratory system. They induce calm and restful sleep without nightmares. ~ Green
Examples: Green grapes, coriander, cucumber, milk and milk products. Characteristics: Calming, relaxing. They affect: The ears, arms, digestive system, heart. They impart energy to your body. ~ Yellow
Examples: Yellow lentils, bananas, pineapple, corn. Characteristics: Cleansing, laxative, harmonising. They affect: The stomach, liver, nervous system. They calm the mind, promote well-being and happiness. ~ Orange
Examples: Mangoes, carrots, egg yolk, papayas. Characteristics: Tonic, appetite-builder, anti-depressant. They affect: The legs, stomach, the circulatory system. They protect against air pollution and the sun's ultraviolet rays. ~ Red
Examples: Berries, kidney beans, tomatoes Characteristics: Warming, stimulating. They affect: The kidneys, bladder, muscular system. Excessive amounts can cause anger, irritability and hyperactivity. Illustration: Dominic Xavier
By the way, if you think I am posting too many India-related posts here, I'd be thankful to you if you could indicate to me if I am being inconsiderate.Not a problem here with India related posts. If they're appropriate, I don't think anyone does. And many would like to see them, I'm sure.
I think what bd476 was trying to tell you is that he knows a bit about Hinduism and some of the info you posted in replies here on your thread is from blog sources, and that they are opinion and factually incorrect. There is where the debate is to be had, perhaps.
However you have now deliberately lied in an attempt to what, attack me? Please stop.
That's what I've been trying to convince him of. The sources I gave were official sites of the authors of those editorials. I even took the trouble to search their archives for the original article, and have pasted links to the very same. But apparantly, he wouldn't accept.
And a little bit of fault lies in me too, perhaps, since I did post an earlier piece from a blog-like site. But the reason for posting it was because it had elements in it which could be used to verify the content. For example, verses with their numbers were present on the piece, and it wouldn't be too much trouble to use them to check for errors.
My ex-wife is British.She used to tell me that they spoke English and we speak American.
The old expression that the problem between Americans and the English is that they speak two different languages is true in a lot of ways.
When I married her, she had three kids. Two sons, 12 and 14, and a daughter, 17. They were raised in the U.S. from babies. The daughter remembered a little bit about England before they moved here. So, for the most part, they were raised here.
I still laugh when I think about what the two boys would do when they heard their Mom use the word "fag" when talking about cigarettes. They found that most hilarious, and would roll with laughter when she'd say "fag".
Is it hard to make miso soup at home? I'd love to.
I too thought "fag" meant "to smoke a cigarette" for a long time, until an American friend pointed out to me what it meant to them! 'Faggot' was a word unknown to me until then.
" Is it hard to make miso soup at home? I'd love to. "
Easy . Sure there must be a recipe on-line . If not let me know and I'll give you instructions !
"If you were referring to infanticide in India, did you forget the thousands of foetus flushings(a.k.a abortion) that happens in the US daily?"
On the contrary. That was what I was referring to.
Some say make dashi, some say use water. What do you do?
My wife and I use water . " Buta jiru " is also very nice assuming you eat a bit of meat and are not vegetarian . Get your butcher to slice some pork paper thin for you . Thinly slice some carrots and Japanese radish ( daikon ) if you can find one , and cut up some firm tofu in small cubes and cook all that together . Yummy !
The only place I could get beef was in New Delhi and I was in that turd world country 3 months.
Strange.
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