Nutrition Specialists Spanish Fork UT

How to Create a Sickly Adult…

This is a guest post from Joel Fuhrman, MD:

We’re now the most overweight nation in the world, with the most diabetics per capita. Sadly, the number of children taking medications for type-2 diabetes has doubled from 2002 to 2005, destining them to an early death.

The rise in consumption of processed foods and fast foods predicts a dismal health outcome for children today. Sickly and overweight children usually have parents with bad health habits. If you’d like to raise an unhealthy adult, here’s what you need do:

• Start drinking soda. And encourage your children to do so! Sugar, artificial sweeteners and caffeine are all addictive substances, linked to both obesity and overweight.

• Keep unhealthy snack foods in the house, like sweetened drinks, chips, pretzels, cookies, sugary granola and cold cereals. If it’s packed with sugar, salt and preservatives—buy it!

• Allow other parents to help ruin your child’s health. Let them feed your kids chips, crackers, cookies and candies after school activities and soccer games, and especially when they’re just sitting around playing video games!

• Sell cookies and candies door-to-door. Teach your child that disease-causing foods are okay to serve others. It is okay to promote dangerous foods to raise money. And make sure they know you’re bringing them to work to sell too!

• Avoid exercise! And do not exercise with your children. Children, who are physically active, have parents who are too. Parents with sedentary recreational habits usually have children who do the same. Keep this a secret.

• Barbeque burgers and hot dogs and serve processed meats such as bacon, baloney, ham and pastrami; known to be linked to cancer. Make sure you drown these in mayonnaise too.

• Melt cheese on everything!

• Be overweight, rationalize why it’s okay and be pleased when your child is larger than their peers. Tell them, football players have to be “big and strong” and have them eat to bulk up for sports.

• Eat at fast food restaurants and order anything fried, especially with bacon, melted cheese, mayonnaise and deep-fried candy bars. Always over-order and insist your kid does the same.

• Don’t cook or serve fruits and vegetables. Never let your kids seeing you eating them. Don’t even buy them.

Obviously I’m not seriously suggesting you do this, but far too many parents do it without even realizing they’re doing any harm to child. The most important thing to remember i...