Veganism, or even vegetarianism, would go far to reduce childhood obesity, but getting some people to change what they eat is not an easy thing. It would be good though to see schools make one or both of those choices.
I would also think it would decrease some of the illnesses that are prevalent in young children like autism, asthma, ADHD, childhood diabetes, obesity, etc. It is certainly alarming that many young children under the age of 13 are now being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, as reported by a friend that used to work for Kaiser Permanente in Honolulu. Twenty-five years ago this was almost unheard of, but is now becoming more common.
The onset of Type II diabetes, a fat disease, most often occurred in adults over 50 years of age, not in kids. And if anyone is to be blamed it has to be the fast food industry. So, you combine fat from oils and flesh foods with excess sugar and salt and you have a fat little kid with Type II diabetes.
My friend said that even back in the 90’s there were many physicians who did not approve the use of antibiotics to treat flu’s or colds in their patients. But, the factory farmed animals, the cows, all fowl, sheep, pigs, etc. are regularly fed antibiotics and growth hormones to appear healthy and to grow faster. As we know, there is a direct correlation between antibiotic resistance in humans and the consumption of factory-farmed flesh.
In medicine, it’s well known that if antibiotics are regularly administered to patients to treat viral-related conditions, which do not respond to antibiotics, the patients will build up a resistance to it and the antibiotic will no longer be effective to treat the condition for which it was intended.
My friend told me that she did some research a few years ago and found that 85 percent of all antibiotics manufactured by Big Pharma in the U.S. are not sold to medical facilities but rather to farm factories, with less than 15 percent sold to the hospitals or clinics.
From an animal standpoint, there are millions of farmed animals that are destroyed annually due to not being able to be sold for consumption because they suffered adverse reactions to the antibiotics they were being given daily; primarily deformities and organ failure.
Administration of antibiotics and growth hormones to animals is a cruel practice and needs to stop. We need to advocate for better farm conditions for animals in order to decrease the spread of bacterial infections. When chickens, cows or pigs are kept in overcrowded conditions, it is easy for bacteria to spread; thus the overuse of antibiotics. And why are they kept in overcrowded conditions? To enable the farmer to house more animals in the same amount of space increasing their profit margin. Once again, it all boils down to money.
We could advocate for vegan/vegetarian meals in the schools, but we would be up against the big-moneyed factory farm owners who stand to lose billions of dollars in sales and profits. The farm industry has a huge lobby group in Congress, and elected officials, who represent farming states, obviously get regular campaign contributions from the farm lobby, and that includes Hawaii.
Again, it’s the same ole’ argument: profits over people. These big cattle ranchers and factory farm owners are convinced that the flesh they produce is safe for consumption, so why the hell are we trying to get people to stop eating flesh and blood? Meat provides the protein that growing kids need, and on and on, endlessly. I guess they never heard of beans, lentils, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice or tofu, what to speak of all the protein to be found in spinach, kale, and other leafy greens.
On the west side of Oahu, offering vegan meals would be a blessing due to the fact that the childhood obesity rate is way higher than in the more affluent parts of the island. It would be way interesting to see what would happen to the kids if the schools in those areas would accept the idea of offering vegan foods to the students there and it would be interesting to see the health of the kids who suffer from childhood medical problems improve by eating a vegan diet.
But, that ain’t never gonna happen. About seven years ago or so, a bill was heard that advocated that vegan meals shall be offered in the public schools. That bill was defeated by two governmental departments – the Dep’t of Health and the Dep’t of Education. Then the bill was revised and said that vegan meals should be offered in the schools, meaning they now had the choice to serve the foods or not. The bill passed. To this day, the meals never changed and the kids get fatter and sicker.
What’s sickening is to know that the DOH and the DOE, the very two departments that should encourage healthier eating, are still selling Hawaii’s kids down the river!
Go to a school for lunch and you will find crappy hot dogs full of carcinogens, as well as non-organic foods and GMOs. And yet they question why the kids have so many medical problems.
The solution? Homeschooling! Public schools, as a whole, simply undermine not only the kids’ health, but the very foundation of the family, which is the primary source of stability of the kids.
The other problem is that the DOE and our state/federal government want teachers to groom “sheeple” and not encourage creative thinking. It’s as if public schools are just like a fast food conveyor belt. Bring um in, spit um out, and kill um with degenerative diseases.
Aloha!
The onset of Type II diabetes, a fat disease, most often occurred in adults over 50 years of age, not in kids. And if anyone is to be blamed it has to be the fast food industry. So, you combine fat from oils and flesh foods with excess sugar and salt and you have a fat little kid with Type II diabetes.
My friend said that even back in the 90’s there were many physicians who did not approve the use of antibiotics to treat flu’s or colds in their patients. But, the factory farmed animals, the cows, all fowl, sheep, pigs, etc. are regularly fed antibiotics and growth hormones to appear healthy and to grow faster. As we know, there is a direct correlation between antibiotic resistance in humans and the consumption of factory-farmed flesh.
In medicine, it’s well known that if antibiotics are regularly administered to patients to treat viral-related conditions, which do not respond to antibiotics, the patients will build up a resistance to it and the antibiotic will no longer be effective to treat the condition for which it was intended.
My friend told me that she did some research a few years ago and found that 85 percent of all antibiotics manufactured by Big Pharma in the U.S. are not sold to medical facilities but rather to farm factories, with less than 15 percent sold to the hospitals or clinics.
From an animal standpoint, there are millions of farmed animals that are destroyed annually due to not being able to be sold for consumption because they suffered adverse reactions to the antibiotics they were being given daily; primarily deformities and organ failure.
Administration of antibiotics and growth hormones to animals is a cruel practice and needs to stop. We need to advocate for better farm conditions for animals in order to decrease the spread of bacterial infections. When chickens, cows or pigs are kept in overcrowded conditions, it is easy for bacteria to spread; thus the overuse of antibiotics. And why are they kept in overcrowded conditions? To enable the farmer to house more animals in the same amount of space increasing their profit margin. Once again, it all boils down to money.
We could advocate for vegan/vegetarian meals in the schools, but we would be up against the big-moneyed factory farm owners who stand to lose billions of dollars in sales and profits. The farm industry has a huge lobby group in Congress, and elected officials, who represent farming states, obviously get regular campaign contributions from the farm lobby, and that includes Hawaii.
Again, it’s the same ole’ argument: profits over people. These big cattle ranchers and factory farm owners are convinced that the flesh they produce is safe for consumption, so why the hell are we trying to get people to stop eating flesh and blood? Meat provides the protein that growing kids need, and on and on, endlessly. I guess they never heard of beans, lentils, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice or tofu, what to speak of all the protein to be found in spinach, kale, and other leafy greens.
On the west side of Oahu, offering vegan meals would be a blessing due to the fact that the childhood obesity rate is way higher than in the more affluent parts of the island. It would be way interesting to see what would happen to the kids if the schools in those areas would accept the idea of offering vegan foods to the students there and it would be interesting to see the health of the kids who suffer from childhood medical problems improve by eating a vegan diet.
But, that ain’t never gonna happen. About seven years ago or so, a bill was heard that advocated that vegan meals shall be offered in the public schools. That bill was defeated by two governmental departments – the Dep’t of Health and the Dep’t of Education. Then the bill was revised and said that vegan meals should be offered in the schools, meaning they now had the choice to serve the foods or not. The bill passed. To this day, the meals never changed and the kids get fatter and sicker.
What’s sickening is to know that the DOH and the DOE, the very two departments that should encourage healthier eating, are still selling Hawaii’s kids down the river!
Go to a school for lunch and you will find crappy hot dogs full of carcinogens, as well as non-organic foods and GMOs. And yet they question why the kids have so many medical problems.
The solution? Homeschooling! Public schools, as a whole, simply undermine not only the kids’ health, but the very foundation of the family, which is the primary source of stability of the kids.
The other problem is that the DOE and our state/federal government want teachers to groom “sheeple” and not encourage creative thinking. It’s as if public schools are just like a fast food conveyor belt. Bring um in, spit um out, and kill um with degenerative diseases.
Aloha!