Paleo Quick Tip of the Day #95 Our Children are the Canaries in the Coal Mine

I’m afraid that this sad fact is the truth- our children in America, and increasingly world wide, are suffering at ever earlier ages under the scourge of autoimmune conditions.

I have been witnessing this process for years now; I have been paleo for about 10 years or so now.  I have evolved, and slowly added in more good things (like better exercise, higher quality food, better sleep and meditation), and benefited greatly!  I am now 63 years of age, and in far better shape than I was at 50: no more painful joints, knee or shoulder pain (from weight lifting, running, and an inflammatory diet).  No more migraine headaches (primarily, I found out, from gluten- when I eliminated gluten and in fact most grains altogether, I never got another headache again.  I threw away my pharmaceutical medicine...

On the other hand, most of my friends and peers, who are mostly in the 40 - 60 year age bracket, have picked up numerous diseases and conditions.  Diabetes and “diabesity”, of which the second predicts the former have happened to many, along with heart disease, gerd, acid reflux, sleep apnea and snoring, and even some cancer.  And the list goes on... 

These are the ones who do not listen to my advice.  They eat the standard American diet of pizza, fast foods, processed crap, bread and pasta.  Most try to “cut their fat intake” by switching exclusively away from butter and full fat dairy, and try to “cut calories” by drinking skim milk, and cereal for breakfast, along with “healthy whole grain toast” with margarine on top.

 

Almost all of them are on statins, against my arguments about it’s uselessness and extreme danger.  Many dose themselves almost daily with high doses of aspirin, tylenol and ibuprofen to deal with their many aches and pains.  Exercise?  They walk at the mall...

Those that have followed my lead are about as healthy as I am!  Many have reversed conditions like diabetes (type 2), skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis, and all sorts of digestive ailments.  Most don’t exercise nearly as much, but they have had wonderful results, healthwise, regardless!

But they are the older generation, on their way out.  What is troubling me now, is that all of the diseases that my middle-aged friends have are now turning up in children I have known since birth!

Type one diabetes in 13 year olds to 30 year olds.  Diverticulitis, Arthritis, hasimotos, and infertility, Hashimoto thyroiditis, type I diabetes, lupus, and vasculitis. It is starting to run rampant among young people, this taking them down by having their own immune system attacking their very own body!  Why?  And why is this new?  This stuff didn’t happen, or very, very rarely in my generation when we were young.  Now it hits younger and younger people, in more and more numbers!

When I was young, in the 1950’s, it really was like the movie Back to the Future.  Families ate at home, things like pot roast and vegetables, everyone got plenty of sleep before school, high fructose corn syrup had not been invented yet, and pesticides and herbicide use was very little.  Most meat was raised on small farms, and was pastured on grass, not corn.  There was the local “malt shop”, but this was just for high school socializing and things like sodas and milkshakes, real ones, which are a far cry from the chemical laden, crap-meat fast food in most fast food joints today! 

Fast forward to today, or even to 30 years ago: increasingly BOTH parents have to work, primarily to pay the TAXES that have escalated in this country.  Now, there is no “home maker” to make the nutritious, healthy, home cooked quality meals anymore.  The parents just rush the kids to a fast food joint, and buy them corn syrup or (worse) artificially sweetened soft drinks, fries cooked in vegetable oil, and gluten covered crap grain fed meat covered in sugar (ketchup) and mayo (vegetable crap oil)...  day after day after day after day... 

Then, when the mom does actually have time to cook, like on weekends, she buys those biscuits in tubes, and canned cheap soups, and other processed foods, throwing them together in quick recipes that make a gluten sugar bomb of a meal... over and over and over again!  And then, for a change, they order pizza!

10 to 20 years of this, and your gut lining is leaky and destroyed.  Toxins from this bad food, and actually from anywhere that get into your digestive system and have nothing to stop them- they go right into your bloodstream!

At this point, your immune system can hardly tell the difference between your own bodily cells, and all of these invaders- it goes into maximum fight response!  And it winds up attacking your own bodily parts- your digestive system is often the first to be attacked, since it is right there.  (Diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease)

But, it can go anywhere- attacking your joints (arthritis), your pancreas (Type 1 diabetes), your skin (eczema or psoriasis), or your thyroid. (Hashimoto’s disease)  It can even result in your own immune system attacking your brain.  This, I believe, could be one reason for the huge increase in autism, severe mood disorders like depression, and many other behavior problems in children today!

And so, where does that leave us? 

The state of nutrition and lifestyle in America today has reached a low ebb.  From the very hard, physical, yet nutrient richness of our great grandfathers and grandmothers we have come to this- the world of Wall.E. 

If you have never seen this Disney movie from 2008, I recommend you do.  It pretty much depicts where we are headed: Wall-E shows a future human race that is so lazy and decrepit that everyone just rides around all day in little electric carts, and drinking soft drinks from giant cups as they go all day.  Robots do everything for them, and all they do is to...barely exist!  Seemed so far-fetched just 7 years ago, and now- it seems like we are half way there!

Remember my analogy in the title of this podcast? 

Our children are our canaries in the coal mine!

If you are not aware, many years ago, coal miners would let down a basket of canaries into a coal mine shaft to determine if it was safe to breathe the air down there.  If they pulled up the basket by the rope, and the canaries were dead, or really sick, they knew they could not yet send humans down.

Our children are sick.  They are OUR CANARIES!

Check out this episode!

Vitamix for baby food, toddlers, and children of ALL ages!

 I only wish I had had a Vitamix to make fruit-and-veggie, coconut milk and kefir, egg and full-fat cream concotions for my daughter when she was really young!  (She's still young, and really healthy since her diet was revamped once I knew what was what and she was still around 20...)

But still!  The earlier, by far the better!  


Eliminate the grains- half the battle!

Introduce all the ultra-healthy foods to displace those bad ones-  the other half!


Imagine, growing up with not grain induced gut irritation, no "leaky gut" letting toxins into the child's bloodstream...  No hyper, nervous, ADD kids, just calm healthiness, wanting to learn and play!


All of these things are not only possible, but very available, given the proper knowledge and tools.  


I believe the major tool for raising healthy children would be a...

Vitamix!

Anne Thacker, MS, RD offers the following tips for presenting healthy foods, like vegetables, unprocessed fruits and whole grains, in fun ways kids will love:

1. "Start healthy habits in the high chair."
   
   Babies who start out eating healthful foods grow up into adults with a good dietary foundation. Many pediatricians recommend parents make their own baby food, rather than feed infants commercially prepared foods that are often full of water, starch, sugar or meat fillers. Homemade baby food can provide better nutrition at a fraction of the cost.
   
   Preparing baby food is easy. Simply steam or gently cook the healthful ingredients of your choice, from carrots and peas to sweet potatoes, apples or pears, then puree them. For optimum health benefits, puree cooked foods with a little water in a powerful blender like the Vitamix Super 5000. The machine breaks the whole fruits and vegetables down to the cellular level, so nutrients are freed--not stripped away. Using the whole vegetable or fruit allows you retain most, if not all, of the food's original nutrients and fiber.
   
2. "Turn kids into "smoothie operators."
   
   There's no denying that smoothies are strong on the fun factor. Unfortunately, smoothies purchased from an ice cream shop, or packaged ones from a grocery store, often contain excess sugar and preservatives. Very often, they are made with processed fruit syrups that are missing most of the whole food fiber and nutrients.
   
   Making smoothies at home is a great way to put the nutrition back into this kid-friendly treat. By using fresh whole fruits and your own healthy ingredients, you have total control over the nutritional content. Older kids can get in on the act by helping prepare the ingredients and creating new combinations.
   
   "Smoothies are a great way to get kids to eat both fruits and vegetables," according to Jodi Berg. "Start out with a healthy base of fresh fruits, and even the most militant anti-veggie toddler won't be able to taste the squash or carrot you've slipped into the smoothie."

There you go: how to raise much healthier kids!  It really is that easy.  And believe it or not- much cheaper and more convenient to boot.

If you've decided to prepare your own food for baby, congratulations! By doing so, you're serving up two of life's greatest gifts - good health and delicious food.
When you use your Vitamix machine to make your own baby food, you'll know what's going into your baby's diet and what's not -- like preservatives, fillers, extra sodium and sugar!


Go ahead- your baby, and later your adult son or daughter, will thank you: 


And carry on the tradition with their own family!

J