More than ten years ago, I lost 100 pounds.
I was chubby in childhood, and then obese for nearly twenty years of my adult life—namely my childbearing years.
I gave birth to five children and fed them primarily low-nutrient, processed food. I wanted to feed them healthy food, but all of my good intentions and attempts to change were futile. The mainstay of my family’s diet was the highly palatable food of the Standard American Diet: highly salted, high-fat, low-nutrient, processed food. . .because I was addicted to it.
It wasn’t until I discovered the way out of my own destructive addiction did my children begin to eat healthier. By the time my last child graduated from high school—who was formerly obese and a self-proclaimed junk food junkie at age thirteen--he was the epitome of health and fitness, and a proponent of healthy eating!
And that hasn’t been just my experience. I’ve interviewed mothers throughout the country who were also formerly addicted to unhealthy, low-nutrient food. When they turned their lives around by eradicating their food addiction, their children eventually followed in their footsteps.
I’ve also had the privilege of interacting with mothers who have fed their children only healthy food since birth. Not surprisingly, their children prefer fruits and vegetables over potato chips and cookies. Will those children develop obesity and resulting diseases? Absolutely not, because the same food that is unhealthy and addictive is the same food that packs on the pounds and fuels disease. . .even in children.
Pediatric endocrinologist, Robert Lustig, M.D., states that sugar is the alcohol of the child and that children are getting the diseases of alcohol—without alcohol.[1]
Additionally, according to Caldwell Esselstyn, M.D., the foundation of coronary artery disease is firmly established by the end of high school here in the United States.[2]
And nutritional expert Joel Fuhrman, M.D., says our diet, not just during pregnancy but even before conception, has profound effects in determining the health, intelligence, and immune systems of our children.[3] He also says that children, especially, are more susceptible to the destructive influences of junk food, because growing and dividing cells are at greater risk when exposed to toxic compounds. In other words, an unhealthy diet can do more damage to a young body than to an adult one.[4]
The Mayo Clinic confirms that consuming junk food and packing on extra pounds put children at risk for asthma, sleep apnea, joint problems, diabetes, liver disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease; and they are also more likely to become overweight adults.[5] (Not to mention it puts them at risk for low self-esteem, discrimination, and verbal abuse/bullying. . .and a lifetime of struggle with food addiction and emotional eating.)
Thankfully, the CDC has been targeting the reduction in sugar-sweetened beverages, fast-food consumption, and even limiting screen time use, but there’s a much bigger force to contend with: the mothers of America.
Mothers purchase the majority of our nation’s food supply. They have the biggest influence on their children’s eating patterns.
Mothers who are addicted to unhealthy food will feed their children low-nutrient and addictive food.
According to the CDC, the prevalence of obesity in children is almost 1 out of 5; that’s nearly 14 million children and adolescents between the ages of 2-19. (Some stats say 1 in 3 kids are obese.) This epidemic will put such a strain on our healthcare system in just a few short years when these children become young adults.
Experts say the childhood obesity epidemic is “the new smoking” that will require changes on the scale of a social movement similar to stopping smoking tobacco years ago. The anti-smoking campaign finally became a successful health movement once the public’s perception changed. Prior to that time, most Americans weren’t alarmed by the dangers of smoking tobacco.[7]
Successful public health movements have always been characterized by a common threat that is dangerous—and mobilization of grass-roots groups able to address that threat.
What mother doesn’t want the best life possible for her children? What mother doesn’t want to protect her children from a crippling disease?
Mothers can stop this epidemic. They can save their children from a future of suffering and premature death.
However, it’s so important that mothers don’t fuel an environment for eating disorders to develop in their children. I address how to prevent this in my book Starved to Obesity.
Girded with correct information, mothers are profoundly capable of influencing a grass-roots movement to put an end to both food addictions and eating disorders for future generations.
1 Interview by Jay Vera, “Dr. Lustig: Type 2 Diabetes is ‘Processed Food Disease,’” Crossfit; The Journal, March 22, 2017, accessed May 3, 2018, https://journal.crossfit.com/article/cfj-lustig-rarary-interview
2 Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., “A plant-based diet and coronary artery disease: a mandate for effective therapy,” Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, accessed May 3, 2018, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMD5466936/
3 Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Fast Food Genocide, (New York: Harper Collins Publishers; 2017), 2.
4 Joel Fuhrman, M.D., Disease Proof Your Child, (New York: St. Martin’s Press; 2005), 79.
5 Childhood obesity; https://www.mayoclinic.org/disease-conditions/childhood-obesity/symptoms-causes/syc-20354827
6 Dr. William Dietz, “Childhood Obesity,” November 1, 2018, Parkview Regional Medical Center, Fort Wayne, Indiana
7 Jonathan D. Klein and William Dietz, “Childhood Obesity: The New Tobacco,” Health Affairs; Vol. 29, NO. 3: Child Obesity: The Way Forward, https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2009.0736
8 “Confronting the Childhood Obesity Epidemic,” Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK83814
Emily Boller, artist, mother, and author of Starved to Obesity, lost 100 pounds more than fifteen years ago by eating an abundance of high-nutrient, plant-rich foods. Today, she’s certified in whole plant nutrition from the Nutritarian Education Institute. She’s on a mission to combine practical, no-nonsense and cost-effective tips—with easy to understand science—in order to help anyone escape the addictive grip of the Standard American Diet. And now, she’s on a mission to bring awareness to the suffocating and potentially deadly trap of eating disorders as well.