Bill Schaff
Professor Leake
Writ 1133
May 14, 2013
What our eating
habits are really doing to us
“A tango of
dark and white chocolate on a brownie shortbread crust, strewn with truffled cream cheese
and red-luscious ripe raspberries, disguised in a halo of white chocolate whipped cream, this
devilish dessert will fulfill your
darkest desires” (customcatering). In most families this is a typical way to
top off a perfect meal. Whether your child is eating a chocolate raspberry bash
or the extra cookie he or she sneaks when you are not looking; these eating
habits will have more of an effect on your child’s life than you ever expected.
“Longitudinally, childhood and adolescent eating habits have been found to be
predictive of adult body mass index, risk of heart disease, and likelihood of
developing diabetes” (Beaver). While yes the Poptart for breakfast might seem harmless
to your child, you might want to think again about just what you are serving
them.
What you
are feeding your child my not be as healthy to the companies might want you to
believe they are. Think back to the last time that you have bought your child a
soda. Was it regular? Diet? Caffeine Free? What you should really be asking is
if any of those are actually healthy. We would like to believe that Caffeine
Free is healthy but in reality it is not. These eating habits that you instill
on your children when they are young are going to stick with them and shape
their entire lives. In a study conducted by the “Health, Education, and
Behavior” journal, they found that 42% of adolescent’s unhealthy eating habits
are heritability or inherited by genes and the environment that they are raised
in. Now do you really want you children suffer from unhealthy eating habits
that you allowed them to have when all you had to do was feed them different
foods? Starting these habits when they are young is a heck of a lot easier than
having them change their eating habits when they are older. In this study, it
was proven that almost 62% of females that ate in a healthy life style did so
because of habits that they learned as a child.
Knowing
what to serve you children is half the battle in developing healthy food
habits. With the creativeness of marketers it can make it difficult to know
what is truly unhealthy. Generally, you do not want your children to eat these
foods on a regular basis: soft drinks, sport drinks, breakfast bars, hot dogs,
yogurt, processes cheese, ice cream, and even salad dressing. This list goes on
and on for what not to eat on a regular basis. Instead try substituting them
with some of these: 100% orange and grape fruit juice, water, apples, pineapple,
melons, raisins, vegetables, carrots, or a tossed salad. It is not difficult to
find these items because they are all sold ready to eat at the grocery store,
just a couple isles down from the processed foods. Is it really worth starting
your children on an unhealthy eating habit when you know that it will
significantly effect their entire lives?
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