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Dec 01, 2013 Features / Columnists, Food For Thought
A doctor that I know was eating breakfast one morning. A few tables over, there was a little five or six year old little boy that had a runny nose. He looked like he had asthma or some kind of breathing problem. He didn’t appear to be in very good health. And yet at that same time, he was eating a cereal filled with sugar, no nutrition what so ever.
After the breakfast, the mom said, “Son, it’s time to take your medicine.” She pulled out a little jar of purple medicine. He drank it down without missing a beat. The doctor said to his friend who was sitting next to him at breakfast, “That little boy is not sick. He’s being poisoned.”
We as parents need to pay careful attention what we feed our children and what we’re filling their bodies. Don’t just grab a fruit drink and say, “Oh, that’s healthy.” Read the label. Up there in the corner, it has a big starburst: “10 percent real fruit juice.” What’s that really saying is 90 percent pure sugar water.
They may be fine now, eating the constant sugar, white flour and caffeine, but what a shame if later on, they develop a serious illness because of their poor eating habits. Have you ever thought about this? You can catch a cold, but you can’t catch cancer. You don’t catch heart disease. You don’t catch diabetes. These are things that are developed over a longer period of time.
Our children today are so programmed to have bad eating habits especially from all the TV commercials. All of their favorite stars and athletes all push drinking colas. The message is if you drink a cola you’re going to be cool. But do you know many of those athletes won’t touch that cola? They know they can’t stay at the top of their game on all those sugars. Neither can we!
Even in our smaller children, I’m amazed at how they’re inundated with these messages. Watching the TV, they’ll see the kids playing and having a good time while they eat that super sugary cereal. On top of that, if you buy that particular brand, you get a toy in the box. So, when they go to the grocery store, they’re drawn to it. “Mom, I want this kind!” they say, with excitement. But, we as parents need to be aware that much of it is marketing!
We should not let our children develop poor eating habits. When you send your child a lunch to school, don’t pack it with a bologna sandwich on white bread with some greasy potato chips and a Twinkie for dessert. Your child is not going to be at his best physically or mentally. {To be continued} [By Joel Osteen]
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