When my daughter entered Kindergarten this year, we made a conscious decision to pack her lunch each day. A) It’s cheaper. B) I’m a bit of a health nut and I wanted to make sure she was eating a balanced meal that wasn’t full of starch and sugar, especially the high fructose corn syrup kind. However, it didn’t take long for the lure of the cafeteria to get to her. She came home one day begging to buy lunch at school. I explained to her the above reasons for packing her lunch from home. But I did agree that on Fridays, if she wanted to, she could buy lunch. Friday is “Pizza Day” and she was absolutely thrilled. Never in a million years would I have thought the pizza she was eating was counted as a vegetable!

That’s right. The Agriculture Appropriations Bill, approved by a conference committee of House and Senate members recently, would continue to allow pizza with tomato sauce to be considered a vegetable in school lunches. The USDA recommended that unless the pizza slice had a half-cup of tomato puree or paste, it shouldn’t count. But the food companies came back and said that with those amounts, the pizza wouldn’t be edible. Just last year Congress authorized the USDA to make changes to school meals with the passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. However, the Appropriations Bill limits the ability of the USDA to cut back on sodium and starches in school lunches. It is absolutely no wonder that childhood obesity is on the rise and diabetes is looming on the horizon for many of our nation’s children.

At a 2008 hearing by the US Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families the topic was “Childhood Obesity: The Declining Health of America’s Next Generation.” Appearing before the Committee was Francine Kaufman, M.D., a prominent pediatric endocrinologist and past president of the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Kaufman shared compelling information about the dangerous rate of childhood obesity cases among children and young adults, and the strong correlation between type 2 diabetes and childhood obesity. According to Kaufman, “Children who are overweight, obese and unfit are at increased risk of developing high blood pressure, abnormal lipid levels, inflammation in their blood vessels and higher than normal blood sugar levels. These disorders are precursors of diabetes and adult-onset cardiovascular disease.” (American Diabetes Association)

Dr. Kaufman went on to say that one in three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes at some point in his or her life, and that this statistic is nearly one in two for children in minority communities. She called obesity in youth, along with its associated medical conditions, the major health
challenge of this century. And yet, despite the efforts of government and public health officials, the
number of overweight and obese youth continues to increase.

Today, 23.6 million children and adults in the United States — or nearly 8 percent of the population — have diabetes. Diabetes is among the leading causes of death by disease in the United States. Since 1987, the death rate due to diabetes has increased by 45 percent, while the death rates due to heart disease, stroke, and cancer have declined. (American Diabetes Association)

November may have been National Diabetes Awareness Month… but at DrNewtons.com it’s a year-long and life-time concern. Children do as they see, not as they are told. So if you could stand to start eating healthier and are worried about this issue learn more about Dr. Agin’s Skinny D meal replacement solution. Developed with diabetics especially in mind, it’s perfect for everybody and clinically tested to help you lose weight!