What Makes Kids Sick?

In case you weren’t already concerned about tax dollars disappearing down the unknown black hole, here’s another reason to try to cry; the U.S. government is launching a monstrous sized study to find out what makes children sick. They are going to track 100,000 children from birth to age 21, to find out the culprits behind their many illnesses. The National Children’s Study is going to give us answers, and will include children and families from different areas of the country, from varied backgrounds, and of different family types.

How much will this cost, I wonder. I looked at the website, but alas, that seems to be a secret. Of course, the question begs to be answered, why is this being done?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. We already know what many, if not most, of the problems are. A two year old child who is already guzzling Coke and cookies is not laying a foundation for good health. A three year old growing up beside a toxic dump, and breathing in fumes from a power plant (and thank you, George Bush, for pushing through legislation which relaxes restrictions on toxic air emissions) stands a good chance of doing some serious damage to that little body.

We already know what is ailing our children. There is overwhelming data that has; equated drinking pasteurized cow’s milk with allergies, ear infections and digestive problems; equated the standard American junk food diet with obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis (yes, fatty plaque has been seen in tender young arteries), attention deficit disorder and other behavioral problems; equated hours of television watching and playing computer games with lack of exercise, fresh air–which helps lead to obesity and other health problems; equated overprescribing of antibiotics with resistant bacteria; equated exposure to air and household pollutants with increased rates of asthma and other lung problems (rates of asthma have been skyrocketing)….and so on.

Basically, kids are having all sorts of health problems and suffering from rare and strange illnesses that were virtually unknown a half century ago. For example, type 2 diabetes is overwhelmingly a disease of middle and older age. Not so anymore. The rates in children are rising at an astounding pace, and in turn, predisposes them to all of the complications of diabetes. You don’t need a zillion dollar study, or be a rocket scientist to realize that the primary culprits are diet and lack of exercise. And by diet, I mean not only fatty and poor quality foods, but also the cornucopia of additives which can be found in many processed offerings. Read the label on your favorite box of instant gratification. You will need an organic chemistry textbook to decipher what is in it.

I have to look at the conspiracy side of things, and say that this study is meant to be the definitive word on things, and that it will “clear” any misgivings about feeding our children the junk currently hiding in our food supply. Already the U.S. government got itself into a tizzy, when the World Health Organization issued a statement about sugar, and how detrimental it is to health. Protecting the sugar industry is more important than health, and so, I can’t see how this study is going to point a finger at the real culprits. Pesticides? No problem. Artificial coloring of dubious nature? It’s good for you. Sludge from raw sewage? Well that’s okay in small quanities. Irradiation? No problem. Hormones in meat? They’ll help you grow big and strong.

What is sad is that has been the government’s attitude towards all of the things I just mentioned. Additives which have been banned in other countries, such as the bovine growth hormone added to milk (banned in the European Union, Canada and Australia because data showed it to be unsafe) is available here.
And not only is some milk treated with it, the FDA waged a tragic war trying to keep dairy companies from even labeling their products as free of that hormone.

So I rest my case. I don’t believe that a study of children’s health, sponsored by our government, can be in any way objective, or tell us anything that we don’t already know. So instead of using that same money to actually do something constructive about children’s health problems, they are throwing it into some useless study that will drag on for two decades.