Sign Up
for our e-mail newsletter

    

 

    



 


These pages take an interrelated look at some of the medical and scientific causes of the health conditions affecting our children and the Earth. With a whole systems approach we look at the “situation” affecting the conditions, offer information on the “source” of these conditions, and provide the “studies” and research that relates to them.  Then we link you to various solutions working successfully to prevent and heal these conditions.  

Summary

Recent medical studies are revealing the many sources causing the epidemic proportions of childhood diseases. One significant factor is food. The Standard American Diet, appropriately known by its somber acronym, the SAD, takes an especially high toll on the most vulnerable members of society, our children. The SAD has been implicated in epidemic proportions of childhood obesity, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, and drug and alcohol abuse. What’s more, the SAD is also intimately associated with tremendous health care costs and rampant environmental destruction.

Look around. Wherever young people turn, they are sure to find slick marketers advertising foods and beverages richly endowed with a bouillabaisse of unhealthy ingredients- fat, cholesterol, sodium, additives, preservatives and chemical residues—and devoid of essential, health-promoting nutrients. Take America’s school cafeterias for instance. In recent years cafeterias have been aggressively infiltrated by fast food and junk food companies like Burger King, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Schools play off mass advertising and bring in huge revenues from selling candy, sodas, donuts, ice cream, and cookies. An already bad situation is growing worse.

Where does our food come from?  The Earth. The environmental movement has helped us to understand how our world works and how we are related to the Earth’s Eco-systems. We know now that the health of our air, water and soil directly effect the health of our bodies. Through pharmaceuticals, agricultural practices and modern manufacturing billions of tons of toxic chemicals are poured onto the Earth and into our water supply. What we pour into the Earth we pour into our children. The Earth is sick and our children are sick.

In addition to toxic substances in our air, water, soil, food, homes and schools, children are bombarded with noise, TV, radio, electronic games, and media messages suggesting that more is better, and that guns and violence are the way to solve a dispute. What else is shaping our children? Caffeine, sugar, artificial flavors/colors, hydrogenated fats, food grown with pesticides, hormones and antibiotics, toxic air, polluted water, unknown genetically altered organisms, questionable medications, television, rapid images, and messages that lack integrity and moral values are influencing our children’s destiny.

“What’s Really Going On Here?” presents compelling medical and scientific evidence revealing the sources behind most of the present and dangerous conditions affecting children. What you will find is that these are not just conditions “happening”.  Rather they are a direct effect of our environmental practices, food choices, health practices, social values, education models, and economic structures.  

What’s Really Going On Here?   
 

Food Related Chemicals

There have been 16 double-blind research studies that show food dyes worsen symptoms of AD/HD, learning disabilities (LD’s), and other problems in children, as well as numerous case studies showing improvements in behavior with the removal of food chemicals from the diet.   Yet still the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) states, “There is no evidence that food color additives causes hyperactivity or LD’s in children.”    What is the reality of food related chemicals?  How are they effecting children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development?

Industrial Food Production

Are children eating food from the Earth or from chemical manufacturing “plants?” The consumption of these “fake foods,” which are filled with hydrogenated oils, saturated fats, refined sugars and flours, are know to effect children’s health with problems like obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, underachievement, allergies, and AD/HD. What are the facts?  What are the main culprits in these foods?  What conclusions about children’s health are being drawn from the latest scientific research? 

 

Environment / Conventional Agriculture

Children are the most vulnerable and unsuspecting victims to chemical agriculture methods. Did you know that some apples and peaches are so contaminated that just two bites are unsafe for children under six? Their small bodies, through food, air and water, are being filled with herbicides and pesticides like Atrazine (the most widely used in the U.S. and rated in the EPA’s most toxic category), inordinate doses of antibiotics, unstudied genetically modified foods and hormones from meat and dairy products. Find out the facts, the main culprits, and how environmental toxins could be altering our children’s ability to learn and to live in harmony with themselves.

 

Household and Environmental Toxins

Low-level lead poisoning from contaminated water, dust, soil and old paint afflicts nearly a million children in the United States, causing learning disabilities (LD’s), hyperactivity, and poor motor coordination. Further, the rate of Asthma, with known causes such as industrial air pollution, diapers, and others toxins, has doubled between 1980 and 1998 afflicting over 4.5 million children.  Is your home or school safe?  Which toxins are the most prevalent and harmful, and what symptoms are they causing in children?  


The Rx Generation

This section is about the escalating use of pharmaceutical drugs for the evolving epidemics of childhood illnesses. The production of Ritalin, the most common prescription for AD/HD, increased 700% between 1985 and 1998 with over 4 million children taking Ritalin daily. Some 2.5 million children are taking anti-depressants.  The use of Prozac has increased 103 percent in children under eighteen during the past five years, while anti-psychotic prescriptions have shot up by 268 percent for youths. Do we know the long-term effects of these and other drugs on children, and how they may be influencing other serious health and life risks? Although medication has cured many diseases and saved lives, have we become dependent of the quick fix of popping a pill without being responsible to other areas of health prevention and maintenance?  What are these safer alternatives?

 

Media / Advertising and Over-stimulation

On the average kids see between 20,000 to 40,000 TV commercials in 1 year. Highly advertised junk foods and fast food establishments are seducing millions of children into spending millions of dollars.  As children are bombarded with a barrage of confusing messages saying, “Buy this candy bar, soda or cereal, that it’s effective to use guns to solve disputes, or wear this and you’ll be cool,” they are given impressions that heavily influence their choices. For instance, the three-year-old, who hits his classmates and says to his teacher, “But they do it on TV all the time.” How are the media messages and constant stimulation from television, video games, computers and background noises effecting children’s health?

 

Drug Addicts in Training

Addictive substances like refined sugars and caffeine dominate children’s diets, which can lead to the need to counter their effects with prescription medication.  This vicious cycle creates a dependency on medicating the body, which all to often leads to illegal drug use later in life.  No longer is the body allowed to function in it’s own rhythm, but often requires drugs to wake-up, to sleep, and even get through the day. The “Rx Generation” is exposed to an entire realm of addictive substance and legal drugs long before they’re ever exposed to the illegal ones. Will the immense pharmacopeia available to adolescents today create a generation of people using drugs to deal with problems, behaviors, feelings and attitudes?

Schools and The Classroom

In spite of all the research about childhood behavior and foods, one-third of public schools now offer “fast food” that is loaded with chemicals, dyes, preservatives, hormones, etc. Although school food service representatives want to feed children healthier fresh foods, they are hindered by budgetary constraints, government contracts for unwanted surplus foods, and student’s demands for their favorite fast food fare. Further, a large majority of parents say that school educators influenced the use of Ritalin for their child, even though it has been shown to improve attention, but not necessarily inspire better grades. What role do schools play in a child’s health? Here we look at the educational system and it’s role in perpetuating the use of medication, unhealthy foods, and conforming children.

Body, Mind and Soul Connection

Tommy, a four-year-old, mopes around asking, “But what’s the point of it all?”  Allison, eight-years-old, can not find a reason to get out of bed and go to school.  Teachers report that younger children (six and eight-year-olds) are asking questions that high school students used to ask. Children are exposed to so much so early, that it has become hard to be a child.  Many do not have the capacity to deal with it all, which can lead to a host of illnesses like depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Sadly, depression related suicide kills more teenagers and young adults than cancer, heart disease, AIDS, pneumonia, influenza, birth defects, and stroke combined.  Have we lost the connection to the sacred?  Can fostering the interrelated connections between the body, mind, and soul make a difference?

Political, Economic and Social Influences

Governments both help and hurt the many problems facing the youth.  The White House comes out saying, “We must reduce the number of preschoolers on medication,” while the National School Lunch Program, the largest government food contract, feeds our children with food that may be less than nourishing, and perhaps even harmful. What is the economic connection to the quality of food being served in school, to the growing methods used by conventional agriculture, and to the growing use of medications? Unfortunately money usually speaks louder than words, individuals or small groups. Further, organizations like HMO’s drive the treatment market by viewing the taking of a pill as being more cost-effective than therapy, counseling or diet. Big business like Dow Chemical sell billions of tons of chemicals that pollute the Earth and children causing birth defects, cancers and learning disabilities, yet it persists. Something can be done. Every day you vote by what you purchase.  Make your money vote for what you believe in.

Disclaimer: The material here has been gathered from a variety of reliable sources (See “Just the Facts”).  We have mentioned a lot of alarming facts in this section that may seem daunting. Please see Restoring Our Health for the solutions and remedies being used to heal and prevent many of the conditions facing Youth In Crisis.  

 
     

  For more information 
please contact
  info@spiritinaction.org

[Youth In Crisis]  [What's Really Going On?]   
[Restoring Health]  [Youth Empowering Youth] 
[Resources]  [About Us]  [Feedback]  [Home]