The Real Public Health Problem

Image by malias

**This post has been entered in Fight Back Fridays at Food Renegade and Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop!**

Recently I’ve noticed something interesting.  I’ve been doing research for a variety of upcoming posts, some of which are on controversial topics.  Unfortunately, many of the articles I’ve read are pretty much useless, because either the writer has some obvious bias on the topic, and/or the comments quickly get out of hand and turn into a mud-slinging match.  It’s not particularly useful, helpful, or good in any way.

One of the most controversial, obviously, is the vaccine debate.  And that, more than any topic I’ve noted, quickly falls apart into people on either side of the debate hurling accusations and insults at the other side.  It gets personal, fast.

Next week I’ll be posting on “Myths about Non-Vaccinating Parents” to try to clear up some of the misconceptions about those who make this choice.  But today, what struck me as most interesting was the way many get upset about vaccines because it is a “major public health issue.”  And while communicable disease can be, in our modern world, it’s really not the biggest threat.  With excellent nutrition (available), sanitation, and quick access to medical care, communicable disease is not the the threat it once was.  (And don’t say “thanks to vaccines,” because I’m not convinced at all that that’s the case, nor is that what I’m specifically discussing today.)

A much bigger public health issue facing us today, one that realistically threatens our health in serious, day-to-day ways, is poor nutrition and the resulting obesity.  I think that’s the real public health problem.

Parents rail against those who don’t vaccinate for causing “serious public health problems.”  But the link is tenuous at best, because most disease outbreaks usually occur among highly vaccinated communities and these outbreaks are usually due to mutations (i.e. the vaccine doesn’t protect against it anyway).  They’re terrified and angry, but they don’t understand what they’re saying.  These outbreaks are quickly contained and cause generally minor illnesses and few, if any, deaths.  “Large” outbreaks have caused 100 or so cases many times.  That’s really not a serious situation when we’re talking about a public health crisis.  It’s unfortunate (especially if someone does die), but it is not an immediate crisis.  It certainly doesn’t deserve the irrational fear and anger that it sparks.

On the other hand, the type of “food” we’re feeding kids these days — full of sugar, HFCS, food dyes, artificial flavors, pesticides, refined carbs, etc. — is causing a real and obvious public health crisis of skyrocketing obesity, diabetes, heart disease, lowered immunity, and so on (no one can argue with this!). 

An extremely large portion of the population is affected by this everyday.  1 out of 3 children are now considered overweight or obese!  Many have learning disabilities (also about 1 in 3).  Many have allergies — about 6 to 8% have serious (life threatening) allergies and up to 25% have minor allergies or food sensitivities.  The number with sensitivities is probably much, much higher than that, since doctors don’t consider or count “minor issues” as allergies or problems, and parents may not report it to the doctor in the first place.

A lot of these children will end up with diabetes, as overweight adults, and have other signs of poor health.  Everyone is aware that we are raising a generation of very unhealthy kids.

Yet, a lot of “scientists” and doctors who rail against parents who choose not to vaccinate don’t do much to even address this problem.  They don’t see anything wrong with the occasional HFCS.  They don’t think there’s any evidence to suggest that food dyes or additives are causing problems.  They don’t see anything wrong with feeding children sugar-filled cereal for breakfast, although they recommend limiting sugar overall.

Programs aimed at “improving health” focus on all the wrong things.  They don’t focus on removing the sugar entirely, just on “moderation” (which is insanely difficult, if not impossible, when some form of sugar is found in every processed food).  They don’t recommend removing all processed foods, just “eat more fruits and vegetables and whole grains.”  They miss the boat completely on kids’ need for healthy fats, recommending low-fat and fat-free dairy and meats instead.  They aim to “increase exercise” but rarely have any protocol in place for actually doing so.

School lunch programs, a major way the government could make a difference, are a joke (in many, not all, cases).  Kids are fed primarily processed foods full of GMO fats and refined sodium.  They rarely get fruit and vegetable offerings, and most of those are canned and full of sugar and devoid of nutrition.  Lots of grains, especially white flour, are used.  The “meat” is less than 30% actual meat (the rest is soy-based fillers, MSG, and grains) and what is there is factory-farmed.

Children who are fed junk are highly susceptible to illness and disease.  Why do we think that we’re seeing such skyrocketing rates of disease in this country?  How many kids have “ADHD” and learning disabilities?  How many are medicated just to behave in the classroom?  How many kids have high cholesterol and are now on statins (too many)?  How many miss several days of school because they seem to always have a cold?  How many catch every little illness that goes around?  How many are on antibiotics a couple times every year?

In fact, if they were not fed these sugar-filled “kid foods” they may would not have these health problems.  They would be normal weight, they would be strong, they would have immune systems which could fight off the “crud” that goes around in the winter time.

These are the kids that have to worry if an epidemic does break out.  These are the kids who are malnourished and at risk for disease complications.  But, ironically, if they weren’t malnourished in the first place, they wouldn’t be at risk for serious complications! 

Rather than stirring up anger at the few parents who choose not to vaccinate their children (who, believe me, are not causing any major public health crisis), why don’t we focus on the actual problems?  Why don’t we focus on trying to improve the health and nutrition of the kids in this country?  Why don’t we improve the quality of the food?

We need to worry about the real, rampant, and current public health problems rather than panicking about what “might” happen “someday.”  100 kids getting the measles and no one dying is not a public health problem, just a minor annoyance.  Millions of kids suffering from obesity, diabetes, learning disabilities, and various other long-term health problems is a major public health crisis!

Let’s put the focus back where it belongs and do something about it.

What do you think about this issue?  What’s the real public health problem and what can we do about it?