Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Blends: Not Just Your Typical Coffee

I only have an antennae for my television set. I know, I know, what does this have to do with what this blog is about? I promise, just like Matlock, I will get to the point. Eventually. Anyway, there are so many issues that we are facing as individuals, families, communities, peoples, societies, etc. Childhood obesity. Education. Poverty. Health issues related to each of these issues. Most of them overlap, and there is no good or easy fix, and it’s going to take some time.

So, anyway. I chose to cancel my television subscription from the bundled package, not just for budget issues, but, also that it is easy to be able to sit and watch a show, or to have it on using electricity, when it gets tuned out from our concentration. Plus, my son and I have this condition called a 16p11.2 microdeletion. Without going into full detail, there is a minuscule bit of information that is missing from 1 of the 16th chromosomes. Aside from a spectrum of possible learning disabilities, the physical symptoms include increased appetite, and decreased metabolism. Yes, I know that some metabolic studies found that “slow” metabolism wasn’t significantly lower than “fast” metabolism. Ours is slow even compared to those whose metabolism is slow, because of the chromosome issue.

For more information, please visit here:
National Institute of Health - https://www.change.org/p/romanian-p...
National Center for Biotechnology Information - https://www.change.org/p/romanian-p...
 
So, yes. Part of the reason why I cancelled the television service, is to have more time to get active, so we can try to be as healthy as possible. Those of us affected may still end up overweight even if we ate the perfect combination of foods in the perfect portion sizes. Even with the exercise, some of us still may end up on the bigger end of normal. Losing weight will be more difficult, and we may end up losing half of the weight with twice the effort. But, that isn’t an excuse to not try. Trying is the journey, to help keep life interesting.
 
That leads me to the childhood obesity topic... It is true, that with the convenience of prepackaged foods, that actual cooking is a dying art. Open a can of that, stir in a packet of that, whip in a container of some other thing. Then there is the highly processed stuff that is very low on nutrition, and high in sugars, fats, and artificial flavorings, none of which are good for you. So you get told to take the kid to the nutritionist or dietician. That person wants you to feed your kid whole wheat pasta, ultra grain bread, fresh or frozen green veggies, none of which your kids know about, cut the hotdogs, no more mac n cheese, eat fresh fruit - not fruit snacks nor canned fruit. All the cereals like Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Cocoa Puffs, etc... Off the menu... Now you’re being told to use spices that you don’t even know what it is...  

Thing is, poverty plays a huge role in not having the proper diet. It’s not just trading a family bag of Doritos for a 3lb bag of apples. That is the easy part. Go into the bread isle. Look for the store brand. A huge loaf of bread, which comes in white or barely wheat. It’s probably right around $1.25 for a long loaf of bread. Now go to the healthy section of the bread display. A loaf that is half of the size costs $4.49. If you have even 2 teenagers, you know that half loaf is only going to last 1 day, if you’re lucky. It may only cover breakfast and lunch. To make it through the week, you’d need to buy 10 loaves of this bread at $4.49/each, and there goes $44.90 just on this multigrain healthy bread. On the other hand, the store brand will let you get 5 loaves for a total of $12.50, and have enough money left to buy 4 gallons of milk AND still be able to buy a couple dozen eggs to add protein to the meal. 
 
Now, go to the pasta isle. Do the same search on the pasta. Store brand pasta will cost about 1/3 as much as the whole wheat, not to mention the store brand will be a full pound (16 ounces), and the whole wheat is only 3/4 pound (12 oz). Here is where you will have to take a pad of paper and a writing utensil, and for the comparison, you will need to go to the produce section to look at how much green beans, asparagus, carrots, and spinach costs. Write down the prices for what ever unit of weight. Now go to the canned vegetable section, and find the same veggies and write those prices are. Finally, go to the frozen vegetable section, and write down those prices. Compare the difference in price. You will find that carrots are relatively inexpensive, while the prices will vary widely in other ones.
 
See the problem? The least healthy foods cost the least amount. On top of which, many kids in the inner city don’t know or understand where their food comes from. Having a horticulture program would immensely help, and kids are naturally inquisitive, and will want to cook with the foods they grow in the school or community gardens. But, the funds can add up, and it has to come from somewhere. Why spend money on something like this? It’s not only good education because it teaches kids about real life from where/how food grows, how to cook, and be healthy, but, just as importantly, if not more, it will save the future of health care. You think health care costs so much now, with the Affordable Health Care, which has had both sides of the isle pulling, pushing, biting into, stepping on, and making a huge mess out of it? Just think about how much more expensive, when today’s overweight kids start having heart, lung, and joint problems due to the excess weight since childhood? Another reason why our health care is so expensive, aside from CEOs, attorneys, politicians and accountants deciding the bottom line in both the care facilities and the insurance companies, we have such a fragmented system it is not funny! Medicare is a single payer program. Medicaid is prostituted out to various HMO’s whose premiums are higher than if the “State” acted as its own HMO. Then there are many types of employer based programs, and even within individual HMOs, there are so many different categories and subcategories of plans, you need to be a PhD in Law, Accounting, and math to figure this stuff out, and how much in deductibles vs. premiums vs. copays that are supposed to be paid, and we wonder why health care costs so much? Then there is the thing of having supplemental insurance... Because Medicare pays for this but not for that. Regular insurance will pay for that but not these other things. The supplement will pay for that, but not those other things. So now you wonder who is supposed to pay, and how much is supposed to be your responsibility. Maybe, if we eliminated the red tape, we could all save a bunch of money, that could go toward education.
 
When I was in elementary school, we had the 4-4-3-2. 4 breads, 4 fruits and vegetables, 3 milks, and 2 meats. That was it. The 4-4-3-2 method of nutrition. That was in the late 70’s - early 80’s. What about sugar? What about fats? It wasn’t mentioned, so they hoped we wouldn’t eat too much sugar or fat, by not talking about it. Guess what? It didn’t work. Gee... (sarcasm intended).
 
In the mid 2000’s, my son was in kindergarten, and even into 1st and 2nd grade, it was Pyramid Pete. The base of the pyramid, which is obviously the biggest, was the grain section. Above that, the next tier not as big, was not quite half and half, was the veggie section and fruit section. Above that, in a smaller section, about in half and half again, was the dairy section and protein section. The top tip, the smallest tier was the “other”, meaning fats and sugars combined.
 
Sometime later, it was the My Plate plan, and then recommendations generically based on ages of children. Thing is, when you go to the dietician, it’s one of those things that you’re told how many carb points to use, and fresh fruit should be 2 or 3 servings, but if you do 3, you have to take a bread count off, and veggies should be 3-5 servings, meaning 3-5 cups of fresh or 1.5-2.5 cups of cooked veggies. Then depending on if you are a child, male or female, adult, height, weight, pregnant/not pregnant, etc... you need 2-3 servings of dairy product, but they don’t tell you that cheese is actually a protein, and depending on what type of yogurt, it could fall into multiple categories, and then women need less protein than men, etc..... You’re supposed to eat so many calories a day, or your metabolism will give out if you’re too low, or you gain if it’s too much, but then they tell you that this food gives you 1 starch + 1 fruit + 1 protein, and by the end of the day, you’re feeling like you need to eat 3 heads of lettuce and a half an acres worth of broccoli to get what you need. ugh. Follow me, here? That’s okay, I’m not sure if I 100% follow me, either. But, poor people don’t eat as healthy as wealthier people, because of the amount of money available for food.
 
Without proper nutrition, our kids cannot function in school. Your brain needs protein to think, yes. But, your muscles and your brain need sugar to give it energy to work, also. So, if you go on a low carb diet, be careful at how low the complex & simple carbs take you. Rid the table sugar, good. To stop eating fruit because it’s too much sugar, not good. Whole grains like Old Fashioned Oatmeal, perfect. With cinnamon, even more perfect! Highly refined cheap white bread, not so good. A ton of meat, just because it’s white chicken or fish, well, too much can make you fat. Not enough, you can’t think. Moderation. Zen. Yin-Yang. Balance. Yes. It’s that important.
 
Speaking of schools... It seems as if it’s increasingly true that they teach to the test. the kids don’t get taught to think so much. Little thinking means lack of critical decision making skills to solve problems, because not all problems come with an equation like A = square root of B + C divided by 2. But because they want to be known as the best or most successful school, they want the kids to pass the tests. So, now, it isn’t about how well the kids can think or understand what they are doing, teaching to the test basically means they regurgitate the information for the purpose of the test to pass that test. We are not doing our children any favors here. Not to mention, some students test well, even if they don’t do well on assignments, and others can hand in perfect assignments and not test well at all. Now, with the Common Core, it seems as if this new math thing is at a whole new level of weird mambo jumbo of *(*%$%Y%$#$^*O!! It is so stupid, I’m not sure if I can understand that level of stupid. People who know me well know what a HUGE pet peeve stupidity is. To me, it’s the worst kind of disease. Mind you, I’m not talking about the normal “duh” moments we all have at some point. But, when someone is on a rampage, I’m sorry, you can’t have 24/7/365 worth of duhs, and not be stupid. Stupid does a lot wrong. Stupid can make your car break down at the worst possible time. Stupid can kill people. Stupid injures people. Stupid can get your or someone else fired from a job, or maybe not hired in the first place. Stupid wastes your time, when you have a million and billion other things to do, that are more worthy of your time. Is this what we want the world to become? If you say yes, you are stupid. If you say no, be afraid. This is what will be taking care of us, who come just under the boomers, when we are old and frail. Don’t wait until it gets there. We need to do something NOW!
 
*sigh* Actually, *deep breath*. I will take a cafe mocha frappe. Hold the whipped cream. I want to taste the coffee and the chocolate, unadulterated. Sit and have your favorite blend of coffee with me. It will be fun. We will save the planet together. And the best way to do it? Stop. Abusing. Our. Children. I will fight you with everything I’ve got on this. I have no money, and I have back problems. I am willing to pay dearly. So dearly it costs me everything to protect our children and their futures.
 
One way to not abuse your kids? Don’t be like this lady - http://patch.com/wisconsin/mountple... 
 
We tend to think that as women, or mothers, we are the ones who are fierce about our children. Fathers are just as capable of being protective and uplifting for our kids. Just because the relationship between you, as parents, can’t work, don’t leave out the other parent. Thing is, it seems as if the good moms/dads who have the physical placements who encourage the interaction of the other parents with the kids, the other parents end up being duds. On the other hand, the dads/moms who don’t have the primary placement of their kids are the good parents, the other one plays these stupid games with them. Go figure. Our children need both parents. The bond that our daughters forge with mothers show our girls how to be grown women and mothers when it becomes that time. The same is said for our sons and fathers, to know what it is supposed to be to be a man. Set that example. At the same hand, the relationship mothers have with their sons can impact what kind of wife they take on, and whether they are capable of being a good companion, while being able to be a good companion, because of the good bond with their mothers. Fathers are important, maybe even a little bit more so, with their daughters. The way dads treat moms, and the relationship with their daughters will teach her how to be a good young woman, who won’t compromise herself on the account of her lifelong mate. Her future husband will be chosen based on that relationship, so set that bar, and set it high. Make that future king of your princess have a tough act to follow, and HUGE shoes to fill. We wouldn’t want anything less than that for our children, would we? No. Absolutely not.
 
As a graduate with a BA in International Relations, with a minor in Political Science, with experience in US/Native American affairs (a little, anyway), and an activist/advocate involved in the campaigns, I also think that the best form of welfare? Give people jobs. Even if the people are slightly over qualified, with more people in the workforce, the cash flow increases, thus creating more jobs and everything... Pay them, and they will come. And it WILL help. That is for sure.
 
Good news - The Sex Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights! https://www.change.org/p/urge-congr... 
 
Until next time, peace out.

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