Chapter 13 Food, Beverage & Dieting

vegetarian child In the past, a typical dinner in an American family was meat and potatoes.Mom cooks the meal, and Dad starts with it, even praising the food for being well done.Children are required to wash the dishes after meals or they cannot have dessert.Leftovers, feed the puppy at home. The situation has changed now, the meal may be cooked by my father, or it may be ordered by my mother.The kids will begrudgingly shut down their instant messengers before going to the dinner table.The family pup might sit on a dining room chair wearing a tiny bib.But perhaps the most visible change on the American table since the 1950s is the lack of meat on children's plates.

Fifty years ago, there were almost no vegetarian children in the United States. Now there are 1.5 million vegetarian children between the ages of 8 and 18.These 1.5 million children are completely free from meat, chicken and fish.There are more than 3 million children who only eat meat and no chicken.There are also a small number of children who do not eat fish and are completely vegetarian.A vegan child avoids all animal-related foods, such as eggs, milk and cheese, and sometimes even honey.Many children do not even wear leather clothing. Some children are vegetarians, inspired by their vegan parents, but more and more young people, especially girls, are making their own decision not to eat meat.Eleven percent of girls aged 13 to 15 said they did not eat meat.Vegetarian kids are fairly evenly distributed across the country, with about 8 percent of vegetarian kids in all states except the Midwestern states, where rates are slightly lower.Such a state of affairs is frustrating for meatpacking centers such as Chicago, Kansas City and Fort Worth.

Why should children be vegetarian?Is it because there was no bad news about spinach in 2006? Part of the reason for the increase in vegan kids is a general increase in veganism, an increase in the availability of meat-free alternatives, and of course, increased social acceptance.Currently, there are about 11 million vegetarians in the United States, and one-third to one-half of them are vegans, up from less than 5 percent in the early 1990s.Even Burger King restaurants across the country are selling veggie burgers.Therefore, compared with the young people in the past, it is much easier for today's vegetarian children to choose food according to their own wishes.

Another reason for the increase in vegan kids is a general increase in parental permissiveness, and virtually every trend discussed in this book, no matter what age group is involved, places a heavy emphasis on individuality. In the 1950s, children might tell their parents that they didn't want to eat meat, as taught in nutrition class, and their parents would threaten their children that they couldn't have dinner without meat.Now that children have enjoyed complete independence, it is already possible for them to refuse meat in accordance with their feelings for animals.Children's voluntary abstinence from meat actually doesn't have much to do with the viability of a vegetarian diet, or even with the tolerance of parents, and the abundance of information about the environment clearly has a greater impact on children. Since 1970, the world has had Earth Day, and every community I've lived in has had Park Cleanup Day, when the parks are regularly cleaned.My 4-year-old daughter comes home from school singing to the tune of "Frere Jacques" about recycling.She grew up with a whole new understanding of political correctness.Children speak freely at home and do not care about the feelings of adults.I don't smoke, and I haven't been scolded by children, but whoever smokes has never been scolded by children.My daughter has asked me not to throw used soda cans or expired newspapers in the regular bin, and she will give me a hard time if I don't do what she says.The image of the meat processing industry in the eyes of school-aged children is also not good.Fishing, hunting and raising chickens are not children's favorite activities.

In fact, if you really think about it, the increasing number of kids becoming vegetarians and vegans is not really a concern. What is really a concern is the variety of foods that kids today are eating and what they are eating. There are as many types of animals as there are food.Have you read a children's book lately?There are hardly any stories about humans in books for children, at least in literature aimed at 20-somethings. "The Three Bears" (The Three Bears) and "The Three Little Pigs" (The Three Little Pigs) (The Three Little Pigs) are very good children's first books, I want to discuss such children's books.Check out bears, cats and worms by Richard Scarry, monkeys in Curious George and Olivia In the pig's family, there is nothing that children like that is not an animal.The same is true for television and film.Like Nick Jr.'s "WonderPets" in 2006, and the singing penguins in the hit film "Happy Feet" that same year, frankly, Aren't even the most nutrition-conscious parents teaching their kids to eat animals?

Thank goodness the kids didn't eat as many animals.Nutrition experts say a vegetarian diet is better for kids, if not better.Therefore, schools, holiday camps, families, and restaurants of all kinds offer vegetarian recipes, and the quality of vegetarian recipes has not only improved dramatically, but the variety has also increased day by day.Salad has become the fastest growing fast food.Don't be surprised if tofu is the next fast food thing.Maybe broccoli or cauliflower will be a hit too.The restaurant industry can go to great lengths to cook chicken in all kinds of different ways, but they haven't really given much thought to how to give fried courgettes a new twist.Beyond salads, the restaurant industry seems to be concerned only with meat and potatoes, thinking that vegetables are just the kind of food kids are forced to eat.They don't see the trend - many kids are genuinely interested in eating vegetables now.

The meatpacking industry, concerned about this trend, fought back in 2003.The Natural Beef Council (theNaturalBeefCouncil) has launched an elaborate campaign in support of meat-eating foods. The basic message of this campaign is "Real Girls Eat Beef" (RealGirlsEastBeef).If vegetarian children grow up to be vegetarians, the future of the meat industry is at stake. This trend also means that Americans will be healthier.After controlling for other lifestyle differences, men who ate a vegetarian diet had a 37 percent lower risk of heart disease than men who did not eat a vegetarian diet, and eating a vegetarian diet could cut the risk of dementia in half for both men and women.

Of course, eating vegetables can also be dangerous, as in the 2006 disaster at the Taco Bell restaurant chain.Because vegetables, unlike meat, are not cooked at "disease-eradicating" temperatures, producers, parents, and vegetarian children, even if they lead a healthier lifestyle, must be wary.So far, treating food with radiation has not been widely used, although it is a safe way to extend the storage time of food and eliminate the chance of disease in vegetarians.However, in the face of a large number of vegetables that need to be processed and treated, radiation treatment is probably the only method that the catering industry can take to keep vegetables fresh.

What to let children eat, different people have different opinions, and the controversy on this issue will form a fierce struggle.Ranchers and farmers aren't giving up on the idea of ​​eating meat.Children who ate vegetarian food at an early age are also likely to relapse into their teens. They may think that they are not eating meat under the restraint of adults. Many children may change their habit of not eating meat when they grow up. eating habits.However, it is more likely that the trend of children eating vegetarian food will continue, and more children, especially girls, will refuse to eat meat products, and their eating habits will create a new demand for artificial foods. .In addition, since soybeans can be used to make ethanol, people's demand for grains and cellulose will increase, so it should not be surprising that soybeans will become a hot spot for investment in the next few years.

Obese people Everyone knows that America is getting fatter. In the early 1960s, the average American man weighed 166 pounds and the average woman weighed 140 pounds.Today, the average male weighs 191 pounds and the average female weighs 164 pounds, just a little bit more than the average male used to weigh. The number of Americans who are "overweight" (essentially 30 or more pounds overweight) has doubled in the past 20 years.Perhaps more tellingly, the number of Americans living with "morbidlyobese" -- the number of Americans who are 100 pounds or more overweight -- has quadrupled.It is estimated that as many as 9 million Americans are obese.Twice as many people in the United States are obese as there are people with dementia, and more than the entire population of North Carolina or New Jersey.It's an unbearable burden.

Of course, we've all heard that America's growing belly is changing American life.The medical device industry had to produce bigger ambulances and bigger wheelchairs, had to widen computer-aided test scanners (CATscanmachines), and had to lengthen injection needles.Public transportation has also had to adapt to the growing size of Americans. For example, the Chicago Transit Authority has decided to widen the seats on buses, and airlines have also taken measures to charge double tickets for some passengers.Commercial innovations have also sprung up to accommodate this situation. For example, automakers are experimenting with swivel seats that make it easier for fat people to get in and out of the car, and storage boxes for valuables have also been widened. two thirds. Of course, the increase in fat people has also given some industries the opportunity to do a lot.Some petite women's stores have gone out of business, but Lane Bryant, the famed "plus-size clothing" brand, has opened more than a hundred new stores.The catering industry, especially fast food chains, is booming.The weight-loss industry is also booming, though to a lesser degree than the restaurant industry. (I don't know if these industries have done sufficient market research, but Alabama, one of the most obese states in the United States, has opened more than 100 Kentucky Fried Chicken [KFC] stores, but the one opened by Jenny&# 8226;Jenny Craig has only one diet shop. Moderate weight states, like Kentucky, have over 100 KFC fried chicken places, and only 4 Jenny Craig diet shops. Yes Something they know we don't know, or something they know we don't pay attention to?) The problem of obesity has even entered the realm of public policy, which should focus on obesity because the cost of being overweight in the United States is about $120 billion a year.The Federal Aviation Administration recently decided to add an average of 10 pounds per passenger when calculating aircraft load.Medicare also includes obesity as a disease, meaning more and more bariatric surgery will be covered by insurance. In 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (The Food and Drug Administration) released an "Action Plan to Confront the Nation's Obesity Problem" (Action Plan to Confront the Nation's Obesity Problem). The nutritional content of food, and the development of more effective drugs to treat obesity, and so on. But beyond these general concerns, no one really paid attention to the fact that obesity is unevenly distributed demographically.Obesity is a pervasive American problem, but the actual burden of obesity is borne almost exclusively by black women. A 2002 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that, on average, women are twice as likely as men to be obese, but among black women, 1 in 6 1 person was overweight, almost three times as much as the other groups of women or men.In fact, despite all the talk about the obesity epidemic, the overall rate of obesity in the U.S. population is only as high as that of black women three years ago, and the rate of obesity among black women is the same as it was three years ago almost doubled compared to before. The problem of disproportionate burden is also expressed in popular culture.America's most sought after black woman, Oprah Winfrey (Oprah Winfrey) often openly discusses the issue of weight loss. (Did Ellen or Katie talk about losing weight?) Two Tons of Fun, a popular pop group in the 1980s, was born out of "It's the Man Who Fell From the Sky." sRainingmen) became popular with two fat black women, and they also achieved one success after another over a 20-year period.Apparently, it's just men who don't achieve enough.Eddie Murphy (Eddie Murphy) actually became popular because of playing fat big women, from the movie "Fatty Professor" (Nutty Professor) to 2007 "My Wife Is a Big Mac" (Norbit), Murphy's acting career has grown out of nothing more than the apparently comical fact that he, a small man, plays a fat black woman.Similarly, Martin Lawrence (Martin Lawrence) also played a fat black woman in "Bigmomma's House" and "Bigmomma's House 2".Even Tyler Perry, who has made too many serious movies, was in 2005's "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (Diary of a Mad Black Woman) and 2006's "Madea's Family Reunion" (Madea' sFamilyReunion), and he got a lot of credit for playing the fat Aunt Madea. But in real life, obesity has other implications.There are more than 18 million black women in the United States.If 1 in 6 people is obese, that's more than three million black women carrying an additional burden of 100 pounds or more.According to a 2006 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, obesity patients are mostly concentrated in the 50-59 age group, suggesting that they are in the best age for working and caring for children.And worst-case scenario, another JAMA study that tracked obesity over a seven-year period found that middle-aged obese women were nearly twice as likely to die as normal-weight women during the study period .This shows that black middle-aged women may be one of the groups with the highest risk of death in the United States. Can you imagine the dire consequences of losing approximately 2 million black middle-aged women in the United States?Although black women make up only 6 percent of the U.S. workforce, they make up 7 percent of all education service workers and 23 percent of the overall service industry workforce. Forty-four percent of all black children in the United States are raised or cared for by their grandmothers, while grandmothers of other ethnic groups raise their children at less than half the rate of black grandmothers. In 2004, black women turned out at 60 percent, just below the turnout rate for white women and twice as high as for Mexican-American women.Ask any pastor, teacher, or anyone who grew up in a black community and they will tell you that black grandmothers are the pillars of every black community in America. It is difficult to explain why black women carry this burden more than black men or non-black women. A 2005 study of women's health in New York City found that black women earning less than $25,000 a year were most likely to be overweight. The New York Times quoted a health agency official as saying, "Unable to afford qualified food, cheap unhealthy fast food and processed food, and subtle social influences such as differences in body shape recognition by different ethnic groups, all contribute to low Factors contributing to the increase in obesity among women with income and certain ethnic groups".Many women grew up eating traditional Southern foods, which are generally high in fat, sodium and calories. Although we have noticed many problems in the black community, such as improving the quality of education and creating new job opportunities for young people, the statistically significant problem of obesity still does not receive real attention. Individuals and societies suffered significant losses and were virtually ignored.The Food and Drug Administration's Action Plan to Address the National Obesity Problem barely mentions black women.This book often draws on unrecognized trends from statistics; the one discussed in this section is one that has been well documented by researchers but not by policy makers.So, only when the country realizes that obesity is a big problem, will every individual pay attention to improving health and well-being. international picture Growing waistlines are not a uniquely American phenomenon.Being overweight has become such a worldwide problem that the World Health Organization (World Health Organization, WHO) has named this spreading phenomenon "Global Obesity" (Globesity). Of course, hunger and malnutrition remain serious problems (and biggest killers) in much of the world.But in terms of numbers, around 800 million people worldwide are undernourished and around 1 billion are overweight. In 1995, there were only 200 million "fat" people in the world, but now it has exceeded 300 million.The World Health Organization predicts that in the next few years, obesity will become a leading cause of morbidity and death worldwide from fatal diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and high blood pressure. ▲Taking Mexico as an example, among the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, it ranks only after its northern neighbor and is the second most obese country.Among Mexicans, including Mexicans in Mexico and the United States, fully 74 percent of men are overweight or obese, and 70 percent of women are overweight or obese. In 1968, diabetes was the 35th leading cause of death in Mexico, and it is now the number one cause of death. ▲Taking China again as an example, since the late 1990s, the proportion of men who are overweight has increased from 4% to 15%, and the proportion of women who are overweight has increased from 10% to 20%.By 2010, more than half of the world's diabetic patients will be Asian. Looking at the United States again, African-American women have far higher rates of obesity than women anywhere else.What's happening in Africa is that rates of malnutrition are higher than anywhere in the world.but in africa ▲More than one-third of women and one-quarter of men are overweight, and, according to the World Health Organization, in the next 10 years, 41% of women and 30% of men in Africa will be overweight. ▲In South Africa, 56% of women are either overweight or obese, while less than 10% are underweight. ▲In Cameroon, Gambia and Nigeria, the proportion of obese patients or overweight people in the total population is about 35%. It is true that the prevalence of diabetes in Africa is still only 2%, while the prevalence in Europe and North America is nearly 8%, but Africa is extremely short of early diagnosis equipment and effective treatment drugs for diabetes.Therefore, although diabetes can be regarded as a "rich man's disease" and a disease caused by overnutrition, if the poor suffer from diabetes, the patient's body will be damaged to a greater extent. Why is obesity such a rapidly spreading global phenomenon?Experts believe that this phenomenon is related to changes in people's eating habits. People used to eat vegetables and grains, but now they eat refined foods and foods high in saturated fat.Food around the world, especially calorie-rich foods, is cheaper than ever.We're eating more sugar and fat than ever before in our meals and fast food.Mexicans (as mentioned earlier, Mexico is the second most obese country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries) are now as accustomed to drinking Coke as they are drinking milk. Whereas people were used to walking and biking, driving cars, or at least scooters, is now very common.Urbanization, television, and an inactive lifestyle have turned people into couchpotatoes in front of the TV.