Interesting to see how the EU handles a problem of food colouring causing hyperactivity in children. Their food producers are required to label products with the actual colourings used. I'm no purest but if you are allergic to one of these it's nice to know if they are used in what you're eating.
Food for thought
Another issue I have with the present field of thought is that kids, and the rest of us for that matter, are obese because we consume about 500 calories per day over our needs and we don't exersize. While doing a little siteseeing of some old neighborhoods via Google's street view I found that most (make that all) of the old school yards where I once played have now been turned into parking lots for the teachers. I vagely remember having recess twice per day and gym class at least twice per week. When we came home from school it was the routine of changing clothes and shoes to go out and play football, baseball, basketball, or some other running game. You don't see that any more. You might see a few guys on skateboards but that's as close to physical activity that I've seen in the last ten years. This is sad.
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I am old enough to remember what it was like way back when. It's almost creepy to watch things devolving, isn't it!
I can remember those days too, D. I'm 50 now, and I used to spend SO much time playing basketball anywhere I could find a place to play, from the time I was about 10 until I was 25 or so. I was never very good, but it was about the only form of exercise I liked. There was a lot of football and baseball time there too, and it was just about all street ball... but my friends and I were out doing a lot of running and sweating, and at the time we couldn't imagine NOT doing it. After a couple of knee operations and a spinal fusion in the last seven years, I am needing to find some type of exercise I can still do, because I am becoming lame and lardy. It has to be low-impact. I loathe swimming, but I am considering bicycling a lot this summer.
What HAS brought all this lack of exercise stuff with our kids? I think a major culprit is video games, along with what I'm doing right now (sitting at the computer). People get addicted to television already, but once computers and games started to be so much more fun about 15 years ago, I think that compounded the problem. Nowadays, people don't seem to set any boundaries between what is fun and what is necessary, and I hear people justifying why they are on the computer much of the time, or why they sit and play XBox or whatever... it's because they need to do it to relax.
I don't spend lots of time at the computer or sitting playing my Nintendo ES because I like it. I do those things because I am addicted to them, and because I am lazy. Looking at it from my angle, I think that is why a lot of kids look the way they do today.
I work in schools, and I don't see a huge percentage of obese kids, but I do see a lot of them I would consider mentally obese. What they mostly want to talk about is video games. I don't know very many middle schoolers who are interested in much else. A few do sports, maybe a few are into Scouts and church groups that go on hikes and campouts, but for the most part, they seem to be an unmotivated bunch.
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