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Children and Junk Food

Children find themselves amidst a complex society that is undergoing breathtaking changes.
Concepts, relationships, lifestyles are metamorphisised to accommodate the new jet-setting age.
Food is no exception. Healthy nutritious foods have been replaced by the new food mantra -
JUNK FOOD! Junk food comprises of anything that is quick, tasty, convenient and fashionable.
It seems to have engulfed every age; every race and the newest entrants are children. Wafers,
colas, pizzas and burgers are suddenly the most important thing. The commonest scenario is a
child who returns from school and plonks himself in front of the television, faithfully
accompanied by a bowl of wafers and a can of cola. Children suddenly seem to have stepped into
a world of fast foods and vending machines, totally unaware of the havoc they are creating for
themselves.
The years between 6-12 are a time of steady growth; good nutrition is a high priority. Children
must know that what they eat affects how they grow, feel and behave. Changes in our society
have intensified the need for food skills, to the extent that they need to become a part of the
child's basic education for good health and survival. The vast majority of working mothers with
school age children are laboured with exhausting commutes, upswings in the households, and
stress, leading to a situation where parents get to spend limited time with their children.
Traditional food skills are not passed on automatically from parent to child. Most people have
forgotten that the primary reason for eating is nourishment. In the not so distant past, food was
treated with reverence because of its life sustaining quality. Enjoying a meal was sharing
experience with the others. Today family dinners are rare. In many ways, our culture is
structured to foster poor eating habits. Television commercials and supermarkets are propagating
a wide variety of enticing junk foods, attractively packaged and often tagged with a tempting
sop. We should be constructing an environment that protects our children. Instead we have a
highly seductive environment that undermines eating habits.
For children who have less vision of the heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure or diabetes
that might befall them decades later, the tentacles of a junk food environment are virtually
inescapable. Studies reveal that as early as the age of 30, arteries could beginning clogging and
lay the groundwork for future heart attacks. What children eat from puberty affects their risks of
prostate and breast cancer. Osteoporosis and hypertension are other diseases that appear to have
their earliest roots in childhood when lifelong eating habits are being formed. Children are
especially vulnerable. Poor diets can slow growth, decay new teeth, promote obesity and sow the
seeds of infirmity and debilitating disease that ultimately lead to incurable disease and death or
worse make life insufferable.
Most of the times these junk foods contain colors that are laced with colors, those are often
inedible, carcinogenic and harmful to the body. These foods and their colors can affect digestive
systems, the effects of it emerging after many years. Studies have found that food coloring can
cause hyperactivity and lapses of concentration in children. Children suffering from Learning
Disabilities are often advised against eating food with artificial coloring. Chocolates, colas,
flavored drinks and snack tit bits are full of artificial coloring.
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Not surprisingly, junk food not only has physiological repercussions, but also psychological ones
- far reaching ones that affect the child's intellect and personalities. Coping intelligently with
their dietary needs increases their self-esteem, and encourages further discovery. School days are
full of educational challenges that require long attention spans and stamina. Poor nutritional
habits can undermine these pre-requisites of learning, as well as sap the strength that children
need for making friends, interacting with family, participating in sports and games or simply
feeling god about themselves.
Junk foods are often eaten in instead of regular food, an essential Indian diet that consists of
wholesome chapatis and vegetables or snacks like upmas and idlis. Not surprisingly eating junk
food leads to a sense of starvation both physically and mentally, as the feeling of satiation and
contentment that comes after a wholesome meal is absent. There is simply no substitute for the
feeling that descends, when you wake up and find that you are ready to take on the world and
this primarily stems from GOOD HEALTH! There is no better time than now to build a
supportive environment for nurturing our children and endowing them with a legacy of good
health.

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Children And Watching TV
Television viewing is a major activity and influence on children and adolescents. Children in the
United States watch an average of three to four hours of television a day. By the time of high
school graduation, they will have spent more time watching television than they have in the
classroom. While television can entertain, inform, and keep our children company, it may also
influence them in undesirable ways.
Time spent watching television takes away from important activities such as reading, school
work, playing, exercise, family interaction, and social development. Children also learn
information from television that may be inappropriate or incorrect. They often can not tell the
difference between the fantasy presented on television versus reality. They are influenced by the
thousands of commercials seen each year, many of which are for alcohol, junk food, fast foods,
and toys.
Children who watch a lot of television are likely to:
Have lower grades in school
Read fewer books
Exercise less
Be overweight
Violence, sexuality, race and gender stereotypes, drug and alcohol abuse are common themes of
television programs. Young children are impressionable and may assume that what they see on
television is typical, safe, and acceptable. As a result, television also exposes children to
behaviors and attitudes that may be overwhelming and difficult to understand.
Active parenting can ensure that children have a positive experience with television. Parents can
help by:
Viewing programs with your children
Selecting developmentally appropriate shows
Placing limits on the amount of television viewing (per day and per week)
Turning off the TV during family meals and study time
Turning off shows you don't feel are appropriate for your child
In addition, parents can help by doing the following: don't allow children to watch long blocks of
TV, but help them select individual programs. Choose shows that meet the developmental needs
of your child. Children's shows on public TV are appropriate, but soap operas, adult sitcoms, and
adult talk shows are not. Set certain periods when the television will be off. Study times are for
learning, not for sitting in front of the TV doing homework. Meal times are a good time for
family members to talk with each other, not for watching television.
Encourage discussions with your children about what they are seeing as you watch shows with
them. Point out positive behavior, such as cooperation, friendship, and concern for others. While
watching, make connections to history, books, places of interest, and personal events. Talk about
your personal and family values as they relate to the show. Ask children to compare what they
are watching with real events. Talk about the realistic consequences of violence. Discuss the role
of advertising and its influence on buying. Encourage your child to be involved in hobbies,
sports, and peers. With proper guidance, your child can learn to use television in a healthy and
positive way.
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Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore
[]
(Bengali pronunciation: [rbindrnt tr] ( listen)), also written
Rabndrantha Thkura (Bengali: ; pronounced: [rbindrnt tkr]),
[2]
(7
May 1861 7 August 1941),
[]
sobriquet Gurudev,
[]
was a Bengali polymath who
reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Author
of Gitanjali and its "profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse",
[3]
he became the first non-
European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.
[4]
In translation his poetry was viewed as
spiritual and mercurial; however, his "elegant prose and magical poetry" remain largely unknown
outside Bengal.
[5]
Tagore introduced new prose and verse forms and the use of colloquial
language into Bengali literature, thereby freeing it from traditional models based on
classical Sanskrit. He was highly influential in introducing the best of Indian culture to the West
and vice versa, and he is generally regarded as the outstanding creative artist of the modern
Indian subcontinent, being highly commemorated in India and Bangladesh, as well as in Sri
Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.



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Poet
Mind Without Fear
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up
into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.


PAUL GROHMANN
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Premlata Agarwal
Premlata Agarwal (born 1963) is an Indian mountain climber, who on May 20,
2011 became the oldest Indian woman to have scaled the world's tallest
peak,Mount Everest (29,029 ft.), at the age of 48 years. She also became the
first person from Jharkhand state to go on an expedition to Mount
Everest.
[1][2]
Prior to this, she took part in an Island Peak Expedition in Nepal
(20,600 ft) in 2004; the Karakoram Pass (18,300 ft) and Mt. Saltoro
Kangri (20,150 ft) in 2006. She participated in the First Indian Womens Thar
Desert Expedition in 2007; a 40-day camel safari from Bhuj in Gujarat to
the Wagah Border (Indo-Pak border) in Punjab. Her feats have earned her a
listing in the Limca Book of Records.
[1][3][4]
She was awarded the Padma Shri by
the Government of Indiain 2013.
[5]
She also became the first Indian woman to
scale the Seven Summitsafter climbing the McKinley Peak in May 2013.
[6]