I want to share something with you all today. Something important that I feel deserves your attention. Something I know is going to annoy and upset you but HEY, even Galileo Galilei stepped on some toes.
Let me start off by saying that I live in a really small town in England by mere default. I don’t really know how I got here, one day I just woke up and POW: I was stuck in a town where Primark is the main meeting point and where 13-year old moms light the cigarettes for their 7-year old daughters while knitting tracksuit bottoms for their 3-year old grandsons. No, really.
Moving on. While I’ve been living here I have experienced the exciting and diverse culture that a small town in the east midlands can offer (okay you figure that one out people). However, in the mist of this cultural joy, I have seen a worrying trend flooding the streets: public child abuse.
No, I’m not talking about the teenage mom shouting explicit words to her 2-month old baby while she’s lighting a fag or the 13-year old father who does not understand the meaning of financial stability.
I’m talking about toddlers walking around the streets unwittingly eating sausage rolls, pizza slices and neon-coloured candy provided by their caring parents. Now before I move on, let's get one thing straight: I do not give a flying fudge about how many calories this or that has, how many carbohydrates, sugar or fat something contains of - as long as it is natural and not tampered with. Sugar, fat and carbohydrates comes in essential raw food such as fruits, nuts and vegetables and I, who mainly live on these foods do not count calories, grams of fat or carbs since I know that I am providing my body with nutritious and natural food.
Having said that, there are not a lot of things that makes me angrier than seeing an innocent child trustfully eating what their ignorant parents are providing them with. In my little town, I stumble across this socially accepted child abusing phenomena on a daily basis - I see these growing children who are in need of vital minerals and vitamins, ironically being stuffed with chemicals and cancer provoking trans fats.
The other day while I was walking around town I saw a young mom with her little cute daughter. The daughter, who couldn’t have been more than 3 years old, was holding a sausage roll from one of these cheap chain-"bakeries" (you wish, why not also call it the Louvre while we’re at it) and a can of fizzy drink in her tiny little hands. I was two seconds away from slapping the mom over the head with the sausage roll but I was so scared that she was going to burn me with her cigarette so I chickened out. I could not believe the ignorance of this mom. Instead of providing good healthy actual food for her little daughter who’s completely dependent on her mom, the mother showed her love by giving her modified starch (which consist of E 1404, E 1410, E 1412, E 1413, E 1414, E 1420, E 1422, E 1440, E 1442, E 1450 and E 1451), preservatives (which have caused recent debates for its health risks) and aspartame (the famous and controversial sweetener that has raised several concerned voices about its long termed affects on the human body).
Though I’m sure that those thing are super yummie and covered in all kinds of cool artificial flavours and funkyness, I’m quite certain it lacks those boring things such as...hmm I don’t know, maybe essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals which are majorly important for a growing body? It actually sounds like what the little girl’s mother is providing her daughter with are more likely do break down the body instead of building it up.
The sad thing is that I actually don’t think that the mom is aware of what she is feeding her daughter with, or what it will do to her in the long run – heck, mummy is probably eating those things herself!
However, when a little growing life is dependent on you, you should do anything in your power to provide and care for it - even if it requires a further education in certain areas.
Yet, something tells me that this particular mom and probably another couple of million British people are quite comfortable in their eating habits and do not want to spend “so much bloody time” on cooking from scratch or simply have no interest in “expensive fancy food”.
Okay then mums of England. I’m sure the hospital bills for obesity and heart disease treatment which your children will for receive in the future, won’t be so expensive or fancy either.
Oh no wait – they will!
By the way, they’re having a sale on canned beef and cream soda in town. Go get ‘em tiger!
