PART 2 – POPPA SAID
There are 5 things young children should not be ingesting:
1. Heavy metals like lead, mercury and arsenic.
2. Pesticides like those in non-organic apple juice and non-organic food.
3. Chemicals like the VOCs in paint and carpeting.
4. Preservatives like those in fast food and processed food, and,
5. Too much TV and graphic images. (I’m sure I’m missing something here, but these are some biggies.)
Parents and grandparents need to stop, take a breath and realize things have changed in their world the past some odd years. Then they need to start double checking the things their children and grandchildren are consuming every day.
That’s right, this is not your great grandmother’s planet we live on anymore, where food was always organic (that’s right! organic before organic was…well, organic!). A planet where they didn’t put high fructose corn syrup in food, and a planet where they hadn’t even invented things like BPA, preservatives and MSG.
Classics like Twinkies and Coca Cola are mere shells of their former selves these days. Loaded with so many chemicals to make them taste better, feel better on your tongue and last longer on the shelf and most of all… cost less to make. (You see where I’m going with this?)
Ya know, I just say the word organic to my elders and their faces glaze over. Apathy. I tell my wife there is an MSG overload in those chicken nuggets from her favorite childhood chicken joint (the ones with cows in the ad, you know the one) and she lashes out at me as if I just told her she had spinach in her teeth for her license photo and I had known all along. Apathy.
Fortunately it’s not too hard to make things safe for your little kids these days. The main thing is to lose the apathy. Get active in the organic movement.
Question your grocer when you find that they carry a product loaded with chemicals and then do it again the next time you go in. Send emails to the toy companies you’d like to buy from and ask them how their toys are made, with what materials and ask them if they can give you a certificate that proves the toy is safe.
If they can’t produce one, don’t buy the toy and then tell your friends all about it during afternoon tea at that organic afternoon tea place you just found.
It sounds excessive, but really it’s a little war that’s gaining more and more foot soldiers everyday and YOU are on the front line, child in tow. Checklist in hand.
It’s how movements get made. It’s how change happens. If you let your apathy keep driving the bus, the only place you’ll end up is, well…..lost somewhere you don’t really want to be. It’s time to pay attention to what our children are ingesting on a daily basis.
It takes some diligence but believe me, you’ll feel real good about it when all is said and done. Your child will too. Trust me, they really will. You’ll see.
So, there it is. Apathy…. today’s four letter word.