Healthier Children in Marin

Healthier Children Initiative a new Marin County-based information exchange network dedicated to keeping our children safe in an obese world. We are concerned about the youngest and most vulnerable in our society -- pre-natal to five years old.

Mission

Keep Children Safe in an Obese World

Description

Healthier Children is a Marin-County Information Network set-up to facilitate the exchange of information to promote the health and well being of our children.

Nature Play Taken on Many Forms

I thought when I coined the term "Adventure Garden Nature Play" that I had found something new. But not so -for it seems all around the world there are folks who are breaking out of the "jungle-gym" paradigm and discovering the virtues of  playing with natural materials.....

This is your brain on sugar: Study in rats shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory

This is your brain on sugar: Study in rats shows high-fructose diet sabotages learning, memory

CALIFORNIA RIGHT TO KNOW INITIATIVE

Today the petition to require the labeling of GMO - genetically modified organisms -- is being released. We have ten weeks to gather 800,000 signatures to put this initiative on the November 2012 ballot.

The implications of this ballot measure are really worth pondering for a while. Do you want to eat GMO modified food? According to most polls the vast majority of consumers do not. Yet 80+% of all American processed foods are made with GMO ingredients. It's like two vast ocean currents confronting --- As a sailor I know that will result in turbulence and rough passage. It ca be likened to an awakening; the birthing of a new way. Organic food will have greater value. Monsanto's strangle hold on our food supply will be lessened - at least for a while. Is it too late? No one knows, that 's the problem. The GMO labeling movement is so important because it is  like a wedge being driven down the center of Corporate Food's weakest point -- its dark secrets. Driving the GMO Labeling wedge deep into Corporate Food's hidden undisclosed practices has the potential to split Corporate Food wide open in America  --  letting the light shine.  Thus allowing people to exercise their free choice to eat healthy foods -- yes indeed we are headed towards a time of transformation.

Now, everyone we have but one task ahead of us for the next 10 weeks in California -- Collect signatures. It's not just about qualifying for the November ballot -- it's our chance to really start Fixing Food Together.

About Us

Every day in every way it never fails to impress me how critically important it is to recognize that it is the responsibility of every principle care taker -- be you a father or mother, aunt or uncle -- to protect the health of our youngest children. They are innocent. They do not have the capacity to know that Ronald McDonald is not a clown but a powerful Madison Ave Marketing tool. The little ones -who if we are to believe the Kaiser Foundation - watch on an average of FIVE hours of television a day do not understand the difference between a commercial and the actual program. All you "principle care-givers" -- be you teachers or parents have the responsibility to protect the very young from the profiteering corporations who are ready - willing - and able to package, market, and sell food-like substances filled with synthetic chemicals, preservatives, salts, sugars and fats to our little guys. Their little bodies are growing so fast. Connections in their brains are happening. What they eat at this young age will set their metabolism for the rest of their lives. So care givers we have a sacred obligation to protect our young. We have to protect our young in a totally new way today in the face of all these ubiquitous threats to their long term health and well being.

We should never lose sight of the fact that one out of every three children born since 2001 WILL DEVELOP diabetes (if present trends continue --and they are only getting worse!) The number one cause of amputation in America is diabetes. The number one cause for blindness in America is diabetes. So as I wrote at the beginning --every day in every way it never fails to impress me how important our role as principle care-giver is to our children. For if we do not say no to the "Clown" -- if we do not stop killing our children with kindness as we pass them another sweet treat for being such good kids --- then our children will become sick. Today for the first time in human history -- many of our children will die in large numbers before their parents due to the complication related to "childhood obesity". We have a responsibility to our ancestors - who gave us life -- to preserve and protect our children so they in turn can give life to their children. This link of ancestral obligation is sacred to our sense of being human. If I asked anyone who is reading this blog, "Is there anything more important to you than the health and well being of your child?" I do not think I would get a single person to disagree with that statement.

We have a sacred duty to our children --- it is our reason for living. As I develop this blog site I will try to help parents and care-givers with insights. I invite other to join me in this effort. Together maybe we will prevail in protecting our children. All I know for sure, if left to "market forces" and "tea bagger-anti-regulation types" our children will be bear the brunt. I am also sure that even a those anti-regulation Tea Baggers cares about their children too. So it matters not if you are red or blue - leftist or rightist - let's make this cause our common cause.