OUR TWO youngest daughters are in different stages of puberty. Their hormones are flying, so you can imagine what back-to-school shopping has been like.
The other day, we were buying school clothes, and I was at my wit's end with my 11-year-old's determination not to find anything that met my approval. There, on the dressing room floor, was the ton of clothes I had lovingly chosen for her, and she hated every outfit.
Her father had warned that her choices had to pass strict parental inspection, which means they can't be revealing, tight or too short. Of course, everything she wanted was one size too small - or not part of the school uniform.
The picky dresser is equally tedious about her food, and prefers to eat everything that's bad for her instead of my healthy, mostly vegetarian meals. On this day, she had skipped breakfast while I showered, which I didn't know until we were in the store. This, of course, aggravated her refusal to cooperate with me.
In this early moment of her puberty, "baby girl" is desperate to be grown, but we don't allow her fashion sense be driven by designers who care little about preserving a child's youth. We try to be mindful of our daughters' concerns that they are developing much slower than the friends who are already in full bloom.
Our girls understand why at 11 and 13 so many of their female classmates have blossomed into womanhood, but they haven't. Most of their friends come from meat-eating homes, and our children enviously tell me about meals with them. In our house, hubby is a strict vegetarian, which means I often cook three different meals to make everyone happy. (The upside is that his healthy regimen gives him a body that looks more like 31 than 61.)
I'm amazed how fast some children are developing these days. We see little girls at 9 who look like they're 17. Since flesh-eating has never been a dominant part of our nutritional routine, our children are thinner and generally healthier than most of their peers. Back in my youth, even eating meat three times a day, our bodies changed around 12 and 13, not 9 and 10, which is called "precocious puberty" and is becoming more frequent.
"We are seeing a lot more cases of 'precocious puberty,' " says Frederick Douglass Burton, a Philadelphia internist who practices holistic medicine. Dr. Burton says precocious puberty is the direct result of today's meat and dairy, which is saturated with hormones.
Dr. Burton, who is heard regularly on WURD (900-AM) radio, also says the fast food that young people crave not only contributes to early puberty, but also makes them more violent.
Van Stone, a West Philadelphia community activist, agrees. He says a lot of the violence in urban neighborhoods comes from nutritionally deficient children who are also hungry.
"Children are going to be hyper, and act out when they are hungry or full of sugar," says Stone, who sees children who attend school loaded up with candy and soda, instead of juice, fruit or cereal.
This summer, Stone says his nonprofit Vanstone Production Foundation partnered with PAL and Malik Aziz, director of the Ex Offender's Association of Pennsylvania, to run Camp VPAL, which teaches West Philadelphia children about healthy eating. Ultimately, Stone would like to help fight crime by teaching children how to make healthy food choices, and partner with local restaurants to provide healthy snack packs to poor children for breakfast and after-school programs.
It's a well-known medical fact that more than half of all Americans are fat and that poor nutrition has a direct impact on a child's ability to concentrate. Sugar, toxins, chemicals and dehydration contribute directly to poor school performance.
In my 29 years of mothering, I've spoken to many teachers who also make a direct correlation between violent behavior and poor eating habits. My own grandson turns into a nightmare if he eats sugar or chocolate, but is a gentle breeze when he eats fresh broccoli. Many parents are unaware that their children have allergies to some of the chemicals that are in processed food, particularly fast food.
Most people aren't going to give up meat entirely, but it's important to understand the difference in how animals are raised. Free-range chickens, fed on the ground in the daylight, are far healthier than the ones that live cooped up in wire cages, and injected with hormones and steroids.
Next time you look at your 12-year-old daughter, think about those nice fat chicken breasts, which are full of drugs to make them grow them faster and bigger.
Many fast-food restaurants now offer veggie burgers, salads, fruit and yogurt in addition to burgers and fries. The fact is, the fast-food industry is here to stay, so the best thing we can do is teach our children how to make healthy choices when they get to the drive-through window.
We should also teach them the joys of cooking healthy foods, which nourish their brains as well as their growing bodies. *
Fatimah Ali is a regular contributor. E-mail her at fameworksmedia@yahoo.com.
