(NaturalNews) Many children grow into adolescence hating their bodies and despising their figures. Ashamed of the way they look and feel, they may turn to self-destructive behaviors that exacerbate their negative view of self and the world around them.

Children growing up in consumerist, Western societies are brought up in a culture of cheap conveniences that appease their appetites and starve their cells of living nutrition. Practically every holiday in America is celebrated in the same way: in reverence of candy and junk food. From candy-filled Easter baskets, to 4th of July candy-collecting parades, to birthday cakes – it's all the same. From Halloween trick-or-treating to Thanksgiving gluttony, Christmas cookies to Valentine's Day chocolates: children are trained to trash their bodies and welcome disease.

It's the norm. Parents are pressured to spoil their kids with sugary, processed junk food at every turn. If they don't cave in, they feel like they are depriving their children. The things they are truly depriving their children of are the foundations of life: living nutrients, necessary minerals, protective antioxidants and nourishing fatty acids. Many children are brought up to get whatever they want, while never having access to the whole foods their bodies need. Trained to be idle and addicted to screens, children in today's culture lose connection with nature and their own imaginations.

When the child turns up sick, time and time again, the parents let the medical system cram antibiotics down their throat, which only destroys the child's microbiome – the delicate, intelligent presence of healthy bacteria in their gut. As their parents feed them a steady diet of processed, dyed, pesticide-ridden foods, their guts become an entryway for toxins to enter the blood and start disease processes in the vital organs. As protective bacteria species are wiped out of their guts through subsequent use of antibiotics and glyphosate-sprayed foods, children become weak and poisoned. Environmental and food toxins break through their gut wall into the blood, disrupting hormones, and changing the way the child develops physically, mentally and sexually. Their metabolism may be slowed. Obesity may set in.

The dire reality is this: children as young as 8 years old are now becoming obese. One in three children is heavily overweight or obese. They are not only obese, but are also showing early signs of heart disease. New research from the Geisinger Health System isn't just pointing to the obesity epidemic as an issue of appearance. Children are literally becoming immobile and handicapped, and the health of their organs is deteriorating. The experts show that the diets being given to children are causing much more than obesity; they are also causing heart muscle abnormalities.

Lead author, Dr. Linyuan Jing, states, "Parents should be highly motivated to help their children maintain a healthy weight." Those who do not, should be ashamed of themselves.

Calling on parents to wake up, he says, "Ultimately we hope that the effects we see in the hearts of these children are reversible; however, it is possible that there could be permanent damage." [Emphasis added]

Obesity can be disabling, keeping children from their natural tendency to run around and play. It also sets children back internally, welcoming early onset heart disease and diabetes. The study found that obesity suffocates the heart of a child, lending to 12 percent thicker heart muscles.

Jing's research found that obesity in children is also linked to 27 percent more muscle mass in the left ventricle of the heart. In the study, 40 percent of the children were considered "high risk." Thickened heart muscles hindered the heart's pumping ability, making it harder for the children to breathe and keep up with others. Many additionally struggled with high blood pressure, asthma, and depression.

This study is a call for renewed responsibility – for all parents to wake up and see what kind of world they are creating for their children. Many of the emotional, social, mental and physical struggles that adolescents face stem from the diet and lifestyle they were raised on.

Every doughnut, every soda and every ice cream cone is a strike against a child's immune system, their cognitive abilities, and their healthy physical and sexual development.

And yes, organic health food costs much less than the consequences of the toxic, junk food lifestyle that we've been taught to celebrate, holiday after holiday.

Sources include:

dailymail.co.uk

http://www.naturalnews.com/z052059_overweight_children_obesity_processed_food.html