Blanca F.

Can you imagine a world without vaccines? This would be a world where children suffer polio, diphtheria, tetanus, meningitis.  It would be a world where unborn babies are infected by congenital rubella. This would be a world where newborn babies cough so much with whooping cough that they suffocate to death? 

What would we see if our children suffered from any of these long gone infectious diseases? Not all of them would be running in the park. Some of them would be deaf. Some of them would be blind. Some would grow up to be adults who could not live independently due to their disabilities.

 The world we live in would be very different. 

 Most pediatricians of my generation have never seen a case of polio, or a case of small pox. And most young parents have never had to face the terror of a child with meningitis or a young one with diphtheria. When we look around we see healthy, beautiful children, running, playing, growing without disabilities or handicaps.

 The advent of immunizations brought the promise of perfect health to our children. And that promise has been delivered. For many years millions of children have been vaccinated around the world. Many terrifying infectious diseases have been eradicated and we have lived free of fear because we have trusted the science of vaccination.

 But the pendulum may swing in the other direction. Infectious diseases could make a come back. And that will be our responsibility. 

 Over a decade ago, a fraudulent paper implicating a relationship between vaccines and autism was published. This news received so much media coverage that many took advantage of the lime light and profited from the fear and concern created in the minds of young parents. The discussion over vaccinating vs. not vaccinating children is taking epic proportions, and parents on each side of the issue are casting blame and judgment on each other. Reading these arguments fills my heart with deep concern and despair.

 I believe that for most parents vaccinating vs. not vaccinating their children is not a decision driven by facts. It is a decision driven by feelings. We are all suffering from an overload of information and not everything is accurate. We must return to common sense. 

 Young families can not imagine a world without vaccines because they have never lived in that world. They have never seen the ravaging effects of infectious diseases; however, they have heard the inflammatory rhetoric of those who blame vaccines for the rise in autism and other immunological diseases. These, and not the myriad of diseases vaccinations prevent, have now become the real threat in the minds of parents.

 Germs are smart and will continue to adapt and transform and they will prevail, make no mistake about this. If we are not vigilant and allow unsubstantiated fears to dictate our actions on the vaccination issue, infectious diseases will rule our world once more and then, imagination will not be necessary. Families will see with their own eyes what a world without vaccines looks like.

 When I was a kid one of my chores was to go to the bakery to get fresh bread for dinner. Every afternoon my mom would give me the bag designated for bread and a few coins and there I went happily thinking of rainbows and butterflies along the two blocks that separated our home from the bakery. I know that my mother would go to the local farmers market at least once a week and also take short trips to the store for groceries, and to the butcher shop for meats. We would have never dreamt of buying a whole week’s supply of food. Food had to be fresh.

A lot has changed since those easy days. The food industry has revolutionized the way we approach food and fortunately daily trips to the market for fresh ingredients aren’t necessary any more. Otherwise, I don’t know how families could cope with the daily demands of our fast pace life. However, everything has a price and the price of convenience is obesity.

Food chemists spend long hours in their labs to develop the different foods we eat. They strive to get the right color, the perfect flavor and the most appealing texture for the product in question. The meal that comes out of the box is going to tickle our senses and delight our palate and we are certainly going to try repeating the experience. The food industry is counting on it.

Processed foods are unhealthy and they are one of the main causes of obesity. Here is why: they are low in nutrients and filled with artificial ingredients to prolong their shelf life. They are also high in sodium and sugars. And perhaps the worst part in the equation is that they are very hard to resist. Children get use to the salty flavors and the creamy textures and then refuse to eat homemade meals.

Here are some tips to let go of convenience:

• Mix convenient items with fresh ones: too much change could sabotage your success. We instinctively rebel against drastic changes.
• Watch at least one cooking show per week. Expand your repertoire of favorite dishes. Variety is the secret ingredient in fun meals.
• Make extra food and freeze it for another meal. Create your convenience in your own kitchen. No chemical preservatives!
• Swap recipes and leftovers with good friends. Share in the fun with friends. Learn from diversity. Experiment with new tastes and flavors that might be foreign to your family.

Our responsibility as parents is to know what we are feeding our children, to teach them simple rules that will help them make better choices when they select their own food, and to empower our families to protect and care for our environment.

The price of convenience is obesity. Accept a healthier future for your family by choosing fresh foods.

Once I heard a story about a couple who wanted to experiment with food and decided that each day of the week they would eat single colored foods representing each color of the rainbow. The experiment went well  the first four days with red, orange, yellow and green foods, but it got overwhelming during the last 3 days with blue, indigo and violet  foods. Not only the colors got harder with fewer foods choices to select from but the monotony of single ingredients got to be dreadful and of course this adventurous couple gave up their experiment.

Have you ever asked yourself what drives our obsession with food? What makes us select certain foods and avoid others? What causes the most expert nutritionist to be insanely driven towards chocolate? Food not only nourishes our bodies but offers infinite pleasure to our minds.

We approach food through our senses. We see, smell, taste and touch food. As  food enters our body through our mouth every sensory organ is awake and responding, sending messages to our brain where we interpret them based on previous experiences. Then, we either experience pleasure or not, and that is what drives our behavior.

When it comes to food and eating, logic and knowledge have very little power over our feelings, memories and emotions. Yes, we can control ourselves, we can teach our youth the value of healthy meals and we can remove vending machines from school cafeterias but the real change has to occur within our own minds. We have to learn and teach our children how to appreciate food in different ways.  It is imperative that we see the beauty and bounty of nature in our food and that we develop reverence for it.

I don’t know anyone that is not awed by the beauty of a rainbow. It is our mandate as adults, parents and educators to instill in our children that same sense of awe towards the bounty that comes from the earth. Food awareness is low in children. They don’t know anything about food except what we teach them. 

“Because is good for you” is not a good enough reason for a young one to try a new food.  When offering a new food to your child get creative. Involve your child’s senses in discovering the different qualities of the food. Give him new words that describe its color, taste, texture and aroma  and most of all make this a positive, joyous experience that in the future will determined your child’s preferences.

Parents have the privilege of building the library of memories that children will use to design their future. Give your children a delicious, technicolor world.