Bad Health Of Children And Teenagers Of Eating Junk Food

We tend to judge food by appearance and taste and the chemists at the junk food laboratories are highly skilled at making appealing, tasty food -- from the cheapest possible ingredients. And the people who know little else but junk food suffer most. And this tends to be youngsters -- which is a great pity. That's because, vitamins and minerals are absolutely vital for proper brain development and function in both younger children and teens, and they are often missing from junk food. This leads to bad health of children and teenagers of eating junk food.

And just imagine if having to fit airport-style metal detectors in schools and all those school shootings and stabbings could be down to a simple shortage of the vital mineral zinc? Yes, a shortage of zinc can lead to aggressive behavior, and even a tendency to suicide, which seems to be an increasing feature with young people.

On a less dramatic level, shortage of zinc can lead to frequent headaches, depression, anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Zinc also helps balance blood sugar and lack of this mineral leads to a craving for candy.

Zinc is obtained from oysters, clams, turkey and garbanzo beans. Apart from turkey, the chances are that no child will be eating any of these foods.

To give you another example: low levels of magnesium level is linked to attention deficit, autism, depression, fatigue and learning disabilities.  Even worse, if the child drinks milk, this uses up what little magnesium there is in their body to metabolize the calcium in the milk.  

Unfortunately, magnesium is in the very foods children tend to run a mile from: nuts and seeds, whole grains and dark green leafy vegetables.

Another mineral children need to avoid poor brain functioning and erratic behavior is iron.  Iron comes from eating seafood, liver, beans, broccoli, asparagus and Brussels sprouts -- all foods that children hate.

So, be aware that -- even if the processed food your child eats claims to have added vitamins and minerals, be aware that scientists don't know everything there is to know about how vitamins and minerals really work and it is almost impossible to isolate and synthesize all the active ingredients properly. So it's far better for your child -- and your whole family -- to get those vital vitamins and minerals direct from whole foods, which have received minimal processing. That way you will avoid bad health of children and teenagers of eating junk food.