The book explores the impact chronic exposure to toxins in our food-pesticides, hormones and antibiotics-is having on children, many of whom suffer from myriad health problems that are often linked to an impaired gut and overtaxed immune system.
The book also explores the power of ecomedicine-medicine that focuses on clean, healthy food.
Children who primarily depend on a Western diet, consisting of processed foods and industrially produced meat and dairy are struggling with a new wave of chronic health problems that simply did not exist decades ago, say the book's authors.
The U.S., for example, is witnessing the rise of a number of chronic diseases in children including food allergies and food sensitivities, asthma, eczema, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Crohn's disease, celiac disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), obesity, autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other debilitating mental disorders.
Comment: And caner: Number one cause of childhood death in U.S.? Cancer
ABC News is reporting today that cancer has officially outranked every other cause of childhood death in this country:Cancer is the leading cause of childhood death in the United States, with 13,500 new diagnoses each year according to the American Cancer Institute. One out of every 300 boys and one out of every 333 girls will develop cancer before their 20th birthday, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology.Cancer in America has seen a sharp increase over the last 100 years across all age groups. Data from the U.S. Public Health Service estimates that cancer death rates in 1900 were around 64 per 100,000; that number has increased almost threefold to 188.7 per 100,000 in 2005.
In fact, the chances of an American being diagnosed with some type of cancer in his or her lifetime is now one in two.
One in 13 American children is reported to have a serious food allergy. That's a 50-percent increase over the last two decades, according to the book. About 9 percent of children have asthma and one in 10 children have Crohn's disease. One in five children is obese and one in 41 boys or one in 68 children have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.
Food-Based Chemical Toxins
Perro and Adams report that doctors faced with an epidemic of complex, chronic symptoms can do little aside from minimizing the symptoms. As for the cause, the authors say that industrial food, and the toxins used to produce it, are the main culprits.
"Eating processed foods that are high in carbohydrates, sugar and hollow calories is the first problem ... but it is not the main problem. The more insidious danger is foods that are full of pesticides, hormones and antibiotics."Perro and Adams draw a correlation between the development of agrochemical technologies, including genetically modified (GM) foods or crops designed to either produce or withstand heavy applications of toxic crop chemicals, and the rise in chronic disease.
They point out that what the biotech industry considers to be "advancements" in food production are systematically exposing children to more toxic chemicals than any generation before them.
Comment: For more information on the insidious 'advancements of the biotech industry' listen to the following interview: The Health & Wellness Show: Interview with Brilliant Researcher Dr. Stephanie Seneff
Sick Kids and the Politics of Knowledge
What's Making Our Children Sick? is the result of a unique collaboration between a food-focused pediatrician (Perro) and a medical anthropologist (Adams). Perro has practiced medicine for 35 years, the last 15 of which she has spent in pursuit of integrative strategies that work to help children suffering from diseases caused by food-based chemical toxins.
Perro said she has witnessed a "steady stream of ailing children, from infants to teenagers," who could not be helped with the training she received in medical school. Her frustration led her to the field of functional medicine, homeopathics and herbal medicine where she started to examine the link between what her patients were eating and drinking and the effect it was having on their gut health.
Comment: Holistic medicine vs conventional medicine
Thoughtful physicians are becoming aware that something is wrong with their patients immune systems, but their typical medical treatments seem unable to do anything about it. This has doctors and patients perplexed by the failure of drug based therapies to bring relief, and as a result, patients become trapped in a cycle of dependency on physicians to monitor and adjust their medications rather than empowering them to change lifestyle factors that might allow their body to regain its full potential.
As long as we continue to mask symptoms or control health problems, and not get to the root cause of the issue and address them through education and natural methods, we will be forever sick, and our quality of life will be permanently diminished.
Adams has a background in Asian medicine, which recognizes that food can both cause and treat disease-a concept noticeably absent from western medicine.
While studying recovery efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans, Adams investigated what she called the "uneasy relationship between large corporations that controlled basic resources needed for human health and the most vulnerable members of the public who suffered from being denied access to these resources."
Adams said she began to see similar patterns of inequality in our agro-industrial food production systems, where large corporations held a monopoly not only on the products farmers needed for growing food but also on the science that was being produced to endorse use of these products.
Working in tandem, Perro and Adams began to tie together the connections between really sick kids and the politics of knowledge around GM foods. They consulted with microbiologists, biochemists, geneticists, pediatric experts and farmers. They attended workshops on organic food and interviewed activists working on the front lines of agroecology.
The result is a well-researched book that offers insight into the underlying cause of chronic disease and its connection to an industrialized, chemical-intensive farming system.
About the author
Julie Wilson is communications associate at Organic Consumers Association.
I think strength of mind becomes critical. From years of driving for a living, I was in a tremendous amount of pain last year (first year of retirement). I was determined to (1) become well and reclaim my life and (2) do so via nonlethal, natural means. I was in so much pain some nights I couldn't sleep. Sometimes I became so weak I couldn't even push myself off a chair or couch. It was bad. I am extremely fortunate to have an excellent (psychic) message therapist (her hands "tell" her where to go and what needs work)/herbalist. I gotta tell ya...I ate a lot of white willow/feverfew and Chinese skullcap (for the hip area). I worked out in the community pool...which involved barely moving but easier in the water. My MTH (message therapist/herbalist) had me on one cleanse after another...to fight any contributing inflammation. And my MTH is not kind...she'll put the hurt on ya. I slapped on AlCis and analgesic stuff like White Flower. But it worked. By the end of 2017 (a year of treatment), I had no pain except for some from a 36-year-old injury in my right arm which we were still working on. I now have no pain. Anywhere. My body has so much energy. Accept no substitute! Treat yourself as naturally or holistically as possible. Oh, and my MTH always finishes our sessions with Reiki. I open myself and let that healing energy/frequency in!!!!