Shocking data about kids and food in the USA

Alan Greene, MD & Founder of Dr.Greene, discusses how a recent report by the USDA on the top 25 foods eaten by kids includes no vegetables and how its no surprise that childhood obesity rates are so high
Shocking Data About Kids & Food In The USA Today
KidsInTheHouse the Ultimate Parenting Resource
Kids in the House Tour

Shocking data about kids and food in the USA

Comment
78
Like
78
Transcription: 
One of the most shocking things to me in recent years was a report by the USDA on what children in the United States are actually eating today. When you go to the store and you look at a product in a shelf and it's got an ingredient label, it lists what it's made of in order. Well, kids we know are actually built out of food. They are what they eat. So if American kids came with an ingredient label, what would be on the list? So they did a survey and they found the top 25 food, the top 25 sources of calories in today's children. No. 3 on the list, way up high on our children's ingredient label, no. 3 is soda. And no. 1 on the list is processed white flour treats. No. 2 is pizza, by the way. And that long list of 25 top foods, the only vegetable on the list is french fries and potato chips. And the only fruit on the list is juice, fruit juice, non-citric apple juice is on the list. That's what we're feeding our kids today. It's no wonder we have a crisis of obesity, it's no wonder that we have rapidly increasing chronic illnesses in children. We've really let them down and what we're really teaching them to like. It has not always been this way. Just a couple of generations ago, people ate real food, in this country, we can do it again here.

Alan Greene, MD & Founder of Dr.Greene, discusses how a recent report by the USDA on the top 25 foods eaten by kids includes no vegetables and how its no surprise that childhood obesity rates are so high

Transcript

Expert Bio

More from Expert

Alan Greene, MD

Founder, DrGreene.com

Dr. Alan Greene founded his website, DrGreene.com, in 1995, cited by the AMA as "the pioneer physician web site." In 2010 he founded the WhiteOut Now movement to change how babies are fed from their very first bite of solid food, and in 2012 he founded TICC TOCC – Transitioning Immediate Cord Clamping To Optimal Cord Clamping. He is an author of several books including Feeding Baby Green and appears frequently in the media including such venues as the The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, the Dr. Oz Show, and is a regular columnist for Parenting magazine. He is a practicing pediatrician and the father of four.

More Parenting Videos from Alan Greene, MD >
Enter your email to
download & subscribe
to our newsletter