While your children are growing up, they are awaiting the maladies named by Dr. T Colin Campbell, nutritional biochemist at Cornell and director of the famous China Health Study, "diseases of nutritional extravagance": heart disease, cancer, stroke, hypertension, obesity and diabetes. Statistics show hat 1 out of 2 children born today will develop heart disease, and 1 out of 3 will get cancer. Are you protecting your child?...or trusting the odds?

The first changes of coronary heart disease, fatty deposits in the coronary arteries, begin appearing by age 3 in children eating a typical American diet. By age 12, nearly 70% of children are affected - and more advance deposits appear rapidly throughout the teens. These early stages of disease are found in virtually all young adults by the age of 21.

The greatest health risks for today's children are those of heart disease and cancer as adults. Such diseases, responsible for half of all adult deaths are not an inevitable part of growing older. Both are related to a child's DIET Dr. Lloyd Klobe

The late Dr. John Knowles, while president of the Rockefeller Foundation, wrote that 99 percent of us are born healthy, and are made sick as a result of personal misbehavior or environmental conditions. He suggested that the ability to lengthen one's life depends first on the capacity not to shorten it.

The tender years of childhood should be the healthiest of all. It is during those early years that the endocrine glands and liver are in their best functional capacity, giving the child his natural state of exuberance, inexhaustible energy, and faultless elimination. His bones should be as strong as green oak, his teeth as indestructible as ivory, his hair thick, luxurious and lustrous.

So what do we feed this growing body? Hamburgers full of steroids, antibiotics, hormones and chemicals, "hotdogs made of who knows what, washed down with indigestible milk that can cause ear aches, colds, and other problems . Please go see "FOOD".

The first place we should look for life-shortening behaviors is in the EATING HABITS of our children. Most people are surprised to learn just how many of our adult diseases are related to what we eat throughout our early and middle years. Of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States (heart disease, cancer,stroke, emphysema, accidents, pneumonia, diabetes, suicide, AIDS, and homicide, only 3 are not related to what we eat or drink. These are emphysema (related to smoking), pneumonia, and AIDS. Physicians like myself, who practice preventive medicine believe that more than 95% of coronary artery disease can be prevented by meaningful reductions in dietary fat if implemented early in life.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that at LEAST 35% of all cancer is linked to food. National Academy of Sciences researchers estimate up to 70%. Among all countries of the world where records are kept, countries in which childrens diets are high in fat record a high rate of heart disease and cancer deaths. These children who later develop heart disease or cancer as adults have been found to eat excessive dietary fat and consume few fresh vegetables, fruits and grains (complex carbohydrates). The greatest peril exists when this eating pattern is established during the growing years. Lifetime eating habits are usually established by the age of 8. If the child is rewarded for its behavior (good or bad) by a "treat", SUGAR, then it will equate love with sugar. You have the opportunity to design your child's future. Don't blow it.... As one mother put it, "What better gift could I give to my child?"

If you have trouble getting your child to eat fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, there is an alternative.