Book Review: Raising Healthy Kids
My husband teases me saying, “All a business has to do is slap an organic label on their product to get you to buy it.” This isn’t true, but what is true is that I care what goes in and on my body. I am also maybe overly cautious with pharmaceuticals. My first degree is in biomedical engineering. What I learned from all of the biology courses I took was just how complex the human body is. So complex that there’s still much we don’t know about it. Any new chemical we introduce to our bodies can have unforeseen side effects that may alter our physiological well-being, occasionally irreversibly and occasionally fatally.
This is why I try to stay abreast of the research and why I picked up David Steinman’s Raising Healthy Kids: Protecting Your Children from Hidden Toxins, which was published earlier this year. Cancer rates in younger adults continue to rise and girls are getting their periods earlier (which has further cancer consequences as well as other related health problems and psychosocial implications). These are two facts facing parents who care about their kids’ health, and there is evidence that environmental factors at least contribute to these problems. Furthermore, Steinman discusses more immediate (and extreme) cases in which products or environment induce major health problems, such as beauty products causing hair to fall out.
Reading Raising Healthy Kids, which sounds the alarm on toxins in all sorts of products from what you eat to beauty products to cleaning solutions, makes a person wonder how anyone makes it past the age of 30 without developing cancer. When we were trying to have a baby, I was frustrated by the fact that we could not conceive. However, after reading this book and thinking back to the habits of my first four decades on the planet, I now wonder how we ever managed to get pregnant. Endocrine disruptors are everywhere!
But people are still living to old age and people are still having children (although perhaps with more difficulty). When you start digging into the numbers and research, forever chemicals, VOCs, DDT, etc. are a problem, but not so significant a problem that a person has to go looking for an untapped wilderness to escape it all. I also learned in those biology courses that the human body has a remarkable ability to respond to threats, self-correct, and adapt.
In Raising Healthy Kids, Steinman tells a story about being on the road with his family, and the stress he felt about finding food for them when they all got hungry in between cities. With limited options, he was stuck choosing between the lesser of multiple evils. He explained how he managed the problem, but let me tell you, I cannot be that parent. We have to pick our battles. If I’m in the middle of nowhere with a hungry kid, I’m probably going to stop at the first available fast food restaurant.
Thankfully, Steinman understands that and gives the reader many general rules of thumb and easy actions to take to lessen the burden of the toxins we expose ourselves (and our kids) to, and at the end of the day, that’s what matters. There’s a lot we don’t know about how these chemicals affect our health, but when problems arise it appears to be a cumulative effect. Therefore, any small actions you take to reduce your exposure will probably have long term consequences.
I also love that Steinman gives the reader many reasons to hope (autonomy). He provides several examples where activism and ingenuity have had positive outcomes. Additionally the various suggestions Steinman gives for reducing your exposure to chemical toxins show there are a number of healthier paths one can walk.
Verdict: I recommend Raising Healthy Kids not just for parents but for anyone who cares about their health.
I’m curious to know where you come down on toxins in food and skin products. Have you made a decision to not think about it, are you like me (cautious but not hyper-vigilant), are you organic only, or are you an activist?
“There are ways for the quiet guy in the back of the room who can have an impact by doing the research, following through, and believing in the cause.”