If Your Child Has Asthma – The Next Few Lines Will Change Both Your Child’s Life, and Yours…

I know that you are doing your very best for your child, and I know that it is not always straightforward.  As a parent it is my job to keep my children safe, and to help them grow up to be strong, independent and well-balanced adults.

For my children, it is my job as “Dad” to ensure they establish habits that if followed give a high probability of success in life.  For me to do this – firstly I have to be aware of things that are happening both “out there” in the world – and “at home” with my son and daughter.  Once I am aware – it is my job to get the message delivered to my children in a way that is understood and accepted.  (They are 9 and 12 years old now – so this is pretty dynamic at times.)

AND, if the message is important – that they are repeated in different ways until accepted.  AND – if it is important – then not only must I keep on top of this – I have to be aware that my children are modelling me nearly as much now as when they were babies.

By this I mean – they do what I DO – not necessarily what I say.  Dammit!  So if I say they have to do gym training or Crossfit to build up their physical strength, learn discipline and increase confidence – then that means I have to do some training as well.  Same applies to not eating food with no/low nutritional value “crap” except on rare occasions.  Because everything that I do is conditioning for them later in life.  If they are aware of this conditioning – they can choose to accept or replace it – but most of us “adults” really suck at this.

For example – chances are that you do certain things EXACTLY like your parents did them.  Eg – Do you sit down to dinner at the table – or in front of the TV?  And when you eat – I bet that you eat at EXACTLY the same rate as one of  your parents – and further – if you have the same body shape as one of your parents – then that is parent that your eating style will match.   Unless you have already become aware that eating your meals more slowly decreases you chances of obesity?  (With my kids – my rule is that knife and fork MUST be put down while you are chewing.  After you swallow – then pick up utensils and prepare the next bite, put it in your mouth – then put utensils down again.  See if you can find a person with a fat problem that does that?)

My brother and I have the same “walk”.  If you were to follow along behind us – you would see the similarity.  I have seen the same thing with my clients – not just the walk, but the whole body posture.  Whether your shoulders are back, or your back a little arched, or slumpy, or any other position – your children WILL model/copy it.  And hey – I am sure you know whole families that are the same shape?  Especially if that shape is a bit “pear-like”.    You see adult pear-shapes walking around, with smaller versions of them tagging along.  Not only with the same shape – but the same posture, walk and tempo.

And – often this kind of discussion leads to “defenses” because people think it is an attack on people with a bigger body fat percentage.  It is not.  It is about the fact that we copy our parents and other significant adults when we are growing up.  We are designed to do that – we are safer if we do exactly what the adults in our ‘tribe’ are doing.

So what has this got to do with asthma in your children?

I will come to that in a minute – but you probably already see where this is heading.  Stay with me a bit longer.

For some reason, discussions about body fat and heredity frequently come up around me.  People tell me that they have the same ‘metabolism’ or genes or whatever as their fat parents/brothers/grandparents/someone.  And – yes – that is true.  Completely true.  And people then explain to me that their child (who is the same “pear” shape as they are) also shares those genes.  Again – completely true.  But then – they begin to say that their fat-pudding shaped children are completely healthy and normal – and there is nothing to be done (except give up the ‘bigotry” against genetically fat people.)

There is a tie-in to asthma coming soon – hang in there.

I have learned that making people “wrong” seldom helps do anything except build resentment.  So I generally tell a story.

One story might be about what happens with beef cattle.  When people want to grow a lot of beef to sell as quickly and profitably as possible – they follow a certain program – that has been working for decades – and always works on cows.  They take a normal healthy young cow – who would most likely grow up to be just like “Mom and Dad” cow – if left on the range.  You know – healthy, not too fat, lots of walking, hungry every now and then.  So they take these young cows and put them into a “feed lot” or CAFO  (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) in the US.  This method is used on chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys – and will work on most animals.

Once in the CAFO – our young cow is in food heaven.  As much food as she desires, 24 hours per day.  And the food is not the usual stuff that cows get out ‘on the range’, it is full of corn and other sweet grains.  And not only that – our cow never has to walk far for a drink, or more food or some molasses for dessert.  There are some downsides to the quality of life of our little cow – like standing/sitting in manure all day – but the food side is AWESOME!

What do you think happens to the amount of fat that our young cow quickly builds up in her cow body?  Yep – she grows fast and fatter.  Big juicy, fatty, “marbled” steaks that sell well because it is very tasty because of the extra fat.  Once she is big and fat enough – there is a final ride in a trailer to the big shed.  It is true that increasingly geneticists are breeding “get fat faster genes” into cattle to speed up this process – but at this stage most cows are still pretty normal “cows”.

What has this got to do with fat parents with fat kids?  And what has that got to do with asthma?

So – if I wanted to take some perfectly normal (eg not obese) humans and fatten them up – could I just create a CAFO for them?  Would that work?  What do you think?  Would these lucky humans get the same results as the cows?  You bet.  Think about your local fast food outlet.  Lots of sweet, high density foods, not far to walk or drive to, cheap, fast – and probably with clean toilets unlike our cows.

And – what about the reverse?  Could we take some obese humans and put them in a controlled environment where there were limits on the type, quantity and timing of foods that would make them lose fat (and become more healthy?).  Well – yes.  It used to be the case in the military.  You ate what you were given, and there was no regular access to more, AND you had to do physical work.  Now the military has obesity problems because it has become a CAFO as well.

What’s my point?

• Firstly – fat children do what fat adults do.  Change that and you change the shape of the children.
• Secondly – once aware of the process – you can decide to change it.  You are allowed to check yourself and your children out of the CAFO you have been living in.  Is it easy?  No.  Simple – yes.
• Thirdly – asthma.  You may or may not know it – but to get asthma you must adopt a certain breathing pattern.  You have probably seen it in movies – you know – the actor who does not have the genes for asthma – does this fast, heavy breathing thing.  Because that is what the actor knows that asthmatics having an “attack” look like.

I have taught thousands of children with asthma to STOP doing that breathing – and guess what – their asthma symptoms stop.  It usually happens in less than a week.  ”They just grew out of their asthma” say the doctors.  ”Bollocks” I say.  They can have an asthma attack any time they want by just doing the breathing of the actor on TV.  And they will get the attack within one minute of such breathing.

 Getting asthma symptoms for those of use who have the genetic ability to do so is as simple and predictable as getting fatter when you are in a CAFO.  And stopping the asthma symptoms is even more simple than checking your fat body out of your personal CAFO.

So – as a parent – check your own breathing, eating and health processes – because your children WILL copy you.  Please download the free childrens chapter of my book “How to grow out of asthma as quickly as humanly possible” – for more details on asthma and how to stop it.

Good luck – and please comment below.

James Hooper

 

Ps – this article may seem to infer that disconnecting from our personal CAFO’s is easy, and that either becoming overweight or having overweight children (or both) is something to be ashamed of.  It is not.  In the same way it is not the fault of the cow taken to the feedlot.  The difference is that humans are capable of making decisions that cows are not able to do.  Humans can become aware of the choice to either stay in the CAFO or act to leave it.

As adults we can decide for ourselves whether to consume the fries and sweet sticky brown drinks from the drive-through once we are aware of the CAFO model.  If this is the first time you have become aware – welcome!  You now face an interesting choice.  Much has been made of the “difficulty” of reducing body fat.  How confusing it is, all the conflicting advice, the fad diets, the need for supplements, the mountain of things to be read and understood, and perhaps even the fear that all the good things in life just disappeared?

It is not easy to escape.  For most of us the CAFO has been a way of life since we were born.  How else could a Cola drink become one of the biggest corporations in the world – we have been brainwashed to believe that “Things go better”, and that supersweet sticky brown drink that is almost identical to the “food” given at the cow CAFO – somehow “Adds life.”

But you can escape!  And – if you have children, your path to escape is one of the most powerful gifts you can give them.  It tells them that they DO have the power to determine what goes into their mouths.  That they CAN walk away from the molasses and corn sweeties without the end of the universe.  Conversely – if as a parent you choose to stay at the trough – for whatever excuse or reason – that is the gift you are offering.

Pps – as I re-read this article, it occurred to me that there was an extra level to this CAFO model.  Earlier I said that feedlots are designed to produce faster growth and more fat in animals.  And the people who own and direct the feedlots know exactly the level of health of the animals that results from this process.  The animals are weaker, unhealthier, need constant antibiotics, and frequently die in the process (think of caged chickens).  This is done to “satisfy the market” and increase profits.

So when we humans are being fattened at our version of a CAFO, who exactly profits from our overeating, our weakness and diseases?  If I was a conspiracy sort of guy – which I resist – I would wonder if the multinationals that boom from our human diseases and increased need for expensive care when we are fatter – have shares in the multinationals that squeeze sweet sticky stuff into all of our food (and convince us it is delicious)?  And vice versa.

Same with asthma.  Who exactly profits from you not knowing that asthma is due to a breathing pattern – which can be altered to make symptoms better or worse – who profits?

 

 

 

 

 

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