I've never met parents who didn't want their children to be healthy, happy and successful.  And yet, it seems like such a big challenge today to do ALL the things we're supposed to do.  Didn't life used to be SIMPLER and HEALTHIER?

Yes...I think it was!

Think about the generation who grew up before WWII.  They lived through the depression and the war with sugar and gas rationing, grew their own food and ate it fresh off the tree.  And that's just the tip of the "health iceberg":

•·   Our food today is a far cry from the fresh, natural and simple foods our grandparents prepared at home and ate at a sit-down meal together.

•·    We have endless (and usually unhealthy) choices of what to eat, but most of it is laden with too much fat, sodium and chemical additives, and too little natural nutrients, enzymes or fiber.

•·    80,000+ new chemicals have been added to our environments...in our food, air, water, furniture and almost everything we use are compounds that didn't exist 100 years ago and no one knows how this "toxicological soup" is altering and stressing our bodies.

•·    Children and pets are most susceptible since they are smaller and their systems are less prepared to detoxify, plus they spend more time touching and licking EVERYTHING the come in contact with.

•·    Childhood obesity, diabetes and other chronic health challenges that used to be seen sometime past 40 years old are now becoming alarmingly common in children and young adults.

•·    Our lifestyles are often hectic, stress-filled days followed by hours of TV or internet...a far cry from long walks to school, baseball with some buddies and family camping trips.

•·    Financial changes have required many of us to work more than one job, with little time or energy left for community or family, let alone cooking healthy, well-balanced meals.

•·    Our children are confronted with challenges and issues that the generations in the past couldn't even imagine.  By the time they're 15, they've seen more people killed in movies and TV news than we can even count.  We have no idea how that affects their stress levels and the impact on their emotional and physical well-being.

•·    We all live longer and can be kept alive with high-tech medical intervention, yet our quality of life suffers from the changes in our lifestyles, society and the toxic environment that surrounds us.  Now, the experts are saying that our newest generation may be the first ones in hundreds of years to NOT live as long or as healthily as their parents and grandparents.