Every parent wants the best for their children. Unfortunately, our way of life is conspiring with forces that don’t always have our children’s best interests at heart and is exposing us all to the very real risk that future generations will get not only more obese than in the past but also more ugly and more stupid as well.
A) Diet and Obesity
It is now fairly well understood that we have an obesity epidemic and that many organisations that supply us with food, from fast food restaurants to processed food producers, are somewhat more motivated to reduce costs and maximise profits than they are to put our health first. Thankfully awareness of the problem has caused pressure to brought to bear on food companies – either from attitudinal change and buying habits or from legislation (labelling and curbs on sugary foods).
The problem is motivation and profit. We all know how tempting it is to snack on unhealthy foods and how hard it is to diet. In addition, it is quicker, easier , cheaper and more profitable to mass produce food that’s bad for us than it is to produce the healthy organic alternatives.
B) Posture and Facial Development
Orthodontists offering to give people the perfect smile, have been making a fortune, straightening teeth. Assuming that overcrowding (known as malocclusion) is caused by genetics and not environmental factors, they wait until facial development is largely complete at the age of 12 or 13 before making superficial changes to the alignment of teeth. But if genetics are indeed the cause of malocclusion then why do primates that share almost all of our genes never have overcrowded teeth and why did our ancestors, whose genes are identical to our own, not show signs of malocclusion until they started living in civilised societies eating soft cooked foods and spending time indoors developing allergies. And if orthodontic theory is wrong and the cause of malocclusion is actually environmental (our life style) then this needs to be addressed from early childhood, rather than waiting until the age of 12 when things have already gone wrong and then making superficial changes in alignment that aren’t permanent as the environmental causes have not been addressed (conventional orthodontics requires permanent retention or it will typically relapse).
It is becoming aparant here that our lifestyle is indeed at fault. In Germany health insurance companies have said that they will no longer pay for dental braces after a remarkable government report found that there is no proof that they have any beneficial effect. Other reports, like the Cochrane study, have found “very low confidence” in standard procedures. At the same time an approach that that focuses on posture is getting great results. Called ‘Mewing’, it has become an internet sensation with #Mewing being viewed over 15 billion times on TikTok alone (Disclosure: Dr John Mew and Dr Mike Mew who are behind ‘Mewing’ are my father and brother).
Unfortunately, orthodontics is about the most highly paid profession of all (56 orthodontists in the UK earn net fees of over £1/4 million from NHS work) and an alternative approach that people can do for themselves at no cost at all may well save the NHS and other health services across the world an absolute fortune, but it would put powerful vested interests at risk.
Changing behaviour and posture is not easy. Many patients balk at the commitment and dedication required (just as people struggle to diet). It is far more easy for patients (and profitable for the orthodontic professionals) to straighten the teeth than it is to actually address the underlying cause of malocclusion.
C) Intelligence, Mental Illness and Anxiety
Our way of life is also having a massive impact on our children’s mental well being. We are over-protecting our children offline as unwarranted fears of abduction, bullying and other harms have reduced the amount of time that they spend in unsupervised free play and risk taking (falling off a bike, having the odd fight, etc) which are all essential to the development of social skills, as are things like team sports. At the same time we are under-protecting them online, with unsupervised or unrestricted use of technology all too often being used to keep kids entertained. This is leading to what Jonathan Haidt describes in his book as: “The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring Of Childhood Is Causing An Epidemic Of Mental Illness.”
In a recent roundtable debate on TV looking at the potential ban on TikTok, I argued that rather than look to ban this one social channel we should be looking at intelligent restrictions on them all. Curbs on anonymity online in Australia have led to the ability to age gate social platforms, just as we do with age restrictions on driving, alcohol, smoking and movies. The same measures should be applied worldwide to prevent children using social media until they are 15.
No doubt children and libertarians will complain bitterly about such restrictions, as will the social media companies that have done nothing to effectively enforce their nominal requirement for children on their platforms to be aged 13 or over.
In addition, in countries like the UK, phones are not allowed in school. They are handed in as kids arrived and picked up again before kids head back home. Whereas in America libertarian forces insist on allowing children to have phones at all times. Unfortunately unrestricted browsing and messaging is totally undermining their ability to concentrate in class.
Correlation and Interrelation
When you look across all these factors at how our modern life style is impacting our health and wellbeing, it paints a worrying picture. Many factors are also interrelated. Our addiction to the dopamine hit from screen time and social media, is reducing the time we have for outdoor pursuits and exercise, thus impacting fitness and obesity. Our poor facial development is impacting our airways, leading to sleep apnoea which has been shown to reduce our IQ as well as being a major cause of early death (not the main cause if death for children in the US which is guns, but that’s a social debate for another day).
If you think that fast food companies, orthodontists, social media platforms et al have your best interests at heart and are going to put the welfare of your children ahead of their profits, then great.
Alternatively, if you are concerned about the impact that lifestyle is having on us all, and that we will have a generation that is more overweight, has more malocclusion and other heath issues than ever before and that is addicted to dumbed down, click-bait content that is impacting their ability to develop social skills and concentrate on their education while side effects like sleep apnoea reduces their IQ and makes them die as much as ten years early, then it’s not too late to take action.
These are hidden risks: fast food companies, orthodontists and social media platforms aren’t necessarily going to be open with us about the risks here, but the risks and harms are all too real and we all need to find the motivation to take action to address them.
Motivation is critical. Being a slob is easier than doing exercise. Sugar can be addictive and eating fast food is easier than growing and preparing the healthy stuff. Conventional orthodontic treatment is easier than changing behaviour and oral posture. And social media can also be addictive. It is an easy way to keep kids entertained, and ‘doom scrolling’ TikTok and other social platforms is easier than going out to play or at least reading or watching something intellectually challenging. But we need to push ourselves and our families to change our lifestyles and live better. That is assuming of course that we don’t want out children and grand children to grow up to be fat, ugly and stupid.
