Lack of clean water driving obesity and worse in Indian Country

Way back in 2015 this blog covered how researchers learned that the consumption of sugary drinks fattened and killed some 25,000 people in the United States every year. 

Forty percent of cancers are caused by obesity so Coca Cola, Archer Daniels Midland, Nestle, American Crystal Sugar and Pepsico are all part of an ethnic cleansing campaign especially on reservations. Even Mexico does more for her population by taxing sugary drinks and doctors in the United Kingdom urge increased taxes on bottled sugar, too.

On the Navajo Nation a third of the people don't have access to clean drinking water so sugared drinks purchased from dollar stores and obesity are an epidemic comorbidity.

In 2021, the New Mexico Department of Health found that childhood obesity for American Indian third graders increased to more than 42%. In addition, the NB3 foundation reports that more than 85% of Navajo kids have at least one sugary drink a day. Overall, American Indian and Alaska Native kids are 30% more likely than non-Hispanic white kids to be obese. “They know that water is a connection to their body, to the land, to the community, and how important it is to kind of nourish your body with that,” said Simone Duran, the grant program coordinator at NB3 and a member of the San Felipe Pueblo. One group from the Jemez Pueblo ran a school water challenge to encourage kids to drink fruit-infused water. Another group, the Tamaya Wellness Center in the Santa Ana Pueblo of New Mexico, put up signs at the center to prevent students from having sugary beverages at center events. [KUNC]

Autism is caused by faulty gut/brain connections so genetically engineered sugar beets, infant formula and high-fructose corn syrup contribute to the spectrum in kids and phthalate-laden plastic bottles drive gender dysphoria.