OPINION:
Baby-boomer parents were negligent when it came to instilling healthy eating habits in their millennial children, and this negligence has created a generation of Americans with over-stimulated brains and under-stimulated bodies, contributing to the more than 1.9 billion overweight and obese adults, according to the World Health Organization.
Millennials’ eating habits are wildly different from their parents’ — and the food industry has to face the consequences. According to a recent Business Insider piece, “Millennials love prepared food and spend the least amount of time on meal prep. Millennials eat at restaurants more than any other generation. Millennials spend the highest shares of their budgets on prepared foods, sugar and sweets, and pasta.”
Instead of burning calories preparing healthy food at home, millennials would rather accumulate fat cells by purchasing less-healthy prepared food or eat restaurant food, which is notoriously high in calories. Such bad habits are the result of parents who took the path of least resistance by indulging their children, thus creating an impatient, sedentary generation who live to eat, not eat to live.
Nevertheless, those who care see the unhealthy eating habits of millennials as a behavior that can be changed. Conversely, those who are calloused and greedy see it is an opportunity to profit.
KEVIN PALMER
Evans, Ga.
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