Healthy Habits Combat Childhood Obesity

In the past, when someone thought of obesity, a child was rarely the first thing to come to mind. Children were highly active little creatures who never seemed to slow down. I can count on one hand the overweight children I grew up with.

Sadly, times have changed. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease and Health Promotion, "The prevalence of overweight among children aged 6 to 11 more than doubled in the past 20 years, going from 7% in 1980 to 18.8% in 2004. The rate among adolescents aged 12 to 19 more than tripled, increasing from 5% to 17.1%."

Wow. Those are some scary numbers! Obesity, in itself, is an awful thing to deal with as a child. While most adults have the tact and manners to be, at the least, polite to a person who is overweight, children can unknowingly be quite cruel. Taunting, name calling, bullying, and exclusion are just a few of the afflictions an overweight child will suffer through on a daily basis. But there is much more at stake here than self-confidence. With obesity comes deteriorating health. This isn't just an issue for adults. Children can suffer from diabetes, cancer, heart disease, depression and a myriad of other problems. In fact, a recent study in the Journal of the Academy of Pediatrics discovered that overweight girls tend to hit puberty earlier than normal, which can lead to serious health concerns.

So what is the best way to tackle this growing problem? One word. Prevention.

As parents, educators, and role models, we need to be sure our children are receiving the proper messages about what is and is not healthy. In a society that becomes more confusing with each passing day, we MUST be the clear voice of reason. We can not leave children to their own devices and decisions about what is good for them.

So how do we successfully convey the message of healthy living to our children? TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer has few suggestions and shared them in this article titled 10 Ways To Keep Your Kids From Getting Fat.

She had some great suggestions which I’d like to highlight here.

Number one on Joy’s list is being a healthy role model. Children tend to want to be just like Mom or Dad. If they see you eating potato chips, all the while you’re telling them they should eat fruits and vegetables for snacks, which do you think they’ll chose? Children look up to their parents, not only as heroes, but for guidance. Make sure you practice what you preach, or it will never sink in. As an example, my daughter started watching what I ate very closely when I started my low-carb plan. Now she no longer eats the bun on her Arby’s sandwiches. She says it’s good for her and tastes better that way.

Joy also mentions making healthy food choices fun. Games, taste tests - get creative! I know from personal experience that letting your children help with meal preparation works wonders. While my son will eat anything that isn’t nailed down, my picky daughter won't touch certain foods. One day I asked her to help me cook dinner. The next thing we knew, she was announcing, with pride, that she’d cooked the broccoli and everyone should try it because it is delicious. Of course this meant she’d have to eat some too. Rarely has she made something she didn’t like, once she tried it.

Another idea Joy mentions is using her 90/10 food strategy, which constitutes 90% healthy choices and 10% junk. I don’t deny my kids the “fun” foods. How hard would it be for a child to attend a birthday party and not get any cake or ice cream? But I also do my best to limit the poison, in the form of simple carbs, they ingest. I don’t want them to develop the carb addictions I’ve battled for so many years.

Suggestions number four, six, seven, and eight involve feeding them a healthy breakfast, loading them up on fiber, limiting starchy veggies, and keeping healthy veggies on hand at all times.

I do take issue with her fifth suggestion, which recommends switching children over to non-fat and low-fat foods after the age of two. Her specific example was milk, cheese and yogurt. She subscribes to the common food pyramid belief that the lower-fat counterparts will be a better choice because of the caloric content. I simply cannot go along with that line of thinking. I rarely allow my children to have anything labeled low-fat. Most of the time a low-fat label can be translated to read: "conatins sugar or high fructose corn syrup". Those are two items I prefer my children cut way back on. And don’t think for a minute that children react to carbs any different than adults. My daughter can, and will, eat candy until she’s sick. She can’t seem to help herself. Where if I set a plate of veggies and meat in front of her, she’ll eat until she’s satisfied and then stop. Another thing to consider is the satiety factor. Which item do you think kids will be more likely to overeat – skim milk or whole milk? Odds are the whole milk will make them feel full much faster, due to the fat content, and they will drink less. Fat is not the enemy.

Her ninth suggestion discourages drinking empty calories. I couldn’t agree more. Thankfully she isn’t suggesting fruit juice as an alternative to sugary sodas.

While a healthy diet is a huge factor in preventing obesity, there is one more element that is crucial to staying healthy. Joy addresses this in the last tip, which I’ve quoted below...

“Encourage daily exercise

Get you kids moving and keep them moving – aim for an hour each day. Limit the TV and video games …. and encourage after school sports, bike riding, long walks, jumping rope, hide and seek, rock hunting…anything goes.”

Here is where I personally feel a majority of the guilt lies. With the progress of technology, we have seen children’s entertainment rapidly morph into a state of sedation. Children can be found all over the world in a vegetative state, watching the latest TV program, playing the latest video game, surfing the net. How many of today’s kids do you know that have ever played kick the can? I fear that not only are we raising a generation of couch potatoes, but worry that the imaginations of many children have stagnated. We need to do more than encourage activity. We need to encourage imaginative thinking. A child is much more likely to participate in something that involves their mind and body. Again, this is my personal observation based on my experience as a mother, and for several years, a pre-school teacher. I can’t provide research to back this theory up, but I believe I’m on target here. Children love a good challenge!

So while we work on improving our own health, let’s make sure we are focusing on the health of our children as well. Just a little extra effort can make a big difference. And aren’t our children worth it?

The Honest Confessions Of A Carb Addict

(Hey everyone! I'm now a regular columnist for www.lowcarbnewsline.com! This is my first article. Please let me know what you think!)

Hi. My name is Amy Dungan and I'm addicted to carbohydrates. I can't really say when or where the problem began. I'm sure I could trace it all the way back to my childhood somewhere. I may never be sure. What I do know is that simple carbohydrates are a huge problem for me. One taste of chocolate cake - just smelling french fries - will start my mouth watering and send my willpower into a tizzy. It's not that I want to eat junk food or be unhealthy, it just seems like I have no control over myself when the cravings hit.


I first realized I had a serious problem back in 2001. I was desperate to lose weight. I had health problems that frightened me and only got worse with each pound I gained. I had a 5 year old, a toddler, and a husband to live for. I couldn't allow myself to go to an early grave. I envisioned someone one finding me unconscious, face down in the ice cream. What I was doing to myself wasn't fair to any of us. How do I take care of my family when I can't even take care of myself?


While doing Internet research on some of the health issues I was having, I came across a website that told about the trials of being hypoglycemic. It sounded very much like some of the suffering I had been enduring. But the author didn't stop there. She continued to tell how she overcame these maladies by going on a no-sugar, low-glycemic diet. At the time it sounded like an impossible task for me. How could I give up sugar? How could I live a normal life that way? It just didn't seem realistic. What I failed to see was that I wasn't currently living a normal life, at least not a happy one. My life consisted of fatigue, pain, IBS, mood swings, severe depression and a general lack of the will to live. I was blind to the answer that was in front of me. I was also scared to give it a try. What if I just failed again? I filed the information in the back of my mind and continued my search for the magic bullet.


A few months later I came across a copy of Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution. I sat down to read and spent the first few pages laughing. I was a disciple of the low-fat mantra. There was no way this low-carb stuff could be healthy or even help you lose weight. After reading further I started suspecting that someone had been watching my every move. It was as if he'd written that book just for me. I was the poster child for carb addictions. My mind flashed back to all the foods I preferred. The many times I was embarrassed because I couldn't seem to stop eating, even though I was full. The shame I felt as I hid in the bathroom while eating a candy bar, fearing that someone would notice and lecture me. The fatigue after a large meal filled with simple carbohydrates and starches. Tears filled my eyes as I realized I truly had a problem. I also experienced a huge sense of relief. I finally had an answer. All of my adult life I blamed myself for my lack of control. I berated myself for eating when I knew I shouldn't. I would become depressed over my weight, and eat high-carb foods to make myself feel better. I was in a vicious cycle.


I realized low-carb was my only hope. I spent many hours researching and asking questions. I think I lurked on every low-carb forum in existence. When I started Atkins in Nov. of 2001 I was loaded down with an arsenal of information and recipes. It didn't take long for me to realize I was on my way to a better life. In 2003 I reached goal and maintained for several months. But I failed to realize a very important truth--just as a recovering alcoholic can never go back to drinking, neither can a recovering carb addict go back to carbohydrates.


My backsliding started small. I'd have some pizza crust here, a small plate of pasta there. What I didn't notice was how often I'd started craving the very foods I had so religiously avoided for 3 years. It snowballed rapidly. The addiction once again had me in its grips.


I won't bore you with the details, but in January 2007 I started back at square one. Thankfully, I'm quickly losing weight and regaining the ground I've lost in the last couple of years. But I've learned a valuable lesson: once an addict, always an addict. As Dr. Atkins said, one bite really can be the kiss of death. Trust me on this one. It's a lesson you don't want to learn the hard way.