Weight Control for Children
Weight control
is one of the hottest topics of our times, because we have learned that
being overweight can hurt us, and our children, physically and emotionally.
Every parent wants the best for their child and weight control has become
an important part of parenting. This is the result of drastic changes
in our society over the past 100 years. Our lifestyles and food choices
changed, without our ever noticing and now we are fat. How did this
happen? One in four American children have a weight problem.
As parents, we are supposed to teach our children right from wrong,
good habits from bad habits, and how to make their lives better. But
when it comes to weight loss we have not been taught properly ourselves,
so naturally we cannot teach our children. Food used to be very simple.
In the last century, man has taken a simple thing and created a very
complex product. We have been taught, by the commercials we see, that
these food products are Great! They taste Wonderful! They have Terrific
Nutritional Value! They are so Easy to prepare!
Commercials teach us, and our children, that these new food products
are just what we need. Over and over again we are persuaded to love
these products. We just don't know any better. In fact, our parents
probably believed those advertisements and taught us that man-made or
"processed" foods are the BEST thing for us. Now we must ask
ourselves what have they done for us? Obesity and other weight-related
diseases are on the rise.
Weight is out of control and we are very worried. How will the extra
weight affect the health of our children over their lifetimes? Will
our children have friends? Will they be able to play sports and be active
with other active people? In order to guide our children towards health
and happiness, we need to have control. Fortunately, we do have some
control over our children because they live under our roof. We buy their
food and prepare it. Now is the time to teach them the food choices
and eating habits that will help them maintain a healthy weight.
As a society we also have become less active. We ride in cars instead
of walking. Our youths play video games instead of baseball. We have
interesting television programs to watch all day long. Just 20 years
ago children's programming only ran for a few hours each day, now these
shows begin at 6:00 a.m. and continue until midnight. Why should a child
go out to play, when he or she can sit in the living room and be entertained?
Perhaps even more important is the fact that while a child sits there,
in front of television, they are bombarded with very persuasive commercials
that encourage them to buy potato chips, toaster pastries, microwave
pizza bits, sugar coated cereal, and creamy, fat- filled convenience
foods like macaroni and cheese. Our children are being taught to want
terribly fattening foods that have very little nutritional value. Take
two hours to watch what your kids are watching and you will see how
much control television is exerting on your children. How many times
have they asked you for what they see on commercials? You will soon
realize that you must get them away from the TV. Top
Fattening
Ideas
Outside influences
aside, families pass down weight gaining ideas and habits through the
generations. How did the manufacturers ever convince us that they could
make better food for babies than their mothers? Human milk has many
mysterious ingredients, to help nourish the baby and protect against
disease, that manufacturers just cannot copy. Furthermore, all that
fat, women store during pregnancy is meant to nourish the baby during
nursing. Without nursing, post pregnancy weight is difficult to lose.
We also pass down the belief that a fat baby is a healthy baby. We force-feed
them more food than they need, by introducing cereals too soon. Nobody
can wait to graduate the baby to "real" food. There is no
advantage to rushing nature or training the babies to stuff themselves
at mealtime. Studies show that overfeeding leads to the development
of additional fat cells, which will always want to be nourished later
in life, making weight control very difficult.
Forcing our children to eat at any age can only put them on the road
to obesity. "Finish your plate." "Have some more and
make grandma happy." These are ideas that we must let go of, if
we are to bring weight under control. Restrict sweets and before-meal
snacks so that they are actually hungry at mealtime and they will learn
to like the healthy foods you serve. Our days are so filled with snack
foods, it is no wonder we don't feel the need for supper.
Create a weight control environment at your house. Buy less cookies,
crackers and ice cream. Have fruits and vegetables on hand and prepare
small amounts of fruits, like melon balls, so they are easy to eat.
Put away candy dishes. Constant munching on candy can create an addiction
to the high blood sugar it causes, resulting in a craving that will
last a lifetime.
Families also tend to use food as a reward for good behavior. For weight
control we must keep food in its proper role--as nourishment. Our ideas
about food cause us to eat when we don't need food and that results
in fat storage. Many children grow up to eat when they are sad or board
or when they deserve a treat. We were taught this as children.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to improve weight control
at your house is to set a good example. Go for hikes, take the pets
for walks, play catch together and eat sensibly. Serve high fat foods
less often and offer two vegetables for dinner. Lightly steam vegetables
to retain texture, flavor and nutrients. When eating out, share a dessert
or appetizer. Avoid fast food as it almost always has twice the calories
you need in a meal. The rest of the calories will be stored as fat,
guaranteed. Top
Candy
Culture
Candy manufacturers
have made a fortune by convincing us that the holidays must revolve
around candy. Halloween and Easter just wouldn't be the same without
candy. At Christmastime, we put bowls of candy out on every stationary
surface we can find. Every store sells candy for Valentine's Day and
Mother's Day. Even schools are sending the children out to make money,
selling candy. Why wouldn't we gain weight surrounded by all this candy?
We need to break the cycle. Rather than teaching children to hoard candy
and gorge themselves, let them enjoy the festivities and then offer
to buy most of the candy back from them. Don't keep it yourself-- throw
it out!
Explain to the grandparents, in private, that candy is detrimental to
the children's health and you want to control how much they have. You
want to prevent them from developing a sweet tooth that will help them
gain weight, all their lives. Candy is fine as an occasional treat,
but not as a daily staple. Never put treats out where you and your children
can grab a handful in passing. Our national craving for candy proves
its addictive nature.
Protect your children from the hazards of candy. Help them to understand
just how many calories they are eating by teaching them to read the
label. Avoid being away from home at mealtime and letting the kids grab
a candy bar to "hold them over". That candy bar has more than
half the calories needed in a whole meal and will train the body that
when it is starving, candy is the best. The body learns what satisfies
it from experience and will crave that food. It is much better to teach
the body to crave fruits and proteins, and leave candy for times when
not hungry. Candy must not become a staple, but an extra little something
for pleasure. Top
The
Soda Solution
Soda may be the
least expensive drink you can serve your children, but it is a serious
threat to weight control. It develops in a child a desire for a constant
input of sweets into the blood stream and a love of sweet tastes. There
is one, quarter cup of sugar in one 20-ounce bottle of soda. Imagine,
setting down a quarter cup of sugar in front of your child to eat.
Switching from soda to lower calorie drinks can be the solution to weight
control in your family. Drinking one 20-ounce soda daily will give a
child 1750 empty calories a week and 1 pound of weight gained as fat
in two weeks time. That means a weight gain of 26 pounds in a year.
Conversely, cutting out that 1 soda will result in an effortless weight
loss of 26 pounds a year, if all else remains the same.
The younger your children are when you start them drinking low calorie
beverages, the easier it will be for them to develop a taste for them.
Serve ice water with dinner. The urge to drink will force them to try
it and help adjust their taste preferences. Juices can be too sweet
for their tastes, too. Mix water with juice to cut the sweetness. Combine
juices for excellent flavor, like orange, cranberry and water.
Take the time to explain why you are making these changes. Tell them
that soda is too fattening and not good for their teeth. Stop buying
soda until your family can drink it in moderation. If you want something
to change, like your child's weight, you have got to make some changes.
Top
Study
Links Soft Drink Consumption to Childhood Obesity
By WIN (Weight Control Information Network)
A child's odds
of becoming obese increase by 60 percent with each additional daily
serving of sugar-sweetened drinks. This was the conclusion of a recent
study from the Department of Medicine at Children's Hospital in Boston
and the Harvard School of Public Health. The results of the study, led
by David S. Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D., director of the obesity program at
Children's Hospital, suggested that the link between soft drink consumption
and obesity is independent of food intake, television viewing, and physical
activity.
Most adolescents, 65 percent of girls and 74 percent of boys, consume
soft drinks daily and most of these soft drinks are sugar-sweetened
rather than artificially sweetened. In 1994-95, adolescent boys were
consuming nearly 20 ounces per day. "The average teenager is getting
15 to 20 teaspoons a day of added sugar from soft drinks alone,"
said Dr. Ludwig. "Consumption rates among children have doubled
in the last decade." The researchers hypothesized that this could
be one factor contributing to the 100 percent increase in the prevalence
of childhood obesity in the U.S. between 1980 and 1994.
This prospective study followed 548 children ages 11 to 12 in the Boston
area from October 1995 to May 1997. It examined the relationship between
sugar-sweetened drink consumption, BMI, and incidence of obesity. Investigators
obtained BMI, skinfold thickness, dietary intake, physical activity,
and television viewing data at study outset and again 19 months later.
The Youth Food Frequency Questionnaire (YFFQ) measured average drink
intake-including sugar-sweetened drinks-as well as dietary fat and total
energy intake. Sugar-sweetened drinks were defined as soda, Hawaiian
Punch, Kool-Aid, lemonade, sweetened ice tea, and other sugared fruit
drinks.
Fifty-seven percent of the children increased their daily sugar-sweetened
drink consumption over the 19-month period, with a quarter drinking
more than one extra can of soda or glass of sugared beverage per day.
After making adjustments for other factors that might affect body weight,
including diet, physical activity levels, time spent watching television,
and total energy intake, the researchers found that BMI increased with
each additional serving. Thirty-seven children who were not considered
obese at baseline were obese by the end of the study.
A reverse trend was noted among children who increased their consumption
of diet soft drinks, with the incidence of obesity declining in this
group. Thirty-five children obese at baseline were no longer obese at
follow-up.
There is some controversy about the relationship of sugar-sweetened
drinks to childhood obesity. The study authors acknowledge the limitations
of their research, including their inability to fully control for changes
in body composition over time resulting from normal growth and development.
Nevertheless, they conclude that "sugar-sweetened drink consumption
could be an important contributory factor" in the growing rates
of pediatric overweight.
"These data suggest that people aren't compensating" for excess
energy intake in liquid form by eating less at meals, said Dr. Ludwig.
According to France Bellisle, Ph.D., of the Institute of Health and
Medical Research in France, very young children (4 to 5 years old) adjust
their food intake to offset extra calories consumed as liquid, but lose
this ability as they grow older. Obese children are even less accurate
than other children at compensating for prior energy intake. The study's
authors conclude that this physiological mechanism is a viable explanation
for their findings that sugar-sweetened drinks contribute to childhood
obesity.
This study, supported in part by the National Institute of Diabetes
and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), was published in the February
17, 2001 issue of The Lancet. Top
Weight
Control Information Network
WIN publications are not under copyright restrictions and may be reproduced
Poor
Parental Eating Habits Raise Obesity Risk in Children
By WIN (Weight Control Information Network)
Parents who alternate
between restrictive and impulsive eating behaviors are sending their
children mixed messages. According to a 6-year study conducted at the
Boston University School of Medicine, these mixed messages may increase
the risk of childhood obesity.
Ninety-two children ages 3 to 5 participated in the Framingham Children's
Study. Those whose parents reported high levels of both dietary restraint
and disinhibition had the greatest increases in body mass and skinfold
thickness by the end of the study. Dietary restraint refers to a conscious
restriction of food to control weight, while disinhibition refers to
a lack of control over food intake in response to external cues.
"Parents who exhibit both of these behaviors may unconsciously
undermine their child's autonomy in food choices by imposing excessive
control over the child's diet, while at the same time modeling inappropriate
eating behaviors," the study says.
At the study outset, parental eating behaviors were assessed using the
Stunkard Messick's Three Factor Eating Questionnaire, which measures
cognitive restraint, disinhibition, and perceived hunger. During the
study, each child's weight, height, skinfold thickness, and body mass
index (BMI) were measured annually.
Children of parents with a high level of dietary restraint and a low
level of disinhibited eating gained the least amount of body fat, with
a 36.9 mm gain in the sum of five skinfold measurements. Disinhibited
eating behaviors alone adversely affected body fat change, with a 47.1
mm gain. Children who gained the most body fat, 61.4 mm in sum of skinfolds,
had parents who exhibited a strong combination of dietary restraint
and disinhibited eating.
To evaluate the possibility of a genetic connection to obesity, researchers
also controlled for each parent's level of body fat. While the study
emphasized that this linkage cannot be ruled out, the findings suggest
that environmental factors-rather than genetics-largely explain the
children's weight gain.
"These results may help parents to become more aware of their own
eating behaviors and attitudes, and the impact their behaviors may unconsciously
be having on their children," said Maggie Y. Hood, M.P.H., the
study's lead author and research coordinator at the medical school's
Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology.
Results of the study, funded by a grant from the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI), were published in the September 2000 issue
of the International Journal of Obesity, Nature Publishing Group Specialist
Journals, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS, UK Top
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Control Information Network
WIN publications are not under copyright restrictions and may be reproduced
