Childhood Obesity Is Everyones Problem
Reducing childhood obesity in the U.S. needs to be a #1 priority. Here are some ways you can help:
Parents: Set a good example. Instead of focusing on a diet for one child in the family, focus on improving the health of all family members by removing junk foods from the home, and preparing or purchasing meals that are low in fat and sugar. Serve lots of different varieties of fruits and vegetables; avoid frying food; purchase whole-grain breads and cereals; use fat-free milk for all family members over the age of 2.Restrict the amounts of meat, fish, chicken, eggs, beans and nuts to the serving sizes recommended by the USDA. The USDA website has information for all age groups and both genders, according to the amount of physical activity engaged in above your normal routine.
Limit TV and computer use to no more than 2 hours per day. Too much TV stifles a child’s creativity, and keeps them from getting necessary daily exercise. The new USDA guidelines for exercise say that we need to exercise ? hour a day for good health, 1 hour a day to maintain weight loss, and 1 ? hours a day to lose weight. Since overweight children often avoid playing with other children because of the teasing and tormenting they receive, you may need to exercise with your child. Take nightly family walks or bike rides, shoot hoops, skate, dance, or let them help you wash the car, give the dog a bath; rake or weed the yard. Purchase an inexpensive pedometer for each family member, and have daily challenges to see who can take the most steps.
Schools: Replace junk foods and beverages in vending machines with healthier snacks, bottled water, and fat-free milk or fruit smoothies. Change cafeteria menus to include whole wheat bread, more salads, fresh fruit or fruit smoothies, and veggie pizzas. Limit French fries to one lunch per week. Stop serving sweets at class parties and offer fresh fruit or other healthy choices instead. Ask teachers to stop giving candy as rewards for good behavior or good work, and give stickers or other types of non-food recognition.
Medical Professionals: Counsel parents of overweight children, and give them positive suggestions for healthy weight loss. Find out what the child eats and drinks in a normal day, and suggest healthier alternatives. Recommend limiting TV and computer use to no more than 2 hours per day. Suggest exercise activities for the entire family. If parents are overweight, make sure they understand the health risks for themselves and their children. Don’t accept the "we’ve tried everything to lose weight" excuse, but emphasize making healthy lifestyle changes instead of dieting.
Restaurants: Offer healthy choices, especially on children’s menus. Reduce portion sizes for adults, and charge extra for larger portions, or make smaller portions available at reduced prices.
Advertisers: Stop targeting ads for junk foods to children. Advertise healthier choices such as whole-grain cereals, and foods that are low in sugar.
Community Leaders: Work to increase the number of exercise facilities and playgrounds in your community. The more choices available, the more children will be likely to find activities they enjoy. Ask sports professionals, dance instructors or other athletes to volunteer their time to teach children.
Media: Run feature stories about schools with successful changes in food or exercise programs, and families who have lost weight by making better choices of food and exercising together daily. Prove that weight loss need not involve temporary restrictive diets.
Let’s work together to reduce childhood obesity and keep health care costs affordable!
Bev Grey is the author of the new book “The Project”, andfounder and president of Grandma’s Healthy Kids Club, an in-home program to help children lose weight safely. Visit the website at grandmashealthykidsclub.com
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Why Are There Different Diet Types?
Diet is a dreadful word for most of us because it will mean food deprivation. This is especially so for those who love to eat, hearing this word seems like asking them to commit suicide. However, the term diet is not what we know it to be, because the definition of the word diet is “the usual food and drink of a person” or “something that is used, enjoyed or provided regularly”. Having said this, nothing is dreadful in the word; in fact, it is something enjoyed as the dictionary tells us. Will this change our fear of the word diet? May be not but at least I will try and explain a little bit more about diet and dieting that we know it to be.
Since I already mention that nothing should be dreadful about dieting, it may be worth it to note that there are different diet types because there are different body types. Aside from the body type that we grow in, there are body shapes we long to have. This is the reason why there are nutritionists and health care professionals who design the necessary food intake to give us the body shape we dream of having. It is true that there are different diet types that will deprive you of indulging to your favorite food, but if you want a particular body shape, you need to apply a little sacrifice in order to get it. This is why models and hunks learn to love dieting.
Different diet types only become successful when complimented with exercise. This is because exercise will help speed up your metabolism. Your metabolism is the primary player in loosing weight. If you have slow metabolism, breaking down of food in your body will be slow. Thus, it will be very hard for you to loose weight. There are body types that has fast metabolism, especially the thin ones. They never need the diet that deprives them of food, they have a different diet type requirement, and they need the diet that will require them to eat more.
There are different diet types that are popularly making waves like Atkins diet, south beach diet and so on and so forth. However, success of these different diet types still depends on the discipline of the person dieting. Even if you try all these different diet types but you refuse to exercise, you will never be successful in loosing weight. Exercise is very important in using diet for loosing weight.
There are also different diet types that may help those who want to gain weight, but then again there are exercises necessary for the success of this diet. You need to consider metabolism, which is the major player in designing your body shape, thus it is always a requirement that before you try different diet types, you need to visit a health care professional. The health care professional will be the one to tell you, which among the different diet types will suit you and your desired body shape.
Finally, I would like to reiterate that success of these different diet types only depends on the discipline of the person dieting. Exercise to induce fast metabolism is necessary. Oversleeping is also bad discipline for these different diet types. Programming your eating habit will also depend on the type of diet you are following.
Root word for success in these different diet types is discipline. With discipline, you will get the body shape you want which ever among these different diet types you use.
For advice, tips and education about weight loss and dieting visit Weight Loss Information at effective-weight-loss.info
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