Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

Unless they are involved in competitive sports, many teens don't think much about health or healthy eating. So it's up to parents to do some of the thinking and planning for them. Poor nutrition in teens has been linked to everything from poor academic performance to obesity.

In a Jan. 18 article on buzzle.com, Kevin Heath provided tips on healthy nutrition that can help your teen's performance in the classroom:

There are things that can be done to combat the poor nutrition that leads to failure in school and beginning with a healthy lifestyle is a good start.

You should remove unhealthy foods from the home and not buy them which prevent everyone from getting into a poor nutrition cycle. Simple sugars and syrups should be removed or at least used in moderation. These include jams and jellies, ice cream, maple syrup and other products that contain high fructose corn syrup.

Get rid of those sodas and sugary drinks and get that water flowing. It is much better to stay hydrated with water as several brands of pop have caffeine in them and the sugar overload can lead to a mid-day or evening crash when your teen should be learning or doing homework.

Avoid white flour as it turns into glucose that is stored in fat cells during the digestion process. Processed foods can be very poor in nutritional value and include junk food (chips, pretzels, etc.), hot dogs, sugary breakfast cereals, high sodium meals, etc. The more packaged and processed a meal is, the less nutritious it is. Saturated fats and Trans fats are a big no-no. Look for "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" on food labels and don't buy them.

Labels: nutrition, healthy eating

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Teenagers skip fruits and vegetables when they are in middle school and then again in late adolescence, according to a new study by the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

A research team led by Nicole Larson surveyed more than 2000 children in 1999 and then again in 2005. The team found that children in early adolescence tended to skip fruits and vegetables. There was also a second decrease in consumption of those foods in late adolescence.

The authors conclude that we need to develop "more effective interventions for increasing fruits and vegetable consumption during these critical developmental periods."

This study appeared in the February 2007 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Labels: nutrition, healthy eating, adolescence

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Now that schools are finally tackling the unhealthy lunch problem and banning sweetened drinks from vending machines, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Or maybe not. Many children bring packed lunches to school, with the majority falling short of healthy by a long shot.

If your child carries her lunch to school, how does it measure up? Ideally, you should pack small portions of foods from a variety of food groups: fruit and vegetables, nuts and meat, grains (preferably whole-wheat) and low fat dairy. Try some of these kid-pleasing ideas:

• A slice of turkey in a whole wheat tortilla wrap with lettuce and tomatoes
• Wheat crackers with low fat cheese
• Whole wheat pita with hummus
• Sliced apples with low fat peanut butter (if school doesnt have a nut free policy)
• Cut up raw veggies with low fat dip
• Small salad with sliced strawberries on top
• Deviled egg
• Small carton of low fat yogurt
• A handful of almonds or other nuts or soy nuts
• Soup or baked beans kept warm in a small thermos.

There should be no more (and probably less!) than one treat in the lunch box. Fresh fruit or a pudding made with low fat milk should suffice.

Labels: nutrition, schools, healthy eating

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Adolescents who are very healthy get daily exercise, watch less than two hours of television per day, eat 5-6 servings or more of fresh fruits and vegetables, and eat very little fat. How does your child measure up to these standards?

If your child is lacking in one or more of these areas, he's not alone. In a study published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, nearly 80 percent of 11-15 year old children watch too much TV, exercise too little, eat too much fat and eat too few fruits and vegetables.

The best way to turn this around? Be a good role model. The researchers found evidence that parents' health behaviors were associated with children's health behaviors.

Labels: healthy eating, exercise, TV

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A recent study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association confirms earlier research that suggests that children who watch fewer than two hours of television per day are less likely to be overweight than those children watching 16 or more hours of television per week.

Coupled with less television time, those children who ate more meals with their families tended to have fewer weight problems than those who didn't eat as many meals with the family. The authors speculate that those children who eat family meals not only eat healthier foods than they might eat otherwise, but may learn more about healthy eating behaviors in the family meal setting.

Labels: family meals, healthy eating, TV

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Just recently, New York City passed a law to stop restaurants from using trans fats in food preparation. Trans fats are oils that have been hydrogenated from a liquid to a solid or semi-solid state, providing processed foods with a longer shelf life. Trans fats can be found in many processed foods such as baked goods and crackers, and also fried foods. They are more harmful for your body than saturated fats (a type of fat found in animal products), because they not only raise the body levels of "bad cholesterol" (LDL) but also lower the levels of "good cholesterol" (HDL).

The banning of trans fat is a good step. But health professionals caution that reducing trans fat in the diet isn't very helpful if it is replaced with saturated fat. For example, if restaurants replaced hydrogenated soybean oil (trans fat) with palm oil (50 percent saturated fat) for cooking fried foods, the health benefit would be marginal.

Consumers need to be aware of what kind of fats are present in foodsand how many calories are present as well, in order to lower weight and improve health.

Labels: nutrition, healthy eating, fats

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