Untitled Document
|
:: HEALTH MENU |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
:: HEALTH REALTED SITES |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| :: HEALTH FEATURES |
|
:: Tips for Keeping Kids on the Slim Track ::
|
|
Obesity affects more American children today than ever before. Over the last 20 years the number of obese children has nearly doubled. This statistic is more staggering when you learn that 70 percent of these kids will become obese adults, opening a world of medical problems, including diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and some types of cancer.
Obesity also takes an emotional toll on children, causing problems such as poor self-esteem and depression. Like obesity itself, many children will continue to struggle with psychological issues as adults.
It's likely that some of the blame for the rising obesity rates lies with the consumption of more processed food, the sedentary lifestyle of the computer generation, and school budget cuts that have eliminated gym classes. While these issues may seem endemic to today's society, experts say our children's health depends upon parents taking their children's weight problems seriously.
Parents can help their children lose weight by teaching them healthy habits, increasing physical activity and by setting a good example. Samuel Klein, MD, is a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri and Beth Taylor is a dietician at the Washington University Weight Management Center. Below, these experts discuss the effects of obesity on American children and how parents can help their kids stay healthy.
How common is obesity in children?
SAMUEL KLEIN, MD: Obesity in children is a major public health problem that really forebodes serious issues for the future. The prevalence of obesity has doubled in children in the last 15 to 20 years, and about 15 percent of children today are overweight.
What can cause obesity in children?
BETH TAYLOR: If you think about our kids, they are more sedentary than they've been in a long time. They come home and play video games or get on the computer as opposed to going outside and playing baseball or soccer. And because we are a society where a lot of the parents work, maybe both parents work, there are a lot of quick meals as we go from one activity to the other with the kids.
What are the psychological and medical effects of childhood obesity?
SAMUEL KLEIN, MD: There are serious problems associated with childhood obesity. One is the problem of self-esteem and interacting with their peers and other children. These children are ostracized; there's tremendous prejudice against them, and this can have serious psychological effects that could affect them long term.
But in addition to that are the medical problems associated with obesity. Because of obesity, diseases that we normally see in adults are now being seen with increasing frequency in children, particularly type 2 diabetes, gall bladder disease and liver disease. These medical problems occur in early childhood, but children maintain them into adulthood. And studies suggest that adults who are obese who were obese as children have more severe and difficult-to-manage obesity as adults.
How can children and parents identify the onset of obesity?
BETH TAYLOR: All parents should take their children to the pediatrician when they are young. Pediatricians have weight charts that compare a child's weight to normal patterns. They will identify the child's percentile, with the 50th percentile being the average-weight child. If they have a little bit of a fluctuation above that 50th percentile for short periods of time, it usually not a big issue because they'll take into account growth spurts and that type of thing. But if a child is consistently above the 50th percentile at every year of their life, then the physician will start to get concerned about that as showing a pattern of obesity. Most obese children will become obese adults if there's not some type of intervention.
Can children simply outgrow obesity?
SAMUEL KLEIN, MD: Children can outgrow their overweight or obesity problem as they get older. The definition of being overweight or obese is your relationship between weight and height. And so if a child is a certain weight but does not continue to increase their weight but grows, they can change this relationship.
What can kids and their parents do to avoid obesity?
SAMUEL KLEIN, MD: The first thing parents should do is decrease television viewing and sedentary activities at home. Watching TV and being on the computer should be limited. Parents should also establish increased physical activity behaviors with their children. So they should go out for walks on a regular basis after dinner and embark on other family activities that increase physical action.
Parents should also be careful about how they teach their children to eat. Setting up good eating behaviors in childhood is very important for future adulthood eating behaviors, and parents who are very strict in regulating exactly what children eat may find that their efforts backfire.
Parents should also have low-energy dense foods available. A low-energy dense diet means you have lower amounts of calories per weight of food. Fruits and vegetables, for example, have a lot of water content and are low-energy dense foods. So parents should have fruits and vegetables at home and reduce the consumption of soft drinks and snack foods.
BETH TAYLOR: At home, parents can offer choices of a variety of foods. Finding lower-fat choices that the child would still find desirable to eat is kind of the challenge. At the same time, parents have to be careful that they're not overly criticizing the child about amounts they eat or the time they spend inactive because then those kids may have more emotional issues, and in the long run that would be detrimental. It's really about showing by example.
It's not only a matter of educating the parents, it's also about education in the schools. School lunch programs now have to meet a standard for calories per day and fat per day, so they have made a more moderate-fat to low-fat diet for the school lunch programs around the country to help counteract the obesity problem with children. |
Source/Author Info:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
none |
|
|
|
|
Untitled Document
|
:: ADVERTS |
|
|
|
|
