 |
To get to the bottom of it, WebMD asked experts to cull a sure-fire list of
diet dos and don'ts to help families triumph over obesity. And it's about time.
The latest statistics from the 2003-2004 NHANES II report show that
13.9% of kids 2-5, 18.8% of kids 6-11 and 17.4% of kids 12-19 in the U.S. are
overweight or obese, which puts them at increased risk for chronic diseases
such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes and emotional problems
in adolescence and adulthood.
In children, body fatness changes over time as children grow, and
boys and girls differ in the amount of fatness considered to be normal.
Overweight is defined as having a weight that is greater than 95% of children
of the same age and sex.
Obese kids who remain heavy through adolescence tend to stay that
way in adulthood. The resulting illnesses associated with obesity in adulthood
-- diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and several cancers -- now
claim an estimated half-million lives per year, costing $100 billion in medical
expenses and lost productivity.
Here's what the experts have to say about how to reverse these
alarming trends:
Do be a good role model.
"The No. 1 thing that parents can do is to be a good role model for their
children," says Rallie McAllister, MD, MPH, a family physician in Kingsport,
Tenn., and author of The Healthy Lunchbox: The Working Mom's Guide to Keeping
You and Your Kids Trim . "Parents so often unwittingly set their kids
up for failure," she says. "If there are only chips, Ho-Hos, and Twinkies and
no fruit or vegetables when your kids look for snacks, how can they succeed?"
Instead, she suggests, line your refrigerator and cabinets with fresh fruits,
nuts, low-fat cheese, and things for kids to snack on besides chips, dip, or
low-fiber, high fat, high-calorie type of snacks.
In a 2000 survey conducted by the CDC, close to 80% of adults
reported eating fewer than the recommended five or more servings of fruit and
vegetables daily -- not good role-model behavior.
Do be positive.
"Instead of saying, 'Lose weight', say, 'Let's be healthy and start taking care
of our bodies,' McCallister says. "Be positive and focus on the foods you can
eat, not the ones that you cannot. Say, 'Let's go pick out fruits and make a
fruit salad,' not 'Don't eat this or that.' Instead of saying, 'We have to
exercise,' say, 'Lets go to the park.'" She stresses that "we can't approach
this from a cosmetic standpoint and we can't even imply that this is about
self-worth. Say, 'You want to be healthy and we want to keep you around for a
long time.'"
Do make healthy eating a family affair.
"Make whatever plans or food preparation appropriate for the whole family so
you don't single out the overweight child as having a special meal, which is
like saying, 'You are fat, so you can't have this serving of mashed potatoes,'"
says Arlington, Va.-based obesity expert Denise Bruner, chairman of the board
of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. And let your kids help you
prepare the meal. "Whether male or female, your child may have to live on
his/her own one day and should know how to cook because relying on fast foods
has certainly contributed to the obesity epidemic," Bruner says. "Make cooking
fun and interesting." And when you are finished, eat together. A family that
eats together, eats better, according to a study in the journal Archives of
Family Medicine . Children who report frequent family dinners have
healthier diets than their peers who don't, the study showed.
Do avoid portion distortion.
"When serving the food, institute portion control, as in 'this is what you are
allocated,' not a buffet-type or family-style situations," says Bruner.
Potentially making this endeavor easier is the fact that Kraft Foods has
changed serving sizes on its food labels. Many obesity experts suggest
the supersizing of portions at fast-food restaurants plays a role in the
obesity crisis in America.
Do start the day off right with a good breakfast.
such as "a bowl of low-sugar cereal with low-fat milk, low-fat yogurt with a
granola or breakfast bar, or an English muffin with peanut butter, rather than
a doughnut or muffin," says Dana Greene, MS, a Boston-based community
nutritionist whose work with overweight children puts her on the frontline of
the obesity crisis.
Do pack a nutritious lunch for schoolchildren.
A study by University of Minnesota researchers showed schoolchildren who have
access to high-fat, low-nutrition foods at school will consume more unhealthy
meals overall than children who have access to healthier options. And a
national poll commissioned by Harvard University showed that more than eight in
10 Americans support providing healthier school lunches. "One of the major
sources of fat and sugar in a child's diet becomes school lunches," McCallister
says. So try and "make packed lunches fun and give a bottle of water, not soda
or sugar-flavored juice, and a piece of fresh fruit as opposed to a fruit
roll-up, which is loaded with sugar," she suggests. "Encourage the child to
have whole-grain breads to eliminate a white-flour and white-sugar rut."
Do rise to the challenge.
"We all know that diets don't work, they are short-term solutions to what will
be a lifelong challenge," she says, referring to the challenge of eating
properly. "The goal is to learn to eat today the way you have to eat for the
rest of your life," she explains. "Can you eat steak and eggs and butter for
the rest of your life? No. Take a few weeks and learn what a healthy diet is
... and then you don't have to diet."
Do make time for physical activity . "Make
physical activity a family activity," Kava says. "Every night after dinner in
the summer, go for a half-hour walk and make it an activity that kids look
forward to. If you can afford it, enroll your kids in dancing or a sporting
activity that they enjoy because they need to enjoy it to keep doing it." Or
just turn on some dance music and have a dance party around the house.
Do try again. "Some parents say, 'My
kids just don't like broccoli or cauliflower or string beans,' but sometimes it
takes more than one introduction to a food. And remember, she says, "a child is
not going to sit at the dinner table and eat broccoli if everyone else is
eating ice cream," Kava says.
Do think outside the box.
Consider weight-loss camps, such as the New Image Weight Loss Camps, which are
based in Stroudsburg, Penn., Lake Wales, Fla., and Ojai, Calif. "It's a very
typical summer camp experience [replete with] lakes, swimming pools, tennis
courts, and all mainstream camp activities along with nutrition classes,
cooking classes, aerobics, weight training, and calisthenics," says Tony
Sparber, owner of the camps. "The average weight loss is three to four pounds
per week. Kids who need to lose 70 to 100 pounds may lose five to six pound per
week." The more weight a child has to lose, the larger the weight loss is going
to be, but the amount of weight is not as important as changing lifestyle, he
says. "The failure of most programs is that there is too much temptation, such
as having to deal with other kids eating french fries. At a [weight-loss] camp,
everybody is on pretty much the same program and all the food is normal food --
pizza, BBQ, hamburgers and hot dogs, and things that kids enjoy. The difference
is that it is prepared healthfully." They serve low-fat frozen yogurt instead
of ice cream and Baked Lays instead of fried chips. The cost is about $7,000
for eight weeks, but children can go for shorter sessions. "We give them a
program that they can continue at home," Sparber says. "A lot of programs look
to take off as much weight as possible in the shortest period of time. We are
into trying to create a healthy lifestyle for these children." (For more
information, contact New Image Weight Loss Camps at
www.newimagecamp.com.)
Don't count calories.
"I am opposed to putting kids on caloric restrictions," McCallister says. "It's
damaging emotionally because they feel deprived, and it's damaging
physiologically because they can't get the nutrients that they need." Instead,
she suggests, shoot for cutting out 100 to 200 calories a day. "That is one
soft drink, and it will result in weight loss."
Ruth Kava, PhD, RD, director of nutrition at the American Council
on Science and Health, has this to say: "The bottom line is not to restrict
them, but to help them grow into their weight because children need extra
calories to grow. Don't put kids on a strict diet because they are probably
going to resent it."
Don't say diet.
"Put your child on any diet and you are setting them up for an eating disorder
-- whether binge eating or closet eating or another type of disorder,"
McCallister says.
Don't take supplements.
These days, so-called dietary or herbal supplements that promote weight loss
are hawked to everyone -- including children. But whatever you do, say no to
weight-loss supplements for kids, Kava says. "You don't really know what's in
them, and most have not been tested in kids to determine their safety or
effectiveness."
By Denise Mann
Reviewed By Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD, July 25, 2007.
Originally published Aug. 4, 2003.
Medically updated July 25, 2007.
SOURCES: Denise Bruner, chairman of the board, American
Society of Bariatric Physicians. Ruth Kava, PhD, RD, director of nutrition,
American Council on Science and Health, New York. Rallie McAllister, MD, MPH,
author, The Healthy Lunchbox: The Working Mom's Guide to Keeping You and Your
Kids Trim . Tony Sparber, owner, New Image Weight Loss Camps. National
Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion web site.
|