Do you know?– in the United States, currently 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese.
Do you know?–childhood obesity is strongly correlated with adult obesity.
Do you know?–obesity in any age can affect your whole body functions, causing high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and other life threatening diseases.
Obesity, is a very simple but also some complex condition: it’s simple because body weight gain is a result of exceed food intake versus physical activities expenditure; it’s complex because there are some many factors involving in deciding these two domains, like income, education, etc.
Obesity is like a tsunami–it destroys a person by affecting its health, it destroys the well-being of a family and it also can destroy a nation. Obesity epidemic had already cost huge spend of health care, quality of lives of individuals. We don’t want the next generation walk through the same path, so we need to change.Family members are the key stakeholders–they should be aware and put their priority on the children’s health.
To help shaping a healthy, balance eating habit of a kid, a notion should be kept in mind–it is a shared responsibility, “the parent or caregiver is responsible for WHAT, WHEN, and WHERE; the child is responsible for HOW MUCH and even WHETHER” (Ellyn Satter, RD). To become a good parent, it is worth to learn what is healthy for kids and take the time to make what the kids love. Kids don’t know much about foods, but they mimic their parents on eating habits; you should also be a role model, don’t say and do in different ways;eat everything, picky eater only raises picky eater. Children’s appetites, like adults’, vary from day to day and meal to meal, so don’t think they should eat a certain amount every day. It’s also important to remember food is food, don’t use them as a reward and don’t bargain, bribe, lecture, shame or threaten on food, make it a happy, family-shared comfortable experience each meal.
Technology brought great fun to childhood via TV and digital games–but this makes kids less likely to move. If you want your child get moving, make rules about screen time and be a exercise leader. Research shown that family member involvement can greatly increase children’s interest and therefore the actual time of physical activity. Institute of Medicine recommend at less 60 mins of physicial activities each day for children–this 60 mins don’t need to be consecutive–you can let you kid do 20 mins in the morning, 10 at noon, 20 in the afternoon, and 10 at night. That means regarding to physical activities, every minute counts. Seize every chance you and your kid can be active.
Foods & Science Max 