The combination of poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles has created an obesity epidemic in this country. The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 30 percent of adults in the United States are
obese or roughly 60 million people. Obesity plays a role in over 300,000 deaths a year making it the
second-most preventable cause of death after cigarette smoking. Unfortunately, obesity has taken hold in our
children. Newsweek Magazine's cover story several years ago detailed the replacement of Generation X by
Generation XL. Every day in my office I see evidence of this new generation. Children are becoming bigger and
bigger and this places them at an increased risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, obstructive
sleep apnea and the list goes on and on.
Slowing down this obesity epidemic is difficult because there is not a pill or a vaccine to solve this problem. The
solution rests in the education of parents and children about good healthy nutrition and exercise. Parents are vital
in this process for two reasons. First, children model their behaviors after their parents. If parents eat poorly,
chances are their children will eat poorly. Second, parents control the types of food purchased and brought into
the house. Children cannot eat potato chips and drink sodas unless an adult purchases these junk foods.
Educating our children about proper nutrition involves two steps. The first step involves teaching the correct
quantities of the different food groups to eat. In 1992 the U.S. Department of Agriculture replaced the four basic
food groups with the Food Guide Pyramid. The purpose of the pyramid was to show that individuals should eat
more of certain food groups over others. Over the course of a day, a child should eat 6-11 servings from the
bread, cereal, rice and pasta group, 3-5 servings from the vegetable group, 2-4 servings from the fruit group, 2-3
servings from the milk, yogurt and cheese group, 2-3 servings from the meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and
nuts group, and only use fats, oils, and sweets SPARINGLY. Unfortunately for many children in this country,
their food guide looks more like an hour glass than a pyramid with lots of fats and sweets up top and lots of
breads and grains at the bottom and a minimal amount of fruits and vegetables in between. If you want to make
your child's food guide look more like a pyramid consider eliminating the following junk foods from their diets: hot
dogs, colored sweetened cereals, doughnuts, potato chips, candy, sodas, and juice drinks.
The second step in teaching good nutrition is making sure your children know that it is not all about quantities but
also about quality. The shortcoming of the Food Guide Pyramid is that it tells children the quantities of the
different food groups they should eat, but it does not tell them the quality of the foods within each food group. A
child could strictly adhere to the Food Guide Pyramid and not eat very healthy by making poor choices within
each group. For example, your child should eat 6-11 servings of grains each day. However, your child is going to
be much better off eating whole wheat bread as opposed to white bread. Parents would be wise to avoid all
white foods that are white because of man-made processing such as white flour and white rice. In these two
foods, the most nutritious parts, the bran and the germ, have been factory removed by bleaching and processing
and what are left are colorless, nutrient poor foods. Your child should eat 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-3
servings of fruit each day but as a general rule, the more color the fruit or vegetable has the better it is for you.
Your child should choose red grapes over green ones, pink grapefruit over lighter grapefruit, sweet potatoes over
white potatoes, and spinach or kale over iceberg lettuce. Children should eat 2 -3 servings of meat, poultry and
fish each day but eating fish and chicken is going to be healthier than eating red meat. Eating grilled fish or chicken
is going to be healthier than eating these foods fried. Even with fats, there are some fats that are better for you
than other fats. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are healthier for you than saturated fats.
Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature and flow like oil. Saturated fats, such
as butter and shortening, are solid at room temperature and sit there like sludge. Your body needs fat to provide
energy and to build healthy cells, but it needs the right kind of fat. Fats from seafood and plant sources are the
healthiest, fats from animal sources are healthy in moderation and unhealthy in excess, and fats from food factories
like hydrogenated oils are the worst for your body.
In order to slow down the impact of obesity on this country, teach your children the basics of good nutrition.
Make sure that they are eating the right quantities of food from the different food groups and ensure that they are
making high quality choices within those food groups. If you do this, your children will have a much better chance
of living a long healthy life.
How Do I Teach My Children Good Nutrition?
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