Childhood Obesity Can Be Prevented

Childhood obesity is one of the most common conditions affecting the children of this century. Millions of children in the US are obese. Obese children are greatly prone to impairment and negative health conditions as a direct result of their excess weight. Nowadays, there are instances of type2 diabetes, heart diseases and sleeping disorders in young children. Emotional issues are equally dangerous. Children who are obese become the butt of laughter and ridicule among their friends. Even adults poke fun at such children unwittingly. Any way you look at it, childhood obesity has to be prevented.

The main reasons for childhood obesity are:

• Deplorable levels of activity
• High consumption of food that is rich in calories

Children today snack three times more than their counterparts about 20 years ago. To make matters worse, the advent of the Internet, video games and TV has effectively killed all sorts of physical and typically. All this has contributed to the massive storage of fat which leads to obesity.

Preventing childhood obesity starts from the time a child is born. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is important for parents and pediatricians to calculate and plot the BMI of children as they grow. Any sudden change in BMI will alert doctors and parents. Early identification is one of the most effective weapons against childhood obesity.

Many parents make the mistake of offering candies, biscuits or chips in order to what good behavior. This is wrong. Never reward your children with food. Children who identify eating as a rewarding experience go on to become emotional eaters. Good behavior must be celebrated with some sort of physical activity.

Never encourage the intake of junk food. Food companies often make it a point to target young children through their ad campaigns. Discourage your children from having junk food. Junk food is full of empty calories. Unhealthy snacking is a lifelong behavior and it often has its roots in childhood. When children are hungry, it is better to give them wholesome food like vegetables and fruits, instead of handing out readymade packets of unhealthy food.

Healthy cooking practices can make a lot of difference to the weight of your child. Avoid deep fried food. Instead, inculcate a taste for steamed and grilled food. Raw vegetables and fruits are ideal for young children.

You can encourage your child to develop the right kind of attitude towards food by taking them grocery shopping. When they are empowered to pick up healthy food stuff, they will develop the mindset to defeat obesity.

Young children must be encouraged to participate in a lot of rough-and-tumble play. This will help them burn calories and lose weight. It also increases their stamina and introduces the importance of exercise into their lifestyle.

One of the best weapons to fight obesity is to lead by example. Parents who are obese will automatically bring up overweight children. If you are overweight, the first step you can take to defeat childhood obesity is to lose excess weight.

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By Leisa St Ledger

Childhood Obesity

Most often, parents ignore the early signs of obesity in their children by interpreting the signs as indicators of good health and good eating habits. But fat children are not necessarily healthy, just the way lean ones are not devoid of health problems. More often than not, an overweight kid may lag behind his leaner peers in the normal development of numerous faculties. In fact, obesity during childhood is a more serious concern than obesity during adulthood, because an obese child often grows up to be an obese adult; thereby ensuring a lifelong association with obesity related diseases. Moreover, if the causes of obesity are not checked in childhood, the cure of obesity becomes almost impossible when the child grows into an adult. The longer the period of obesity, the more difficult it becomes for the body to shed off the weight it has become so accustomed to carry.

It is extremely easy to identify the causes of obesity in children and adults. Lack of physical activity that is required to burn off is the most common cause. These days, children are more interested in watching television and playing computer games than to indulge in outdoor activities. A large population of children may be prone to obesity because of genetic factors. Children of obese or overweight parents often grow up to be obese.

It is a very easy calculation that is used to determine obesity in both children and adults. All you have to do is calculate the Body Mass Index (BMI) of your child. A BMI of 30, according to The American Obesity Association, indicates that your child may become obese, and is at risk for many obesity-related diseases. It indicates a need for a medical examination and the initiation of a weight loss program. Other than the calculation of BMI as a reliable source of the indication of obesity, one may also rely on growth charts (the most reliable source is the CDC). The latest growth charts have included BMI as a parameter for the assessment of the normal growth of a child.

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By Damian Sofsian

Ab Workout - Combating Childhood Obesity

By Jose Loni

Include combating childhood obesity in your ab workout arsenal as childhood obesity is the leading cause of adult abdominal obesity. Children today have lost the balance between the energy they take in and the energy they expend, which is key to a healthy weight. They are faced with more food choices, more processed foods and large food portions. And modern man has engineered physical activity out of our children's lives, replacing it with remote controls, computer and video games. As a result, childhood obesity is on the rise.

The single largest factor in childhood obesity is lack of physical activity and excessive sedentary behaviour-watching too much television and playing too many video games. This sedentary lifestyle is the greatest risk factor when it comes to collecting fat around the abdomen. Abdominal fat is the invisible fat surrounding the inner organs, which gives the stomach its roundness and height.

Excess fat in the stomach area is more damaging for the heart than a few extra pounds on your bottom, thighs and hips. Each centimeter increase in the waistline increases the risk of heart disease because abdominal fat is more active. It enters the blood system and adversely affects our blood vessels, liver, blood fats and blood pressure. It also slows sugar metabolism since the body's insulin becomes less effective.

But health risks can be dealt with relatively easily. Exercise is the best way for the body to rid itself of abdominal fat. Exercising at least twice a week for at least half an hour at a time decreases incidence of abdominal obesity. And parents can encourage their children to be more active and join organized sports, dance classes or just being outdoors more instead of letting them be couch potatoes and playing computer and video games all day long.

Schools can do their part by organizing a more appealing physical education program. Offer classes like martial arts, basketball, baseball, and dance to attract much more participation from students, which is needed to combat childhood obesity.

School cafeterias can also serve healthier food choices and smaller portions for its students to increase alertness (high fat and high carbohydrate foods lead to lethargy) and avoid overeating. At home, parents should lead by example and serve nutritious food and a well-balanced diet.

There is an unfortunate correlation between the increase in child obesity and the popularity of video games. In addition, a decreased interest in customary outdoor play, overuse of the internet and the proliferation of television programming contribute to the rise in childhood obesity.

But combating childhood obesity can be done through early exposure to physical activity, healthy food choices and maintaining balance in their food intake and energy expenditure. Making these a part of their ab workout routine will get childhood obesity numbers down again.

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Where's the Big Bold Plan Designed to Eliminate Childhood Obesity?

By Rick Osbourne

America's staggering economy and our childhood obesity epidemic share a number of things in common starting with the fact that in both cases procrastination only serves to make the problem worse. Procrastination allows the cancer to spread and in the wake of the recent holiday President Obama took action on the economy. He applied a tourniquet in order to stop the bleeding. He jolted the heart in order to keep it beating, and he moved this nation from talking about it, to doing something about the problem. Whether you like what he did or not, he took action!

In this case the moves had to be big and bold because a hodgepodge of band-aids and patchwork solutions didn't stand a snowball's chance in Honolulu. In short, when it comes to the economy we finally took bold action. In the case of childhood obesity we have not.

Without a Big and Bold Plan...

Realistically speaking we've been debating, researching, and wringing our hands over childhood obesity for at least a decade now. But after spending many billions of dollars and passively standing by while millions of young lives are being washed down the greasy drain, all we have to show for it is a patchwork of band-aids, a hodgepodge of semi-interventions that the childhood obesity monster laughs at, and spits on, as he continues his attack on our nation's kids.

Like the economy, without a big, bold, and coherent antidote that we the people can understand and rally behind, millions of our kids will lose their battle with childhood obesity.

Where's the Vince Lombardi...

At this juncture I ask, where's the US Surgeon General who not only prioritizes the problem, but adds "And here's the actions we need to take in order to turn the tide on childhood obesity." Where's the Congressman who's willing to risk his own political capital, stand up in the face of the continually babbling experts and say "If we take these actions we'll defeat childhood obesity in a predictable amount of time." Where's the Lee Iacocca, the Vince Lombardi, the Jack Kennedy, the ML King, the Proverbial People Mover who can move us from wallowing in procrastination, to ACTION against childhood obesity,?

The Difference Between Winning and Losing

Controversial marketing guru Dan Kennedy contends that the difference between the winners and the losers in this life is the ability (or the lack of ability) to take action. It's true for our nation's economy and it's equally true for childhood obesity. In both cases it's time to stop talking and to do something about the problem...now!

Rick Osbourne spent 17 years as a physical educator and coach. He currently serves as Executive Director of Operation Pull Your Own Weight, (http://www.pullyourownweight.net) an informational website whose claim to fame is a strategy that motivates kids to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne is also a public speaker, and his book "Operation Pull Your Own Weight: A Radically Simple Solution to Childhood Obesity," (on Amazon) shows parents and educators how to motivate their kids to eat better, exercise more, and to naturally immunize themselves against obesity for life. Osbourne a can be reached at Osbourne.rick@gmail.com

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Childhood Obesity - Exploring the Current Research on Child Obesity and Learning How to Reverse It

By Steven R Arnold

Childhood obesity statistics in the Unites States are at record highs - just like all health issues involving diet and exercise habits. In short, obesity in America is at epidemic levels as we have became the fattest nation on the planet. As we continue to tell ourselves that we are "just too busy" to plan and prepare healthful meals at home, we, and our children, grow continually larger and are significantly more likely to develop a variety of preventable diseases and health issues including, but certainly not limited to:

• High cholesterol;
• High blood pressure (hypertension);
• Diabetes mellitus;
• Diabetes Insipidus;
• Kidney issues;
• Heart disease and circulatory problems;
• Cancer;
• Strokes;
• Liver disease;
• Arthritis;
• Gout;
• Premature aging and even death;
• More...

While these issues used to be thought to lay in wait for adults only, they are now becoming increasingly evident in our children. The single most prevalent reason is our poor dietary habits.

Causes of obesity in our children:

Modern research on child obesity is quite disturbing indeed. Our children are being introduced to health problems at staggeringly young ages because parents are not feeding them correctly and ensuring that they get adequate exercise. Here are some tips to reverse your child's progression towards childhood obesity:

• Recognize that children do not need to have diets specifically for them. Healthy food is healthy food. It really doesn't matter if your child prefers a Big Mac meal with supersized fries to a salmon filet and wild rice. You are the parent and you need to provide healthy food choices for your child.
• Just because your child is growing does not mean that they need every bit of food that they can possibly stuff down their throats. More is definitely not better. Sensible portions of nutrient-packed foods are what is needed. Just because a teenage boy feels like a big man because he can gobble down 3 nutritionally-void Whoppers from Burger King doesn't mean anything at all. In fact, it is simply an invitation for lifelong health problems.
• Soda pop is a worthless concoction that should not be consumed. It is only simple sugars (monosaccharides), artificial flavorings and preservatives - a recipe for acne and health issues. Ensure that your children drink water, low-fat milk, green teas, fruit juices and loads of other non-soda beverages.
• Every living animal must exercise daily to remain healthy. That is a simple fact of nature. You and your family members should all get 20 to 30 minutes of daily exercise that is semi-challenging. The benefits are immeasurable. Make your children step away from the video games, computers and televisions to get outside in the fresh air and play for hours.

Childhood obesity is the direct result of poor food provision and lacking physical activity levels - most often nothing more. Sure, we can attribute our overweight children to socio-economic factors, psychological turmoil, genetic predisposition and the like, but it all really just boils down to diet and exercise - the same as always. Take control of your child's health beginning today. Make and take the time to plan and prepare wholesomely nutritious meals and enjoy them with your family after your daily exercise sessions. Living healthily is the best way to avoid both adult and childhood obesity.

Steven R Arnold is editor of http://fatsense.com

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Childhood Obesity, Overweight Kids and the Problem

By Dr. Mark Clayson

While childhood obesity is easy to diagnose, it is not easy to treat. In fact, the best way to prevent and treat the phenomenon known as childhood obesity is to simply encourage a healthy lifestyle at home. Kids are not the best ones at changing their own eating habits and physical exercise habits. They need the help of their parents and guardians.

Prevention of obesity ultimately begins at home. For children and young adults dealing with obesity, it is best to evaluate the individual’s situation, taking in to consideration environmental, genetic, and metabolic concerns while treating the arising physical and psychological damage that has arisen. An obese child’s eating plan should also come with an exercise plan. Long term counseling is often needed to deal with self esteem issues relating to obesity that can effect the child’s performance in the real world.

Parents should keep in mind that weight loss is not a healthy or proper method for young children to employ, as their bodies are still developing. Unless a doctor assigns your child to be put on a diet for specific medical reasons, dieting should not be encouraged in young children, as it could deprive them of the nutrients and energy they need to grow.

Once the issue arises then the problem is much more difficult to deal with. Prevention is the best way. You should be able to monitor yor child's activities. You should be aware of their eating habits especially when they are not with you and you should, where possible, encourage exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

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