Obesity rates hit plateau

Glimmer of Good News: Plateau in Childhood Obesity

The staggering number of overweight kids may actually be leveling off. That is the good news. The bad news is what you have heard before: the number of kids suffering obesity related complications, such as, elevated blood pressure, elevated blood sugar (diabetes), liver and kidney disease are really hurting the children who have them.

Large population studies using over 8,000 children conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have shown that the weight of kids has not increased from 2003 to 2006. It was actually the body mass index (BMI) and not weight, per se that was used for tracking. The BMI reflects weight, and is used to adjust for height. For example, a tall person with the same weight as a short person has a lower BMI. Since the height varies dramatically in children it is better to adjust for this variable when studying obesity. It is hoped that this trend continues although we don't have the statistics for this year to be sure that this leveling off trend has continued.

There are many reasons for this good news. One may be the fact that sodas are no longer being sold in many schools nationwide. A clear contributor to obesity is high-fructose corn syrup. This is found in many processed foods including soda. Fructose is converted to fats in an alarmingly fast rate and is considered to be a cause of obesity. Limiting sugar containing soda is recommended to prevent weight gain.

The more likely reason is that the message has gotten through to children and their families to eat and live healthy. This is due to no small part to the hard work of everyone including, teachers, health care staff, the media and other generally concerned citizens.

Raising Healthy Children

Loranda Taylor
Parent

It is hard to tell your child no. It's their life that you are playing with. To help you child survive you first need to be strong for them. Then find out what food makes then gain weight. This will take sometime to do but stay with it. Make sometime to give them the right food plan for them. DO NOT take away any unhealthy foods (junk food). This will make them steal food to eat. Compromise with them for instance, you can have 3 cookies if you do 10 jumping jacks, a small bowl of ice-cream if you do 20 sit-ups, or let them tell you what they want to do that sounds good to you. This let them know that their diet plan is for them and not for you. Now if they do not want to do any excise for a while, then the next week you will need to show them that you are serious about what you said. The best way to do this is:

1. If they are not up to eat breakfast after 10am then they miss breakfast. But give them a small healthy snack.

2. If they choice not to excise then they don't get lunch until they do. Don't worry they will do the excise to eat.

3. Eat dinner early around 5 to 6pm if you can. That way they can get a small dessert before 8pm. Remember when you make their plates to make it for someone who is 3 to 5 years younger then them. They will be hungry but they will have dessert soon.

Just stay with it and you will have result soon. Remember to just let one person in the house to set the food plan. If everyone is doing it then, that means everyone will be feeding them as well, and that will defeat the purpose. There is so much more I would love to tell you, but then I would have to write a book. So I hope this help you. Take real good care of you child.