It's Time to Tackle Obesity
Posted on: Saturday, 5 July 2008, 00:00 CDT
According to the British Medical Association one million children in Britain under the age of 16 are obese. It warns that a fifth of boys and a third of girls will become obese by 2020 unless urgent action is taken.
Obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in the UK. It's a problem that has tripled since 1980 and there is no sign of the trend slowing. Today, more than 50 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men are defined as overweight or obese ('obese' means their weight is likely to endanger their health).
UK kids are the fattest in Europe. It's reckoned that due to obesity the present generation is likely to be the first that's out- lived by its parents. It's known that obese children face greater risks of developing heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
Fat children are bullied at school more often. They're also more prone to depression and eating disorders. In fact there's nothing to recommend bringing up your children to be overweight.
Fitness, diet and obesity are interlinked issues for the whole family to tackle together. It's no good putting your overweight child on a strict diet while other members of the family carry on as before. Meet the challenge as a unit and change your family's eating habits.
Surveys show that 92 per cent of children eat junk food in the home. Junk foods are often high in saturated fat, so as well as having a very high calorie count they are likely to have a seriously bad effect long term, clogging up the arteries and causing heart problems.
Sugary drinks and snacks are another major contributor to obesity, not to mention dental problems.
Unfortunately, additive rich and artificial flavouring-packed junk foods - along with cleverly advertised fizzy pops and salty snacks - are temptingly delicious to children. So if you have them in the fridge or store cupboard they'll be eaten.
If you don't want your children to grow up fat (and probably go on to be the parents of fat children themselves), then change the shopping list you take to the supermarket. Ditch the junk and stock up on the healthy.
Talk the change in lifestyle through with your children and explain that a healthier diet will be better for everyone in the family.
Instead of that daily bag of crisps in the school lunch box, put in a couple of crunchy carrots and an apple.
At home, get into the habit of eating as a family at set times, instead of people snacking at the fridge door or putting a meal-for- one in the microwave whenever they feel like it.
Redefine your idea of convenience food. Microwaved baked potatoes are quicker and easier to produce than chips. Fresh vegetables and salad take minutes to prepare and are much better for you than the contents of a tin.
You can boil pasta in the time it takes to heat up a ready-made meal. And, of course, a huge attraction about preparing food in your own kitchen, instead of eating something mass-produced in a factory, is that you know exactly what's in it.
Changing the choice of breakfast cereals can also help. Far from being a healthy start to the day (as they were once advertised), many cereals are full of sugar and salt. Leave those on the supermarket shelf and go for the simpler, less processed options.
They can always be livened up with a spoonful of honey, fresh and dried fruit, or nuts. Forget fizzy drinks and have fruit juice or water instead.
If you get into the habit of eating as a family at set times your children won't feel the need to snack on demand. But for those times when they do want to eat between mealtimes, replace the crisps, sweets and chocolate in the snack cupboard with cereal bars, nuts, seeds and dried fruits, such as raisins and apricots.
Thanks to campaigners such as Jamie Oliver, there is now a groundswell of concern about the food children eat and the way it is putting the health of a generation at risk.
It seems likely that the processed junk foods that do so much harm will be outlawed - or at least advertising them will be - in the future.
But don't wait until then. Decide on the healthy option for your family now.
(c) 2008 Citizen Gloucestershire, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Citizen Gloucestershire, The
User Comments (1)
| 1. |
Posted by Luka Tunjic on 07/07/2008, 14:45 It is strange title. Already many years obesity is serious problem. Any attempt to tackle on individual and public level seems to be effortless and it appear that any intervention even make problem worse. Doesn’t this fact tell us that need to rethink about basic science of weight loss/weight gain? Overweight and obese people are in first place the victim of bad science and the victim of weight loss industry. It’s time to tackle bad science and weight loss industry who exploiting people misery. The first step to combat obesity will be to rethink about basic science of weight gain/weight loss. Luka Tunjic http://www.biomechanicsandhealth.com/ |
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