Friday, October 7, 2011

Our kids deserve a better world





Our children live in an obesogenic world. That is the medical term for the things in our environment that make us fat.

The causes behind the child obesity epidemic include a sedentary lifestyle plus a diet that is:High in sugar


· High in fat


· High in salt


· Low in fiber

The average 8 year old watches 4000 junk food commercials a year encouraging them to eat the worst of the worst. After 4000 commercials, who is going to listen to Mom?

No surprise - high fat and high sugar diets create fat kids.

Children 40 years ago rarely had high cholesterol, hypertension, or glucose intolerance. Now 60% of kids who are overweight have at least one of these problems. Obesity in kids also increases asthma, liver dysfunction, sleep apnea and Type II diabetes.

We have known this for years, so why does the problem of childhood obesity continue to get worse? Some blame the schools, some blame the parents, and some blame the soda companies or fast food joints.

Kids have a sugar habit even before they start school. Four year olds eat over 60 pounds of sugar per year – 40 pounds more than recommended. What can be done?

The 5-2-1-Almost None Program is a fantastic start.

It stresses a daily routine for kids with 5 or more fruits and vegetables, no more than two hours of screen time, at least one hour of physical activity, and almost no sugary beverages.

It’s time to leave the obesogenic world behind!

Make the 5-2-1-Almost None guidelines the healthy choice for your family.

2 comments:

  1. Good quality salt is essential to good health. Most of us get way too muc sodium from our meat-centered diet.
    If you are a vegan or vegetarian, you should include high-quality sea-salt in your diet. If you are vegan or vegetarian and eat sweets,your diet is not healthy. Limit sweets, include seas salt and occasionally, eat fish. Occasionally, it will not harm you. A vegan diet with sweets, is a yin, unbalanced one.

    berkeleymacrobiotics.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete