“We know that solving our
obesity challenge won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, but make no mistake
about it — this problem can be solved,” Mrs. Obama said. “This isn’t like
putting a man on the moon or inventing the Internet. It doesn’t take a stroke of
genius or a feat of technology. We have everything we need right now to help
our kids’ lead healthy lives.” (Stolberg, 2010).
I came across this quote from First Lady Michelle Obama in a New York Times article about her "Let's Move" Campaign. I said something similar in my paper before reading this quote. We hear the phrase diet and exercise all the time, so much so it's become meaningless....or has it? How do we solve the problem of childhood obesity? Diet and exersice! The following are the paragraphs from my final project about diet and exercise:
The ideal solution to
making kids healthier is to eliminate high calorie, fatty, sugary foods from
their diets and replace them with colorful, healthy fruits and vegetables. For most children eating fruits are not a chore;
however, in children’s eyes, vegetables have a bad reputation of being
gross. Parents need to put a little
childhood imagination into their cooking to make healthy foods more appealing. Another trick to remember is kids love to
dip. Using ricotta cheese, peanut
butter, cottage cheese, hummus, salsa, cream cheese, and yogurt as dip for
peppers, pretzels, apple slices, berries, bananas, whole grain chips or
crackers, kids will be eating healthy and won’t even know it. Children are naturally picky eaters. It’s not always possible to get them to try new
foods. Don’t give up! Studies show it can take up to two weeks of
introducing new foods before a child will even try them.
During that introduction
time, another thing to do is to reduce portion sizes. Using smaller plates will make it seem like
you are still eating a lot. American’s
eat as many as three times the necessary portion sizes per meal each day. That’s the same as eating nine full meals in
one day! Reducing
plate sizes along with portion sizes will fool the mind into thinking you have
eaten the same amount as always. Adding
colorful fruits and vegetables to a plate also makes the meal more visually
appealing. The better it looks the
better it tastes.
One of the unhealthiest
habits Americans have is drinking sugary drinks all day. For adults, it is fancy $5 cups of flavored
coffees full of sugary syrups, cans, bottles or fountain cups of soda all day,
sugary sweet iced tea with lunch, and then more tea or soda with dinner. For kids it’s chocolate milk, sugary fruit
based juices, iced tea and soda. These
can be some of the unhealthiest habits children can have. Switching to reduced fat or skim milk for
meals and water in between meals instead of juice or soda will not only make a
difference in their health but their attitude.
Sugary and fatty foods
can be as addictive as some drugs and alcohol (Fortuna, 2012). The human body becomes dependent on
them. Children become addicted even more quickly
than adults and take longer to overcome the addiction. Sudden extreme changes in their diet can cause
physical and emotional problems in children (similar to an adult going through
a drug detoxification program in a rehabilitation facility). Taking away favorite foods and drinks seems
like a punishment to children, especially young children. Slowly weaning them off their unhealthy
habits is the safest route. Replace one
or two sugary drinks a day with water.
Continue to feed your child their favorite meals but cook them at home
yourself. Let the child help prepare
their meals. Give them choices by asking
things like “would you like an apple or an orange with your lunch?” Try to avoid convenience foods at home such
as frozen chicken nuggets. Those are
nearly as unhealthy as those included in a kid’s meal from the nearest
drive-thru. Buy fewer chips and cookies
and more fruits and vegetables. Keep
healthy snacks within the child’s reach. If it’s there and they can see it,
they will eat it.
Parents
need to stand up for their children.
Turn off the computer or television and get off the couch. Increasing physical activity is the number one
way to combat obesity in children and adults.
The USDA recommends 60 minutes of physical activity a day for children. Often when parents hear this they panic. One hour of physical activity does sound like
a lot for a child who is used to sitting in front of a screen all day. The good news is this does not have to be one
hour of non-stop physical activity.
Break the hour up into small increments and start slow, especially if
the child suffers from health problems like joint pain, arthritis, and/or
asthma. Household chores like shoveling
snow, having a snow ball fight in the winter, mowing and raking the grass in
the summer can be physical activities.
Rainy spring and fall days are great times for indoor activities like
vacuuming, washing windows and mirrors.
Even something as simple as parking a little further away from the
entrance to the grocery store can make a big difference in your child’s
health. The more physically active you
are in the morning, the more likely you are to be active all day.
One of the benefits of
living in the 21st century is technology. Use it to your advantage. Many smart phones have applications that can
track of distance traveled, calories burned, heart rate, etc. while walking,
running and cycling. Video games have
been accused of being part of the cause of childhood obesity, but it can also
be part of the solution. Many popular
game systems have motion detection hardware.
There are video games that not only make the player feel like they are
starring in a major sporting event or favorite movie battle scene, but there
are also games that simulate working one-on-one with a personal trainer. Games like this are designed specially to lead
a player or players in a work-out routine (Hendry, 2008). Fitness games cannot be played while sitting
on the couch, but can cause laughter, fun and a little friendly family
competition.
This was just a small portion of my final essay for my Comp II class.
~Jennifer~
Fortuna,
J.L. (2012). The Obesity Epidemic and Food Addiction: Clinical Similarities to
Drug Dependence. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 44(1), 56-63.
Hendry,
E. (2008). Exercise video games get kids
off the couch. USAToday Online. Retrieved on April 20, 2012 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2008-07-30-exercise-games_N.htm
Stolberg,
S. (2010). Childhood Obesity Battle Is
Taken Up by First Lady. The New York
Times Online. Retrieved on April 15, 2012
from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/health/nutrition/10obesity.html
