You knew I was going to say it eventually so here goes.....DIET & EXERCISE

“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 21^st 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~

References

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