A Good Look at Global Childhood Obesity

A succinct look at how the global pandemic of obesity and diabetes has led us to the unbelievable statistics comparing 40 years ago versus 2016.

The numbers speak for themselves: In 1975 we had 11 million obese children globally; now it is 124 million. Amazing! And we continue to blame the victims and ignore the real issues behind the crises: a food industry more interested in increasing consumption of their products and reaping the profits than contributing to the health of the consumers. There is also an obesity industry that has evolved and relies on pushing Americans toward surgeries, crash and fad diets and potentially harmful diet drugs. We need to really begin to understand the complexities of dieting, weight loss, and the conflicts we face in our current food environment.

For a summary, click HERE.

For more on the dilemma, CLICK HERE.

There are three excellent books I have read that clearly describe the facts.

Salt, Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Micheal Moss, 2014.

Fat Politics: The Real Story Behind America’s Obesity Epidemic, J. Eric Oliver

Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss and the Myths and Realities of Dieting, Gina Kolata, 2007.

Sally J. Feltner, MS, PhD

 

Nutrition Education: A good idea in Colorado?

I can think of a myriad of ways to spend taxpayer money, but this way sounds like a great idea. We need more of these kinds of programs. Maybe this helps to explain why Colorado has the lowest obesity rate in the U.S. at 22.6%. On the other hand, West Virginia has the highest rate at 38.1%.  The U.S. obesity rates increased from 26.2% in 2012 to 27.1% in 2013.

CLICK HERE.

For state rankings and an interesting map, CLICK HERE.

Kids Eat Right Month

August is ‘Kids Eat Right’ Month

From the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

With childhood obesity on the rise, making sure kids eat right and get plenty of exercise is vital.

Parents and caregivers can play a big role in children’s nutrition and health, teaching kids about healthy foods, being a good role model and making sure physical activity is incorporated into each day.

August, which is Kids Eat Right Month, is a great time for families to focus on the importance of healthful eating and active lifestyles. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is encouraging families to take the following steps:

Shop Smart. To encourage a healthy lifestyle, get your children involved in selecting the food that will appear at the breakfast, lunch or dinner table.

Cook Healthy. Involve your child in the cutting, mixing and preparation of meals. They will learn about food and may even be enticed to try new foods they helped prepare.

Eat Right. Sit down together as a family to enjoy a wonderful meal and the opportunity to share the day’s experiences with one another. Research indicates that those families who eat together have a stronger bond, and children have higher self-confidence and perform better in school.

Healthy Habits. You can help kids form great, healthy habits by setting a good example. Fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables, choose lower-sodium options, and make at least half the grains your family eats whole grains. For beverages, choose water over sugary drinks, and opt for fat-free or low-fat milk.

Get Moving. Aside from being a great way to spend time together, regular physical activity is vital to strengthen muscle and bones, promote a healthy body weight, support learning, develop social skills and build self-esteem. Kids are encouraged to be active for 60 minutes per day.

Getting kids to eat right can sometimes be a challenge, particularly if they are picky eaters. But experts say that a conversation can help.

“Talk to your children. Learn the foods they like. Teach them about the foods they need for their growing bodies. Find ways together to make sure they have the knowledge and ability to eat healthy and tasty foods at every meal,” says Angela Lemond, registered dietitian nutritionist and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson.

It may help to consult a registered dietitian nutritionist in your area to ensure your family is getting the nutrients it needs with a meal plan tailored to your lifestyle and busy schedule.

For more healthful eating tips, recipes, videos and to learn more about Kids Eat Right Month, visit www.KidsEatRight.org.

This August, reevaluate your family’s eating and exercise habits, and take steps to make positive, healthful changes.

Politics and Pesticides?

The politics of pesticides has been a controversial topic for decades. It is not only the bee population at risk, but now it looks like our children may be at risk, too.

This is one reason for sticking to organic as suggested by the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen”. However, not all people can choose organic due to increased costs. Consequently, they may avoid choosing those fruits and vegetables entirely.

CLICK HERE.

The McDonald’s Diet?

How low can it go?  The latest McDonald’s marketing gimmick sounds like a desperate attempt to fight their sagging sales. If it is ever shown as planned, it  surely provides conflicting information to our children on just what is a healthy diet“.

In my opinion, this is borderline deplorable – and if true – shame on the paid registered dietitians who allegedly have been recruited  as ” Nutrition Consultants” to promote this tactic.

There is an UPDATE LINK to this article.   As of this writing, it may be that this documentary is in limbo.  The following article explains the situation clearly and provides the UPDATE link.

CLICK HERE.

 

More Sugar Blues?

English: Earl R. Dean’s 1915 contour Coca-Cola prototype bottle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Coca Cola has recently pulled its funding from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) that represents thousands of registered dietitians.   AND has been criticized for its associations with “Big Food” corporations.  Some of their members have canceled their memberships and formed the Dietitians for Professional Integrity group based on their criticism of this practice and conflicts of interest by AND. Coca Cola will no longer exhibit at the annual Food  Nutrition Conference and Expo, meeting this week in Nashville, TN.  Don’t worry, though, AND still has financial ties with PepsiCo, Inc. and many other large food companies.

Good Riddance to Coca Cola!

CLICK HERE.

New Year Resolutions for Parents

 

New Year’s Resolutions that make sense-a must-read if you have younger children.  The home is where change can begin and the earlier the better.

Happy 2015 from Food, Facts, and Fads.

CLICK HERE.

Kids and Vegetables?

Fruits and vegetables (Photo credit: nutrilover)

Children of all ages have a reluctance to like vegetables which is a major problem for parents as well as the attempt to change the U.S. culture to accept healthier foods.  Many researchers believe introducing the concepts of health and nutrition very early in life may be an effective approach.   A study  from Stanford University  published in the journal Psychological Science supports the idea that young preschool children can understand these concepts when even applied to nutrition.  They  hypothesized that young children have a natural curiosity and want to understand how things work which this may apply also to food .

The researchers created five storybooks for preschool children aged 4 and 5 that emphasized key concepts about food and nutrition.  These  included the importance of variety, how digestion works, nutrient characteristics and how nutrients aid the body.  They read these books to the children during snack time for three months. For a control, they did not read the books to other children during snack time.

Later, the children were asked questions about what they had learned from the books about food and nutrition to assess their grasp of the concepts presented. In the group of children who had the stories read to them, vegetable intake almost doubled during snack time after the intervention.  Vegetable intake during snack time remained the same in the control groups.

The authors concluded that explaining to these children that their bodies need different kinds of healthy foods did have a significant impact on their acceptance of vegetables. Whether this approach can help children improve their intake of healthy foods at home or at mealtimes remains to be determined.

The following article is an excellent realistic guide from the trenches on dealing with kids who don’t want to eat vegetables.

CLICK HERE.

Children and the Metabolic Syndrome?

Micrograph of an artery that supplies the heart with significant atherosclerosis and marked luminal narrowing. Tissue has been stained using Masson’s trichrome. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The metabolic syndrome apparently (according to this study) can have early beginnings.  The metabolic syndrome is estimated to affect about 50 million adults but now it is appearing in earlier stages in our children.

It’s not one disease but a series of factors that increase the risk of diabetes, including insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (causing high blood glucose), abdominal obesity, high blood triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol with low-HDL cholesterol (a bad combination), high blood pressure, increased inflammatory blood proteins (e.g. C-reactive protein), and higher concentrations of oxidized LDL- cholesterol.

Even though high levels of LDL-cholesterol are considered a risk factor for heart disease, the oxidation of LDL is worse.  It occurs when the LDL cholesterol particles in your body react with free radicals. The oxidized LDL itself then becomes more reactive and damaging in the surrounding tissues, which can produce inflammation. Higher consumption of trans fats, smoking,  poorly controlled metabolic syndrome and diabetes appear to increase levels of oxidized LDL.

So far, the American Heart Association does not have a fully established criteria for diagnosis, but suggests that having at least 3 of the above conditions will establish a tentative diagnosis.

This study further emphasizes the importance of early childhood nutrition interventions in diet and exercise habits that will help to alleviate this growing problem.

CLICK HERE.

McDonalds and the Goat

A pile of McDonalds Chicken McNuggets, as bought in America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

McDonald’s has stooped to a new low with their latest attempt to lure our children to the McNugget under the guise of apples and chocolate milk.  What next — and we wonder what is contributing to our child obesity problem?  Shame on you Ronald!!!

PLEASE CLICK HERE.