Kids love snacks. This is nothing new. However, as a parent, it is crucial to provide your child with the right kinds of snacks. Instead of letting them eat junk food whenever they want without restraint, keep fresh fruit and veggies on hand. Just because it is called a snack doesn’t mean it needs to be high in sugar, fat, and calories. An article from Health News discusses recent findings associated with the risks of increased snacking.
A recent study at the University of North Carolina analyzed 31,337 children aged 2 to 18 to survey their eating habits. The shocking discovery: nearly a third of the calories taken in by American kids come from snacks, defined as food eaten outside of regular meals. According to the study, children are eating three snacks each day on average, with the largest increases in salty snacks and candy. Children are also consuming more desserts and sugary beverages.
Even more startling, data from these studies showed that half of American children snack about four times a day, while some children even appear to be eating almost constantly, consuming either snacks or meals as often as 10 times per day. It is important for a parent to realize that when a child is eating that often each day, it’s time to do something about it. As the numbers of overweight children increase, it’s time to take action. If a child truly is capable of consuming that many calories, those calories should come from healthier food items, like fruits and vegetables. It’s not necessary to put your child on a strict weight loss diet; the best thing to do is monitor their food intake a little bit and hold off on the amount of snacks they consume.
This may put it into perspective a little bit. Data shows that 2-to-6 year olds are consuming an extra 182 calories each day. That may seem like a harmless number at first, but at 3,500 calories per pound, it translates to an extra 17.5 pounds per year. Besides the obvious weight gain side effect, poor snacking habits may also lead to iron deficiencies, delays in physical development and poor school performance.
The government has proposed a soda tax recently and this may be a start to the fight against childhood obesity. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also called for taxes on other junk food, zoning restrictions on fast-food outlets around schools, and bans on advertising unhealthy food to children.
Michelle Obama, who has taken a stand against childhood obesity, stated her opinion in a Washington conference on Monday. “Our kids didn’t do this to themselves,” she said. “From fast food, to vending machines packed with chips and candy, to a la carte lines, we tempt our kids with all kinds of unhealthy choices every day.”
Mrs. Obama aims to fight childhood obesity by making healthy foods more affordable and accessible, increasing understanding of nutrition, improving the quality of food in schools and promoting exercising. Camp Shane weight loss camp follows a similar approach by providing campers with nutritious foods, educating them about nutrition, and promoting physical activity. Through the combination of these simple elements, a healthy lifestyle is not far off.
To find out more about Camp Shane, visit www.campshane.com.
I enjoyed reading this blog post! Keep up the great work.
There is never enough information concerning this topic. Great post that helped me a ton with my research. I am writing a lot of similar articles. Keep up with the nice work.
healthy-dieting.zxq
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.