A recent article in Time magazine features a special writeup on childhood obesity. Statistics show that one of of three school-aged children in America is overweight or obese. This is a scary statistic and a big concern is that this number will only get bigger. So what is the cause of this obesity rate? It seems that children of the recent generation are getting much less physical exercise. Their activities consist more of sitting and watching a screen, rather than spending time outdoors playing. This lack of activity combined with unhealthy fast food is lending to the obesity epidemic in America. This also contributes to an increased rick of heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even diabetes.

The American Heart Association is offering programs to encourage families to get active together with a focus on diet and exercise, such as Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart (www.americanheart.org/jump). The AHA also supports the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act, which proposes nutritional standards for food served to schoolchildren.

Dr. Alice Lichtenstein, Stanley N. Gershoff, professor nutrition science and policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, suggests ways in which parents can help adjust their children’s eating and exercise patterns:

• Stock the pantry with nutritious after-school snacks, such as fresh and dried fruit, whole-grain pretzels, plain popcorn and granola cereal.
• Instead of sugar-sweetened beverages, fruit drinks and fruit juice, switch to flavored seltzer and low-fat and fat-free milk.
• Sit down to healthy, regularly scheduled family dinners to establish good eating patterns for children.
• Start a vegetable garden where children can plant the greens of their choice.
• Limit video game and TV time to two hours a day.
• Plan physical activity for the whole family, even if it’s just a bike ride or walk. Families that do activities together stay healthy together.

Another option for your overweight or obese children is a weight loss camp, such as Camp Shane. With a focus on proper nutrition and fitness, we assist children in starting and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

What are your thoughts? We would love to hear other suggestions of helping children get into good fitness and eating habits.

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Tags: Fitness, healthy lifestyle, nutrition, nutritional standards, obese children, obesity rate, overweight children, weight loss camp

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 12:43 pm by Lyndsey Lovinger and is filed under Childhood Obesity, Fitness, Healthy Eating, Healthy Lifestyles, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.