Childhood Obesity & Parents’ Healthy Food Confusion
Cheryl Haining

Many parents struggle to know which foods are healthy for their children. When they are able to opt for healthy choices, about two-thirds struggle to get their children to eat healthily, a poll of nearly 800 parents found. Developing Patient Partnerships (DPP), which commissioned the survey, said that parents need more support to tackle the growing problem of childhood obesity. Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 20 years, official figures show.
Recent studies suggest that parents do not know what good nutrition is. Perhaps advertising of fast foods, and busy life styles has contributed to this. Nutritional meals can be prepared quickly and simply at home.

Of the parents of children aged 15 years and younger questioned by the DPP, 45% said they found it difficult to work out which foods were healthy for their children. When parents did select healthy foods, 65% said they struggled to motivate their children to eat it. Three-quarters of parents blamed advertising and marketing of unhealthy snacks and drinks for making this job so difficult. Another 87% believed that schools should play a big role in teaching children how to be healthy.

When more than a thousand children aged seven to 16 were questioned about their lifestyles, 70% said they would be more likely to eat healthily and get active if their parents were doing it. Only 16% said they ate the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. This suggests that parents are not making healthy food choices themselves. There are strong links between obesity and ill health. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare lists the following increased risks of cancers in obese people:-
MenWomen
Cancer% Increase RiskCancer%increase Risk
Prostate23Uterus178
Leukaemia43Kidney110
Bowel53Bowel35
Liver128Liver48
Gallbladder76Breast71

Statistics such as these are a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining a healthy weight level. Children must be given every opportunity to have a healthy body. In order to get their family on track to a healthy lifestyle parents need to learn how to feed themselves and their family good nutrition.
A simple way to improve nutrition is to add raw fruit and vegetables to family diets. These are foods that have no preservatives or added color. They provide plenty of vitamins, mineral, antioxidants, fiber, water and trace elements. (All necessary for good nutrition.) They look appetizing and have high water content. They have a firm texture which means we need to chew them well. This aids the digestive system. The body quickly and easily processes them. This means less work for the digestive system.
They are natural, that is, not processed and pre-packaged with extra chemicals. They are pure energy – living foods. Look for different colored vegetables and fruits when you shop. Experiment with ones you have never tasted. Visit a market for more variety and fresher foods. Eat at least one from each group every day.

Red/Purple Group includes tomatoes, watermelon, berries, cherries, and grapes
Orange/Yellow includes carrots, sweet potato, squash, mangoes, cantaloupe, apricots, oranges, mandarins pineapples and many stone fruits
Yellow/green among this group are avocado, spinach, beans, peppers, corn, beans, broccoli, green leafy vegetables,
White/green some in this group asparagus, celery, garlic, leeks, mushrooms, pears
For more information read, “What Color is Your Food” by Dr D Heber.

Experiment with adding these to your daily diet. Of course a balanced diet must also include daily servings of dairy, whole grains and protein. Start with the simple idea of adding more fresh fruit and vegetables to the family’s daily food intake. This simple step will have fantastic and long lasting impact on your health.

About the Author

Cheryl Haining is a skin care, body shape and nutrition coach. She has her own successful business. Her mission statement is to ensure everyone reaches his or her optimum body shape, size and condition. Contact Cheryl at www.uloseweight.net To learn how to create an income stream from home visit
www.keybusinesstips.info

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The Fat Smash diet plan is a diet created by Ian Smith and it is a 90 day program that became quite popular when Celebrity Fit Club was the big thing on TV. This diet claims that you do not need to count calories to lose weight and you will not feel hungry. However, such claims seem too good to be true, so are they?

Let’s take a look at this diet in more detail and how it actually works. This weight loss program does actually have all the good things that a good diet should have. With this diet you need to follow a healthy eating plan combined with exercise to lose weight. It doesn’t make promises of losing lots of weight without any effort; it shows you how to put in the effort to make changes to lose weight. Ian Smith has a good, solid foundation for this diet and also puts a high focus on the benefits of having a good support system of family and friends. It can sometimes be difficult to stay motivated while dieting so a good support system can help to encourage you to stay on track.

Many weight loss programs focus on either the diet itself or on an exercise regime. It is important that you combine these two aspects for the best weight loss results and not just focus on one or the other. The Fat Smash diet suggests that you undergo a detox first to give you an initial burst of motivation as it will help to kick start your weight loss. The detox stage lasts around nine days and during this time you may actually not feel the best as your body has some symptoms of the detox. You may experience nausea, headaches and tiredness so it is best to begin this diet at a time when you can cope with these symptoms.

The Fat Smash diet program is divided into four parts. The first part is the detox stage and during this stage you will eat mainly fruit and vegetables. Some of the dishes suggested in the diet have a Japanese flavor and you can find many of the ingredients at your local store. The second stage of the program will add lean meat, eggs, fish and other foods into the diet. In stage three you will have bread, wheat, pasta and even some deserts added to your diet. Phase four actually includes some pizza and other fast foods. During all four phases it is recommended that you eat little and eat often. Eating this way will help to boost your metabolism which will enable you to lose weight faster.

This diet also suggests a number of different activities that you could do to get the required exercise. If you follow the diet but don’t include exercise then you won’t see as good results as you would if you do include exercise. The Fat Smash diet program is actually quite a good diet program for losing weight if you stick to it and follow it through, including the exercises. If you are looking for a good diet program to help you lose weight then this one might be the answer.

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Being overweight is bad. It is bad for your health it is bad for your self esteem and feelings of self worth. When you are a teenager you have enough other things going on that are hard to deal with, adding obesity and the resultant feelings of insecurity to the mix is not a good thing. The good news is that there are weight loss plans for the youth of today that can help anyone get on a more healthy road.

Virtually anything is harder when you are overweight. It is harder to move, it is harder to meet new people and strike up a conversation. Not to mention the very real toll being overweight takes on your overall health.

Finding the best weight loss plans for the youth of today can really be a fairly simple process, here are some ideas of how to go about it:

1. If you are trying to help your teenager get in better shape, why not lead by example? Do you eat a healthy diet? Do you get enough exercise? If not why not use this as an opportunity to help both your child and yourself?

2. For some who are morbidly obese the best solution may be some sort of weight loss surgery. It is important to get all the facts first though. Your teen must understand that even with weight loss surgery, lifestyle changes will need to be made.

They will need to watch what they eat and they will need to start, and stick with, an exercise plan. Of course, every type of surgery does present risks so this is another thing to consider.

3. For a teen who is only “a little” overweight, say 20 -50 lbs. it can be relatively easy for them to lose that weight them self. Just eating less calories, eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, drinking more water and getting more exercise can make a big impact in a relatively shore amount of time.

Some people find that just changing one small bad habit can make a ton of difference. I have a friend who just gave up drinking soda for a month (and she didn’t even really drink that much, just a couple of cans a day. There are people who drink a lot more than that) and she lost 10 lbs. in just about 30 days.

Think of your habits, is there one thing that really stands out that you may be able to change pretty easily? Even if that one thing isn’t enough to help you lose all the weight you need to lose, it can be a great way to jump start your efforts.

Any journey will require you to take the first step. There are a lot of weight loss plans for the youth of today that are available to anyone who needs a little help. Just find one that appeals to you and go for it. It will take time and there may be times when you get discouraged, but you can do it!

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Cholesterol is one of the major substances that cause heart attacks, high blood cholesterol levels, and weight problems. Despite its bad guy image, this waxy, fat-like substances made in the body by the persons own liver serves a number of vital functions unknown to many.

Basically, there are two types of cholesterol: the Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL) and the High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL). The former refers to the bad type of cholesterol that is known to clog the persons blood vessels, thus, increasing the risk for a heart attack or a heart disease. Studies show that a diet that is high in saturated fat is a main dietary cause of a raised LDL cholesterol level. The latter, on the other hand, is the good type of cholesterol that helps clear LDL cholesterol out of the blood stream, thus, reducing the risk for any heart illness. Researches have shown that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables along with average levels of omega-3 from fish oil greatly helps raise HDL cholesterol levels.

Although diet is the major reason for having high cholesterol levels, experts agree that factors such as genetics, lack of exercise or regular physical activity, obesity, unhealthy lifestyle such as excessive drinking and smoking, hormones, and varying high and low cholesterol levels can trigger the sudden increase of cholesterol levels in the body.

GETTING STARTED

Indeed, cholesterol is a growing problem in the health of many people in the world. Experts say that people over 20 years of age should be more concerned about their cholesterol levels; thus, they should start doing everything they can to lower LDL cholesterol. Although it is quite hard to stick to the needed requirements and regiments to combat the growing problem, experts say that it can be controlled with the proper diet to lower cholesterol.

Studies show that a good diet to lower cholesterol can reduce a persons risk for heart diseases while getting rid of bad fats because this diet to emphasizes on eating heart-healthy foods. But, aside from using the proper and proven low cholesterol diets available today, the most important thing is that knowing and taking in the right foods and effective cholesterol formulas to assist in lowering cholesterol levels.

Experts say that a diet to lower cholesterol includes good foods like grainsespecially whole grain products and cerealsfish rich in omega3 such as salmon and tune, a variety of fruits and leafy vegetables, nuts, juices, and the like. Here are other effective means of lowering cholesterol level through diet:

1. Make sure that you visit your attending physician first before trying out any low cholesterol diets so he/she could administer the proper examinations and access your general health status.

2. You can lower your cholesterol levels by replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat in meat, chicken, and whole milk products.

3. Refrain from eating refined carbohydrates contained by bakery products, pastas, and sugary or sugar-added foods.

4. When eating out, makes sure that you ask the waiter to make serving substitutions like steamed or boiled food preparations. If possible, also pick lean meat, fish, or skinless chicken that is broiled, baked, grilled, steamed, or poached instead of being fried and ask for lots of vegetable side dishes and fresh fruit desserts.

5. Cutting down on eggs, margarine, or butter out of your daily diet.

6. Use natural-based oils such as vegetable, corn, and olive oils when cooking instead of the usual cooking oil.

7. Load up on a lot of garlic when youre preparing dishes because it contains substances that help lower HDL cholesterol.

8. Take in high quality daily vitamin mineral supplements like Vitamin E to improve blood circulation, and Vitamin C and vitamin B3 to lower your high cholesterol levels.

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