The healthy
family diet
TIPS FOR BUCKING THE OBESITY
TREND AND REDUCING DIABETES
RISK FOR YOUR KIDS
dDo you find yourself putting healthy family meals on the back burner, despite your best intentions? It’s no surprise, given
today’s families’ jam-packed daily routines, which accommo-
date everything from soccer practice and early morning
wake-ups pressing to work deadlines. As more time-strapped
families end up eating more fast foods and prepared foods,
scales nationwide are buckling under the pressure. According
to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
more than a third of American adults are obese. But the
expanding-waistline epidemic impacts far more than adults.
A 2008 Journal of the American Medical Association report
puts the number of overweight or obese children at 16 percent,
with another 16 percent almost there.
BY MATTHEW KADEY, RD
According to Sally Phillips, MS, a nutrition expert at Ohio’s Akron
Children’s Hospital, a child who has an unhealthy body weight not only
often has self-esteem issues but is also at increased risk of type
2 diabetes, hypertension, elevated blood cholesterol and triglycerides,
and orthopedic problems, “health issues that possibly could impact life
expectancy,” she says. Childhood obesity that progresses into grown-up
obesity is linked to increased artery wall thickness—a marker for
atherosclerosis. And because many overweight children do indeed
become plump adults, it’s smart to emphasize lifestyle modifications at
an early age. Try these no-fuss expert strategies to overcome today’s
most common obstacles to sound family nutrition.
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