We could be facing a childhood obesity epidemic this decade unless we get children off the couches and doing exercise. Fitness expert and personal trainer Gary Dawkins has some tips.
The growing popularity of home entertainment systems, combined with the convenience of fast foods, is a recipe for obesity unless we take action.
Sure, it may be easier to sit the kids in front of television with hot chips and a drink than it is to take them to the park, but the rewards come only after the hard work has been done.
More and more parents and carers are sacrificing the long-term positives for the"quick fixes". But this short-sighted approach could have damaging consequences for children.
They are likely to be overweight, unfit, diabetes-prone, face increased risk of coronary heart disease and cancer, just to name a few of the potential health consequences.
In the first year of this decade, three out of five adults and two out of five children are overweight, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, giving weight to the suggestion the second decade of the 21st century could be remembered in the West as the obesity epidemic.
If we believe the development and learning of children is led by older role models, then we have a big problem: 67% of people in the older group are considered overweight.
Children who learn to eat correctly and are active every day have a better shot at being successful in school and in life. But, our children's health and their ability to learn is in jeopardy. The statistics are alarming and should encourage us all to take action.
HEALTHY HABITS FOR CHILDREN
- Easy to follow nutritional steps...
• Prepare your weekly meals seven days in advance.
• Write down the foods the household will need for breakfast, morning snacks, lunches, afternoon snacks and dinners for a week.
• Insist your child has breakfast.
• Prepare a shopping list seven days in advance so only items on the list are purchased.
• Changing what is in the child's lunch box may well be your greatest challenge. Make gradual changes to its contents.
• Encourage children to help to cook and shop for the family meal. At mealtime, turn off the TV. The evening meal is crucial. Lead by example.
• Portion sizes are just as important as the quality of the meal. This is because all excess energy gets converted to fat. Even good quality foods can get converted to fat if too big a quantity is eaten.
• Limit desserts and sweetened drinks. Limit juice, even 100% unsweetened juice, to no more than two 170ml servings a day.
• Do not use food as a reward. Once you have adopted the healthy household eating habits (which can take up to three weeks) start adopting healthy activity within the household.
GETTING CHILDREN MORE ACTIVE
- Easy to follow steps ...
• Make it a rule that these couch-based activities occur only after completing energy-burning activities.
• Take children to the park with a ball for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Do not ban all the "bad habits" as this may prevent the new habits from forming.
• The more creative and fun you can make the activity, the more successful you will be at helping to establish this new habit.
• Encourage school activity, sports teams and programmes.
• Reduce the time you spend being non-active by half over the next three months.
• You are the role model - make the most of it.
• Walk to school with them (to start with you could drive part of the way, park the car and walk the remainder). Not walking to school when possible is a missed opportunity for physical activity.
• Walking and cycling to school can provide children with more opportunities to be physically active at no extra cost to parents Take turns with other parents or carers at walking a group of children to school.
• Before arriving home in the car from collecting your child from school, stop off at the park, beach or tennis courts. As a family, head out for a walk after dinner - it only needs to be 15-20 minutes to begin with.
Age issues:
Complete only cardiovascular activity up until 15 to 16 years of age as bones are still developing and joints are changing shape. Exercise lifting the body's own weight is fine, but extra load-bearing exercises should start after major growing is complete.
Ages 1 to 10 years are the behaviour-modelling years. These are the crucial years for determining what a child likes and dislikes later in life.