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TIP OF THE WEEK:
More on the importance of the “parent”
role in your child’s health
I know I seem like a one-track broken
record on this topic, but I continue to
validate my sense of this vital
piece. My current reading has
brought me to the book Generation
Extra Large: Rescuing Our
Children from the Epidemic of Obesity
by Lisa Tartamella, Elaine
Herscher, and Chris Woolston.
Mentioned in this book is a landmark study
in 1990 in the Journal of the American
Medical Association that looked at
three different educational programs for
overweight children, but only one involved
both parents and children. Ten years
later, in the group that took a family
approach to the problem, the proportion of
children who were overweight had dropped
eight percent. In contrast, the
rates of obesity had climbed significantly
in the other two groups.
I don’t think this study is any
surprise to any of you reading this
newsletter. We know from experience
that parents have more control over a
child’s weight than anyone else, and
that includes doctors, nutritionists,
friends at school, and even the child
themselves. No matter how deeply a
child cares, they can not get anywhere
without the support of the people who buy
the groceries, make the dinners, and set
the rules. Even in the face of all
the unhealthy influences in the world,
parents have an astonishing power to shape
their kids’ eating habits. We
can have many new fast food restaurants
popping up on every corner, billions of
dollars spent on advertising, and toys
offered with every meal, but it is still
the parent who ultimately decides what to
put in the refrigerator or on the dinner
table. We often blame the
environment as a major player in the
current child obesity epidemic, and
parents are still a major part of any
child’s environment.
Another significant study done
published in 2004 by Moira Golan, PhD, a
senior teacher in the School of
Nutritional Sciences at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem reinforced the
belief that parents hold the key to
healthy childhood weight and habits.
The study involved sixty overweight
children ages seven through twelve.
Half of the kids attended thirty intensive
sessions where they learned about diet and
exercise. The second half stayed
home while their parents went to fourteen
classes where they learned how to
encourage children to eat well and stay
active. Both groups of kids slimmed
down after one year, but the kids who
stayed home while their parents went to
class lost significantly more
weight. Interestingly, after three
years, the kids who had attended the
thirty educational sessions were more
overweight than before, while the kids who
stayed home had moved even closer to their
ideal weight. Golan was able to show
that parents who are committed to creating
a healthy home environment can help their
children achieve the healthy habits
necessary to be and stay a healthy
weight. What she found was that the
kids who attended the thirty educational
sessions knew enough about exercise and
nutrition to write a book, but she learned
from talking to them that “they were
dieting all the time”. They
would deny themselves fatty food or sweet
treats for a while, but eventually they
let down their guard and ate more than
they had before. The kids in the
group that had stayed home rarely felt the
need to “binge” at all because
they were not denying themselves
anything. They were just eating what
was around the house and going with the
flow. A “flow” that led
them to a slimmer, healthier life.
BayAreaCTK is adapted from Committed to
Kids developed at Louisiana State
University by our esteemed Dr. Kris and
Melinda Sothern. This was one of the
first programs to enlist the support of
parents and siblings from the very
beginning. The parent’s
example and dedication are often the
critical link to being successful in a
program like BayAreaCTK. Melinda
Sothern states that many parents feel
terrible guilt, and blame themselves
because they think they have “allowed”
their child to become overweight.
She says that parents who blame themselves
need to be reminded that” it is not
your fault, but it is your responsibility
to do whatever you can to make things
better…the cards dealt in life are
stacked against them, and nothing in
society is going to help parents who are
trying to help kids lose weight.
Everything in society is designed to make
kids fatter”.
So, my message is obvious. We can’t
be successful in what we are trying to do
for our kids without the parents buy in
and commitment for their own selves
also. We are here to help you, both
child and parent, to learn new ways of
supporting and nourishing, without nagging
and criticizing. As many of us know,
this is a very fine line for some and it
(thankfully) never has to be done
perfectly!!
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Spend more
time at the supermarket than you
have to? Follow these five simple
tips to finish your grocery
shopping in 30 minutes flat.
Shop During
Off-Peak Hours:
Don't compete
with all those primetime shoppers
or wait in the checkout line for
20 minutes. Shopping during the
quietest hours of the day can get
you in and out of the supermarket
in minutes.
Shop Alone:
Shop by
yourself in order to keep
distractions at bay.. .you'll
stay focused and have better
success at shopping in 30 minutes
or less.
Create a
Supermarket Shopping List:
How often have
you gone to the market only to
realize you forgot the milk or
the eggs? Without an organized
shopping list, it's impossible to
remember everything you need. To
streamline your weekly trip to
the grocery store, say goodbye to
all those little scraps of note
paper and instead, go armed with
an organized shopping list.
Keep Your
Pantry in Tip-Top Shape:
A pantry
stocked with must-have staples
like canned and frozen
vegetables, jarred pasta sauce,
canned beans, salsa, pre-shredded
cheese and other shortcut
ingredients can prevent return
trips to the supermarket and cut
down on the number of items you
need to purchase each week. A
well-stocked pantry is a real
time saver.
Plan Meals
Ahead:
Why think
about "what's for dinner" when
you're standing in the frozen
food aisle? Knowing ahead of time
what you'll be preparing for
dinner each week can help you
craft a focused shopping list,
keeping your shopping trips short
and to the point. Site:
Mealmakeoverrnoms.com
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Having a picky
or finicky eater in your family
can be a challenge, but with our
clever strategies, your picky
eater may soon become adventurous
at the table. Here are some
things you can try at home:
Tempt the
Senses: The first step to
getting to try a new food is to
persuade them to take that very
first bite. Children and adults
eat with their eyes so it's
important to make the food look
appetizing. With an array of
colors and shapes, the meal
becomes a delicious alternative
to the colored chicken nuggets
and potato puffs that some
children might be accustomed to
eating. It's equally important to
make the food taste good. One way
to do that is to lightly season
your food with salt (we prefer
the flavor and lower sodium
content of kosher salt), herbs,
and spices and to use a moderate
amount of the right kinds of fats
(extra virgin olive oil, canola
oil, and sesame oil) to enhance
the flavor.
Be a Good
Role Model: If the old
saying, "do as I say, not as I
do," applies to mealtime at your
house, chances are your children
will quickly catch on. If you
grimace at the sight of peas or
proclaim your objection to
oatmeal every time it's served,
you really can't expect your
children to try, let alone eat
them. Since youngsters learn how
to walk, talk, and eat a varied
diet by imitating what they see,
parents and caregivers can set a
good example by healthy food
choices.
Try New
Foods Over and Over and Over
Again: Research shows it can
take 10 to 20 tastes over the
course of many meals before a
child eventually learns to
actually like a new food. The
more often the food is offered,
the better the odds that your
child will taste it and add it to
his or her list of favorite
foods. There are dozens of fruits
and vegetables to choose from so
if you fail with one, move on to
the next (just don't forget to
come back to those old "castoffs"
later).
Offer the 3
Cs: Choice, Creativity and
Compromise: Kids are control
freaks. That's why it's critical
to present them with plenty of
choices. For example,
rather than tell your children
they "have to eat some fruit with
dinner," consider a more positive
approach by giving them a choice
between two different fruits. "Do
you want watermelon or grapes-or
both?" Given the choice, they'll
probably pick at least one. The
same goes for vegetables. "Do you
want broccoli or carrots
tonight?" Trust us; it works most
of the time!
It's also
important to be creative.
You can even make up fun and
silly names for foods. Telling
your five-year old that, "this
broc rocks" may get her to try
broccoli. Hey, it's worth a try.
The last of
the 3 Cs is compromise.
It's unrealistic to expect any
child, teen or toddler, to eat
A-plus meals seven nights a week.
Come to think of it, it's
unrealistic to expect adults to
eat this way either. If, for
instance, the children have been
begging for hot dogs all week,
there's no reason to deny them.
While we don't advocate hot dogs
as everyday fare, a nitrite-free,
all-natural hot dog is certainly
a fine choice once in a while.
And if the children want chips on
the side, don't feel guilty if
you end up doling out a handful
or two. To round out the hot dogs
and chips, however, consider some
crunchy baby carrots and sliced
strawberries or mango as well.
Everyone wins.
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