Keeping Kids Healthy

More and more, parents are concerned about childhood obesity and rightly so as over the last ten years the number of overweight children has doubled. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) sixty percent of overweight children between the ages of 5 and 10 have at least one risk factor for heart disease.

Here are some tips from this mother and nutritionist to help make exercise and good eating habits a part of every family's lifestyle:

• Include foods each day from every category of food - grains, meat/beans, fruit/vegetables, dairy.
• Minimize (but DON'T ELIMINATE) high sugar, high fat foods or those that contain both - that would include soda, cookies, high fat snacks of any kind
• Make healthy foods convenient - I know a young mom who said that her kids' consumption of carrots increased by a factor of at least 5 when she began purchasing baby carrots. The carrot suppliers support those numbers. Calcium intake increases similarly when homes stock yogurt in forms that are popular with children

Physical activity is also critical - try these to keep kids moving:
1. Be a role model - kids will exercise if the adults in their lives do

2. Turn off the TV and computer and turn kids on to the outdoors

3. Bored with the backyard or don't have one? Explore new places to move as well as new ways

4. Ask the kids - Wii has great "moving" games.

And as always - involve kids in growing, preparing and eating healthy foods.

Happy, Healthy Moving,
Marcia