Tru Foods Nutrition Services updates; Obesity in our Youth. It is not why you think.
Simple non-weight loss techniques to help your overweight or obese child get healthy.
Tru Foods Nutrition Services LLC Updates
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Obesity in our Children. It is not why you think.
Below are simple steps and tips to improve the health of not only your child who is overweight or obese but the entire family. Every family is different, so these are very general guidelines.
The obesity rate in children, according to the latest CDC data, is 19.7%. Another way to look at it is that 1 in 5 children in America are obese. While the CDC identifies the root causes as complex and related to factors such as low income and lack of exercise, one big factor that gets overlooked is the focus of today’s substack.
I would love to hear your thoughts after you read this substack. Am I not in touch with the younger generations? Am I wrong to blame parents?
Obesity comes with complications. For instance, those ill from the original Covid strain were at greater risk of complications if they were obese. These kids are at greater risk for HTN, type 2 diabetes, and asthma.
Recently, we had guests for several days in which one of the children was grossly overweight with what looked to be central obesity. When I asked the child’s grandmother if she knew she had been tested for thyroid dysfunction, she shrugged off the comment and said, “Oh no, it is not that. She eats junk food all the time. But they (the parents) do not want to say anything because she may go the other way, starving herself.”
As a nutritionist, I was surprised that not one of the three adult guests (grandmother and two parents) asked for my professional thoughts. Maybe they thought I would say she must be on a diet to lose weight. Perhaps they just thought they knew best.
While I made healthy meals every night they were here, the child was permitted to eat hot dogs and pizza they bought instead.
Since I was not asked, I did not say anything. If changes are not made, there is a good chance that within the next few years, she will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and have to be on medication for the condition.
If you have an overweight child, the child should NOT go on a diet, and the parents should not single out the child. These parents got that part right.
Here is what needs to be done for that child to lose the extra weight and instill good lifelong eating habits.
1. The parents need to recognize that they are the ones who need to make the changes, not the child.
They are the parents, and they are in charge. This generation prefers being their child’s best friend rather than their parent. Your child has plenty of best friends and doesn’t need you as another one. They need parents who love them and provide rules, structure, and guidelines for the household and the family. This is where the breakdown occurs.
I have heard time and time again from parent clients that making dietary changes will upset their child, make them angry, or they will throw a tantrum. They are probably right, but so what?
They are the parents and put the rules in place for what food is offered in the house. The children will accept the new dietary household rules over time. Parents, start parenting and stop allowing your children to be in control.
2. The dietary changes do not occur for the child but for the entire family.
I cannot stress this enough.
Changing the diet is not a punishment but a reward for the whole family. You are not putting anyone on a diet but instead creating structure and rules around food in your home.
Hence, if the child gets asked at school why they eat an apple instead of Oreos at lunch, they can honestly say, “In our home, we eat whole foods.” Or “This is how our family eats.” Changing the diet for the family, you are doing something as a unit, not one child in isolation. Can you see how impactful this is?
When our son, at 3 years old, needed a particular diet for systemic yeast, we all went on the same diet with him. It wasn’t one child had to eat one way while the other ate a different diet-no we were a unit, a team, and all ate the same healthy foods together. It was never a big deal; it was just how it was in our home.
3. Focus on the positive with dietary changes and get the whole family involved.
This is my favorite part of healthy eating and cooking!
Younger children can pick out new foods to try in the produce section. One week, they can focus on red veggies and devise ways to prepare them; the next week, try a new purple food; and the next week, explore all the different green foods.
Kids are never too young to help out in the kitchen. Little ones can help stir or make recipes their little fingers can mix. Older kids can chop, measure, and prepare meals. Sign up for healthy cooking classes together!
Taking the junk food out of the home and swapping it for whole foods will benefit not just the overweight child but the entire family.
Swaps should be replaced with whole foods. For instance, you do not want to replace a cookie with a gluten-free store-bought cookie. Instead, look up recipes for healthy breads, muffins, and cookies that are low in sugar and do not contain additives. Swap french fries with roasted sweet potatoes or replace meals in a box, bag, or can with home-prepared meals.
The child may or may not lose weight immediately, but you will instill lifelong healthy habits, teach your children cooking skills, and learn how to shop and pick out healthy items in the store.
If their friends come over and want to know where all the junk food snacks went, the child can say, “Oh, we don’t eat that way anymore.” The attention is never placed on the child, nor should it be.
4. The Dinner Table Magic
Dinnertime should not include a different meal for each person. For instance, if one person in the family cannot eat gluten because of celiac disease or sensitivity, there is no reason why the household should not be a gluten-free safe zone and meals are gluten-free.
If you stick to whole foods and keep meals simple such as protein, a veggie, and a starch, there is no reason why wheat/gluten is challenging to avoid inside the home. Meals could look like fish, salad, baked potato, or chicken stir-fry with veggies and rice or steak, sweet potato and broccoli, or quinoa, bean, veggie, and herb bowls. Healthy meals do not have to be complicated and time-consuming to prepare.
Dinner time should not be stressful, discussing how the child did in school, tests, sports, etc. Save these topics for when you are not eating because the stress affects the utilization of your nutrients. Table Topics are my favorite way to ignite fun and enjoyable dinner-time conversation.
Use dinner time to teach your children manners and social skills. Teach them to chew their food and eat slowly, appreciate the food on their plate, and savor the flavors. Teach basic table manners, which seems to be lacking in kids nowadays.
Question: What about when your child is not home? Won’t they eat junk food?
They might and probably will at the start of your new family rules. But over time, they will see how food makes them feel and begin to make healthy choices. Be patient. It may come sooner with little kids, teens probably at a slower rate if they want to eat what their friends are eating.
A friend of my son’s recently said something very complimentary to me. He said when they were teens, and they would all go out to eat, my son would always choose the healthiest option even though he was not home and could eat whatever he wanted.
The friend said that he could see how healthy eating inside the home impacted his choices outside the home. But the best part of his comment was this: “When I have children, I want to make sure that I teach them healthy eating habits so that they know how to make healthy lifelong food choices.” Wow!!
It can be done. You should not worry if your child loses weight or not because what you are doing by creating a healthy household environment is much more important and will carry that child through to adulthood and their family.