The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

organicmamato3 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 21:29:05 GMT

I can't wait to order the new book! It is so crucial that parents see the error in their ways in letting their children chow down on the junk foods and fast food. As the leader of my local Holistic Moms Network chapter, my mission is to raise awareness in my own backyard. It's not hard to eat right. It just takes some extra effort to make better food choices. I agree with Michigan Mom. Breastfeeding is the BEST start you can get your children. Holistic living helps to ensure a healthier future for our children.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

WEBeville — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:56:21 GMT

When you go to the grocerie store and look at the ingredients in all the prepared food (convenience foods) you see one ingedient in all of them. Soy, in one form or another. It's even in salted, dry roasted peanuts. Soy contains two phyto-estrogens. At one time, these were advertised as preventing breast cancer. It was later proven that they have no effect on breast cancer.

One thing estrogen does do is have the tendency to put weight on children. Do children, especially boys and infants need female hormones? I have read, it's like giving your infant two to four birth control pills a week when giving them soy baby formula. Soy milk is the left over liquid from making tofu. Umm! Good stuff! Not!

Maybe children are handicaped to begin with with the "healthy" and "tastey" food they eat outside school too.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

Debrah — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 00:12:34 GMT

I agree with Michigan Mom, it is frustrating that natural feeding of infants is never mentioned in articles such as this. I had great difficulty in nursing my first child but stuck with it because I knew there was NO good substitute, it did get easier and I went on to nurse for 2 1/2 years and the same for my next two kids. All are adults now and are a healthy weight and they all like the taste of healthy foods--Another factor never mentioned is that breast milk tastes different depending on what the Mom is eating, thus breastfed babies are more interested in eating differently flavored foods besides the bland sweet taste of formula. All my kids were eating garlic, onions, all kinds of vegetables etc as soon as they started eating solid foods(at 1 year old). I remember when my dad had dairy cows and how the milk tasted different depending on what the cows were eating--though I don't think using cow's milk products are healthy for anybody as milk is the perfect food only for the species it was designed for! Also, i expressed my extra milk after my 3rd child and donated it to a woman whose baby had a birth defect --the stress and inability of her baby to nurse kept her from developing a good milk supply. The hospital tried to stop her from doing this as it was considered "unsafe" but she fought them. He was not thriving on the formula and did well on my milk. That is the way women did before formula--they helped eachother if poor and hired someone to nurse their babies if rich.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

labrat — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:09:53 GMT

Geez - how the hell do I have 3 healthy and skinny kids? They watch tons of TV, play tons of videos games, and we rarely have a sit down dinner.

What we don't do in our house is buy into the low-fat diet. We eat a high saturated fat, high protein diet.

Go figure.

We do everything "wrong" and beat their stats - hands down.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

Michigan Mom — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 13:58:30 GMT

I know I'm a broken record here, but it bugs me that breastfeeding is never mentioned or studied when it comes to obesity, even though the effects are significant.

The risks of artificial feeding are only mentioned in breastfeeding studies and articles (not just here, everywhere), but never mentioned or even considered in the studies of health problems breastfeeding helps eliminate.

Exclusive breastfed children are getting free raw milk, fortified with omega-3's. Each milliliter of breast milk has more living cells than a milliliter your blood. Breastfed infants have been shown to grow up to have fewer permanent fat cells. Their bodies also learn to regulate appetite since breast milk changes throughout the feeding from the low fat foremilk to the high fat hind milk. The high fat milk singles satiety and infant stops eating. Formula fed infants also much eat much more volume as they get older to increase their caloric intake, yet nursed infants eat the same volume of fluid daily! It is a miracle. We still do not even know all the components of breast milk.

If you or someone you love is having a hard time nursing please contact le leche league or a lactation consultant. Despite what you believe the inability to breastfeed is rare, but it is a learned skill, and the nurses at the hospital tend to give bad advice that actually hurts your ability to breastfeed. If you are pregnant, plan for a drug-free birth, trust me it is worth it. The Bradley method is a good place to start.

OK I feel better.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

Matilda_203 — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 06:35:13 GMT

Although much has highlighted the "soda" machines at our schools- what about the everyday trip to the "snack" area to buy ice cream, cookies, or chips? At our county schools- they do not want the parents to "send" a snack. But, of course, if you don't send extra money, the child doesn't get the "snack" like the rest do. This is kind of like "peer pressure" towards unhealthy "snacks" by the school. I think the schools need to work on "healthy" lunch and move all the vending machines and ice cream freezers right out the back door!

Obesity is not the only problem with sitting all day at school and then all night at home watching TV or playing video games- why do we wonder at the number of depressed /anxious children? Exercise is one of the best "treatments" and "preventions" for depression and anxiety- even in shorter increments.

Finally, when a parent makes a family meal an important time- most children prefer it. It's great for communication and teaching proper table manners. Once our oldest son in college called when he knew we would be eating- he just wanted to know what we were talking about. He missed eating with us. There are a few years when our children think we know everything- those are the years we must teach with. After that, it is the memories they think on and we hope lead them.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

Russ Bianchi — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:34:12 GMT

Eliminating children from watching television, or doing too many video games, or too much in front of the computer, as well as lack of exercise, and incorrect eating habits are all well and good suggestions.

Additionally, SCHOOLS are suppose to be teaching, not whoring for extra revenue, High Fructose Corn Syrup laden junk food, fast food, and soda, that also triggers chilhood obesity, hypoglycemic, diabetes and cardio vascular disease, to captive audience customers, tactedly thinking it must be "OK" to consume if it's sold at school.

Finally, parental responsibility, even if the child is a latch key student, is REQUIRED to teach children acceptable and healthy dietary intake, as well as regular exercise, behavior.

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

mmc88121 — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:20:26 GMT

Even when working it is important to have at least one meal a day with your family. It helps keeps the lines of communications open. I have worked all shifts. When I worked evenings I attempted to eat breakfast with my family. Not always the most nutritious when you can't think straight, but did help keep communication lines open through the teen age years.

mmc88121

re: The Three Variables That Affect Childhood Obesity

Josh Rubin — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:06:45 GMT

I have worked with many schools in the past doing workshops for the kids. Beside nutrition, I found through asking questions that most kids came home from school and played video games or played on the computer, they did not sit down with their family to eat (parents were typically not home) and they watched TV all night.

I did a talk once all day with about 700 kids and out of the 700, about 10 percent ate dinner with their family every night!