Obesity and Children

The National Association for Sports and Physical Education recommends that school age children:

get 60 minutes or more of physical activity every day
accumulate activity throughout the day which can broken down into bouts of 15 minutes or more
avoid periods of inactivity of 2 hours or more

BMI

How do you determine if your child has a weight problem? An accurate estimate regarding how your child compares to others of the same sex and age is the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI has been used for a number of years by doctors and is the official standard used by the government to determine obesity numbers in the U.S. population.

You may have heard that the BMI calculation has some major weakness for adults. It doesn’t take into account certain factors that influence the results like muscle mass, as such, some athletes are listed as overweight when in fact they are in top physical condition. However, for children the formula works much more consistently. These two sites offer good BMI calculators and further information explaining their results. http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.html & http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/Calculator.aspx

3 Things to Think About

1) Sodas and sugary drinks may be the #1 danger in your child’s diet!

DRINK	SIZE	CALORIES	SUGAR
Water	8 oz	0	0 g
Low-fat milk	8 oz	100	11 g
100% orange juice	8 oz	110	22 g
Juice drink (10% fruit juice)	8 oz	150	38 g
Powdered drink mix (with sugar added)	8 oz	90	24 g
Soda	8 oz	100	27 g

The above table shows how many calories and grams of sugar can be hidden in common drinks. Keep in mind that the above example is an 8oz serving. When was the last time you had just 8 ounces of a 12 oz can or a 20 oz bottle of soda? Example: A 20oz Pepsi has 250 calories and 69 grams of sugar. This translates into 17 packets of sugar! How many empty calories could be cut from your child’s diet just by taking out the soda and Kool-aid?

2) Healthy snacks, healthy eating habits, kids can do it too! One thing about kids, they will snack on what’s available. Studies have show that children are just as happy snacking on fruit, yogurt and even vegetables as when snacking on candy bars or sugary processed foods. However, you can’t expect a 10 year old to pick the healthiest item when both are available, ice cream will win over carrot sticks.

3) Inactivity can set your child up for a lifetime of weight problems. In today’s world of computers and video games a kid is much more likely to stay glued to one spot than to get active. It is important as a parent to set up time for your kids to be active. Thirty minutes of moderate activity a day can make all the difference in the world. Today we have school age children and young adults developing cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure and juvenile diabetes and some of this is directly linked to inactivity.

Impact of Obesity on Children

Recent studies have revealed that if overweight children do not change their body compositions by the age of 12 they are much more likely to continue into adulthood obesity. Also, as younger children become more aware of their self-image and enter High School, obesity suddenly becomes a social problem. This social issue only makes dealing with “growing pains” more difficult and adds to the struggle of finding out who they are. It is sometimes easy for parents to overlook their children’s weight problem; one factor in this is the child’s own lack of concern. Before they reach puberty, most kids don’t see themselves as fat or skinny, it’s just not and issue. However, one day they will be more self-aware and the older they are the more difficult it is to change bad habits and learn a how to be more active, physically fit and healthier.

Nutritional Guidelines for Children

The below table list general guidelines for dietary intake for girls ages 9-13. These and other guidelines can be found on the MayoClinics homepage (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nutrition-for-kids/NU00606). Using this as an example lets break the information down into real world understandable data. If your daughter is sedentary, spending most of the day inside playing video games for example, then her caloric intake should be around 1600 for the day.

That means that within these 1600 calories 15% should be from Protein, 60% could be from Carbohydrates and the remaining 25% from Fat. It would look like this:

240 calories from Protein

960 calories from Carbs

400 calories from Fats

(example) Girls ages 9 to 13

Calories

1,600 to 2,200, depending on age and activity level

Protein

10% to 30% of daily calories

Carbohydrates

45% to 65% of daily calories (at least 130 grams)

Total fat

25% to 35% of daily calories

Sodium

1,500 milligrams a day

Fiber

26 grams a day

Calcium

1,300 milligrams a day

So how does this translate into grams? It is always calculated the same: Protein and Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram, Fats have 9 calories per gram. So the grams from each would look like this:

240 / 4 =60 grams of Protein

960 / 4 =240 grams of Carbs

400 / 9 =44 grams of Fat

So a Mcdonald's happy meal, 4 peace chicken nugget with a small Coke contains: 530 calories, 23 grams of fat. 49% of the calories of this meal comes from Fat!

Healthy Snacks

Here are some ideas to replace bad snack choices:

Low fat cheese
Whole wheat crackers with natural peanut butter
Low fat yogurt with fruit
Apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, baby carrots
Low fat chocolate milk
Raw vegetables with fat free Ranch dressing
Dried fruits, raisins, prunes, mangos
Unsweetened applesauce, and canned fruits with no sugar added
Baked potato chips with salsa
Flavored rice cakes with natural peanut butter
Low sugar cereals with skim milk (raisin bran, unsweetened cornflakes with fruit)

Snacking Tips

To avoid weight gain, keep portions small.
Plan ahead and buy healthy snacks at the supermarket - you will save money and will make better choices.
Provide kids snack choices and make the choices you offer reasonably nutritious.
Pre-portion your child's snacks into small plastic bags to grab on the go or put a snack-sized serving on a plate.
Designate an area in your refrigerator or cupboard for healthy snacks that you have selected and your kids like - let them help themselves without having to ask for permission.
Combine snacks from at least two food groups, like a protein and a carbohydrate, to pack more nutrients into your child's diets - it will be more filling and will tide them over until their next meal.

For more information consult the following resources:

http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/nutrition/

http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/

http://www.kidsnutrition.org/bodycomp/bmiz2.html

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/nutrition-for-kids/NU00606

B.Burnett, May 30, 2006