Being Educated To Live A Healthy Life

 

     In order to live a healthy life, it is important for one to be educated on how to do so.  It is hard to educate young children on what is considered healthy especially when it comes to making the right choices for food.  Therefore, the parents should be educated enough to know what is nutritional and what is not for their children.  In 106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney by William Speed Weed from Popular Science, they talk about how much knowledge an average American has about "science."  Science includes many things including learning about nutrition.  When it comes to childhood obesity, being educated about nutrition is very important.  This helps with the diet that should be carried on especially for someone who has a risk of obesity whether it is a child or an adult.  The key thing to a healthy diet is to be able to understand what certain things mean especially when it comes to different advertisements which claim that their product is healthy.  Some food may be healthy, but thinking of the long term maybe not so much.  When it comes to making the right choice your children and yourself, it is important to think outside of the box because what you see could be temporarily true, but not necessary healthy in the long run.  As the book mentioned, even when it comes to going grocery shopping, it is important to understand words in the nutritional facts because it can say "healthy" on the package, but it could not be healthy.
     According to Popular Science, Americans are not being educated enough about how to evaluate food and how to make the right choice.  This issue has been taken into consideration by government officials and healthcare officials.  Many political leaders are forcing parents and children to start eating healthy such as Michelle Obama.  Along with that school officials are also in the process of making school cafeterias healthier by removing vending machines.  As parents, role models, and ideals it is very important for children to follow right foot steps.  If parents set a healthy guide line for children then childhood obesity rate has a chance of being decreased.  Along with eating healthy, other factors also play a role in decreasing childhood obesity like the past blogs have mentioned.  Childhood obesity is a major issue and it is creating future health problems and therefore everyone should try to their best to contribute in decreasing childhood obesity.

Resources:

Weed, William Speed. "106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney." Popular Science264, no. 5 (2004)

Mind Body Medicine Combats Childhood Obesity

Like mentioned earlier childhood obesity is a very serious issue.  There are many things being done to help decrease childhood obesity.  One important technique I came across was mind body medicine.  During the past semester I learned that mind body medicine helps with many health risks and its amazing to see that it helps with childhood obesity as well.  According to online source, mind body medicine has a lot to do with imagining and being aware of things.  It is said that "what you are imagining right now will be what your life gives in the future."  Therefore that message is put out there so that individuals can start thinking in a positive manner.  This message is important for those that are at a risk for obesity because sometimes their self esteem is lowered.  One needs to mentally prepare yourself so that they can lose weight and the only way to do this is by thinking what you want your future to be like.  Mind-body techniques such as imagery and visualization help with losing weight by the food you chose to eat.  Being mindful while eating also helps because you are being aware of what you are eating and this helps with not eating so much.  Mind body medicine directly effects the hypothalamus which regulates the autonomic nervous system.  Autonomic nervous system relates to how our body responds to feelings and our thinking.  If we are relaxed then our body responds to our thinking and feelings in a positive manner therefore we can also be calm while we are eating and be aware of what we eat.  Many times people eat due to stress and they do not realize how much they are gaining out of that.  This is one of the main reasons as to why mind body medicine techniques are helpful when it comes to decreasing childhood obesity.

Resources:

http://www.holistic-online.com/remedies/weight/weight_mind-body-medicine-for-obesity.htm

FAQs

How do you know if a child is overweight or obese?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a child is considered to be overweight or obese based on the BMI which is the body mass index.  Normally if the child has a greater BMI than 85% then the child is considered over weight.  If the BMI is greater than 95% then the child is considered obese.  To measure the BMI all that is needed is the child's height and weight.  Use this website http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/dnpabmi/ to know if your child is overweight/obese or not.

What causes a child to become overweight or obese?
Many children are obese due to the fact that they have a medical condition such as under active thyroid gland or some sort of other diseases which leads to childhood obesity.  The reason why majority of the children are overweight though is because they do not burn off more calories than they intake.  This is part of behavioral factors that play a role in childhood obesity. Behavioral factors include: eating habits, lack of physical activity, social norms, and parenting styles.  All these contribute towards childhood obesity.  There are also genetic factors which lead to childhood obesity.  One key thing about genetic factors is that genetic factors alone do not play a role in leading towards a child being obese.  It is usually paired with one of the behavior factors.  Environmental factors that lead to childhood obesity have to do with how children are interacting at school or even daycare programs.  It also consists of how the community affects the child's eating habits or their physical activity.

How can you prevent your child from becoming overweight or obese?
The best way to prevent your child from becoming overweight or obese is by training them to be healthy early on in the age. Try making healthy vegetables and fruits appealing to a child at a younger age such as 2 rather than 6 because by age 6 they are not going to want to be interested in fruits or vegetables.  Also, as a parent you are their role model therefore your eating habits and physical activity plans should be healthy enough to make the children do the same.  Also keep your child involved in family activities so they can have a healthy lifestyle.

Why is it risky for a child to be obese?
A child being obese has long term and short term risks.  Childhood obesity can lead towards type 2 diabetes, heart diseases and even liver diseases.  Long term risks including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and even depression.  If childhood obesity continues at the rate that it is going, then it can lead to their generation being less healthy in the future than their own parents.

Resources:
http://www.childrensnational.org/DepartmentsAndPrograms/default.aspx?Type=Program&id=6117&SubType=ResourceForFamily&SubId=346&Name=Obesity%20Clinic&Subname=Childhood%20Obesity:%20Frequently%20asked%20questions
http://www.nichq.org/advocacy/advocacy%20documents/FAQ_Childhood-Obesity.pdf
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/childhood_obesity_overweight_quiz_iq/faq.htm

Public Perceptions of Childhood Obesity

    American Journal of Preventive Medicine published an article regarding the "public perceptions of childhood obesity."  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recognized childhood obesity has an epidemic and that it has been considered a major health threat.  The public is starting to now realize what health risks are possible because of childhood obesity.  This article includes studies that were done to be able to see how severe the public thought childhood obesity was and also to see what strategies the public supports to help in getting rid of childhood obesity.  

    The results showed that majority of the people are viewing childhood obesity as a serious health issue comparable to tobacco use and violence, but the article mentions that childhood obesity is not as serious as drug abuse.  More than 55% believed that childhood obesity was not as serious as drug abuse.  The fact that childhood obesity was not considered as serious as drug abuse, it was a little disappointing because many children with childhood obesity end up in the category of drug abuse.  The public supported many school and media based strategies to help with childhood obesity.  Though the public is participating in helping reduce childhood obesity, they opposed to regulatory tax or cost based interventions.  The public should be willing to spend the money on children and their healthy life because the children today are the next generation.  According to the article almost 59% of respondents did not agree to increasing fast food costs that was targeted towards children.  If fast food prices were increased slightly then that would stop children from spending money on fast food and also would stop parents from providing fast food to their children.  Also, 69% opposed to removing vending machines from school.  Having vending machines in school is a good idea if the school started including healthy snacks and drinks instead of junk food and soda.

    The public does support school and community interventions such as increasing physical activity options for children so that they can start becoming active again instead of watching television all day.  Even though the public supports that, according to the article the public is not willing to contribute to the cost of increasing such options for children.  Is there a way to convince parents/community that health of the children important and steps towards eliminating childhood obesity need to be enforced more than they have already been.

Resources:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379704002478

http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2012/0816/20120816__childhood-obesity-laws~p1_300.jpg

"Let's Move" -Michelle Obama

On February 9th, 2010, Michelle Obama announced a very important program called "Let's Move."  This program was established by the first lady after realizing that the obesity rate in children was increasing in the United States.   Michelle Obama’s idea behind this campaign was so that the general public would be encouraged to be involved in improving the health of the younger generation of the United States. By creating this program/campaign, Michelle Obama had targets towards"getting parents more informed about nutrition and exercise, improving the quality of food in schools, making healthy foods more affordable and accessible for families, and focusing more on physical education."  For all this to happen, many people play a significant role to be successful with this goal. This includes people that are part of the government, schools, health care professionals, and even community based organizations. In regard to the federal government playing a role in decreasing childhood obesity, Michelle Obama also mentioned that President Obama plans to "reauthorize the Children Nutrition Act."  This act is basically offering about a $10 billion budget increase over a 10 year period so that schools can provide children with healthier school lunches. 

The first lady also mentions that majority of the children’s calories do come from school and therefore along with schools providing healthier lunches, schools should also focus of physical activity.  There are many schools in the United States that do not have Physical Education mandatory for their kids.  This is very unhealthy because the kids are not able to burn off their calories.  Many of the reasons why Physical Education and recesses are being cut is because of budget cuts and therefore this also plays a role in childhood obesity.

            Along with working with the federal government and school officials, the first lady also is trying to work with families to help them come up with a strategy that will help them.  As being a famous political leader, do you believe Michelle Obama’s campaign will make a difference to those families who have children suffering obesity?  Many families are not as educated about childhood obesity as they should be, so therefore seeing someone famous concerned about it can influence their thinking.  There is also a website for the “Let’s Move” campaign that needs to be advertised more so that the general public can get a better understanding.

Woman's Diet During Pregnancy Affect Childhood Obesity?

Can a woman’s diet during pregnancy affect the child’s risk of being obese?  This has been a concern for many people now days, especially those trying to start a family.  Many researches have shown that a woman’s diet during pregnancy definitely affects the child’s risk of becoming obese later on in life.  According to the article in Medical News Today, a study was performed by the Southampton University in UK to search the relation between maternal diet and the baby’s obesity risk.  They found something called “epigenetic change alters the function of unborn baby’s DNA in response to changes in the mother’s diet.”   The way these changes can actually be seen are through the epigenetic markers which are found at the umbilical cord at birth.  According to this study, they mentioned that animals had already been tested on before and it showed that the mother’s diet affected the offspring’s “body composition.”  The most interesting part of this study was that that the researchers were able to predict the fatness variation in over 300 children by the time they were at age 6 or 9. Mother’s nutrition affects the child’s epigenetic and that leads to risks of childhood obesity.  

Resources:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/222881.php

Building baby: diet during pregnancy | A film by the Wellcome Trust

Psychological Effects Due to Childhood Obesity

      Childhood Obesity can lead to many consequences, one of them being Psychological Effects. Psychological Effects include: low self-esteem, depression, and social discrimination.  By being overweight children can have low-self esteem because they feel that they are not as important as everyone else.  When they are being judged through people because they are obese, it affects their confidence and that leads to low-self esteem.  It leads to social discrimination as well because they will feel excluded from their friend group in school.  They want to be able to do everyday activities that normal school kids do, but since they are overweight it can limit them from doing certain activities.  The culture, society and the social media we are all part of also plays an important role in children that are obese.  They portray an ideal girl to look slim and fit, and ideal boy to look buff and muscular.  When a certain individual realizes that they do not fit this criteria, they start looking down upon themselves.  When they start disliking how they are then it leads to serious issues.  All of this can lead to one big problem which is depression.  Children going through such issues at a young age is not healthy at all for their future.  One psychological effect can lead to plenty more and it is just an on going cycle.  If we think back to when we were younger, as kids we were offended by little things so try putting your feet in shoes of those kids that are constantly picked on for being obese and think how would you feel? How can we change such a situation?

Resources:

http://www.buzzle.com/img/articleImages/544549-30728-29.jpg

http://www.mississippisfinest.net/health7.jpg

http://www.aboutourkids.org/articles/childhood_obesity_effects_physical_mental_health

Is your child's school lunch healthy enough?

It is mid September and many children have started going to school already.  Breakfast is said to be one of the most important meals of the day, but along with breakfast there is also lunch.  I personally believe for young kids going to school, lunch is actually one of their most important meals.  Lunch needs to be a good meal because that is what helps the child focus on the later half of the day which we all know is usually the most dreadful because everyone is waiting for the school day to end already. If you take a look at the school cafeteria, there has been many changes made to it within the last 15 years.  There are more vending machines and unhealthy choices for food.  Do you think schools should be allowed to have vending machines where junk food and soda is sold?

To start preventing childhood obesity, monitoring what your child eats at school is very important.  As a parent/guardian, you should start giving healthy options to your kids for school lunch.  For example if it is something such as a sandwich, make sure you start putting healthy ingredients such as low fat cheese.  Also, no child likes eating healthy food, but one has to make it appealing so that the child actually eats it and doesn't waste money on something like a vending machine.  Another thing is, try getting the kids involved in extra curriculum physical activities at school. At least with more physical activities involved, more calories the children can burn.

 

Resources:
http://bmedia.fooducate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/StudentVendingMachine.jpeg

Causes and Prevention of Childhood Obesity

What are certain things that lead to childhood obesity?  What are certain ways that can help prevent Childhood Obesity.

        There are many things that can lead to childhood obesity.  Once again I know I mentioned this in the last blog, but many things can lead to cause of childhood obesity.  The main area of focus which lead to this disease are Genetic factors, Dietary habits, physical inactivity, and Socioeconomic status.  Out of these there are some changeable topics and there are some which are non-changeable.
        One thing that is not changeable is if one has parents that are both obese and it is more like a genetic disorder.  If that is the case then it is the genetic factors playing a role for the obesity.  The dietary habits have to be majorly changed by gearing shifts towards healthy food options for young kids.  The junk food that the children are always crying for is usually very high in calories and sugar which are both bad for your body.

       Another thing is they need to make a schedule as to when they should eat around so that different meals do not clash one and another.  Parents should also be aware while eating dinner and any meal, children should not be eating while watching TV.  It is said to be true that when a person is not paying attention to his/her food because of another distraction going on.  This way the person eats peacefully and with no distraction they will know their limit to food.
       Along with that there is also physical activity which much be maintained especially if you think that your child has childhood obesity problem.  Making the child more active in everyday curricular activities because the child will be in the moment of being active.  Having children lay around the TV all the time is no way close to performing a physical activity.  Another cause that can lead to childhood obesity, but which can be altered is where majority of the parents are always busy and don't have enough time to keep their child physically active.
       A non changeable cause of childhood obesity is because of the socioeconomic status.  Many people out there have low incomes and are not able to feed their family in a healthy manner.  All of that can lead the cause of childhood obesity.  So many people don't have enough money to feed their families and therefore it is said that those families have high intake of calories because of the poor eating choices.

Resources:
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/obesity_in_children/page2_em.htm#childhood_obesity_causes
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTGoIAfZGAXVd6D9hWnu1M5JLVCgxe0juR5zE2aW9JyDQDtcyRZk4v8yApohQ
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  What is childhood obesity?
         Childhood obesity is a growing concern worldwide and more and more cases are being reported each year.  Childhood obesity is an increase in body weight due excessive amount of fat accumulation which affects a child's health in a negative manner.  Many children are facing this problem and this is leading to the younger children suffering diseases that would normally be seen in adults.

Causes of childhood obesity?
         Many reasons can lead to childhood obesity, and one of the main reasons being parents.  It is the parents that are looked upon when it comes to what to eat and what kind of habits to learn.  At such an young age, the child cannot make the best choices. The parents have to think ahead of the future and make the right choices for their children in regards to eating habits, exercising habits, and how their social life is being spent.  Not only are the parents responsible for childhood obesity, but also places such as schools need to make changes to their lunch menus so that childhood obesity can start decreasing.

Resources:

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood/basics.html

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childhood-obesity/DS00698

http://www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity/

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