Thursday, November 15, 2012

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)

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

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: