| Monday, August 6, 2007 |
| The Importance To Teach Children About Obesity |
Obesity is a growing concern all over the world in adults but also with children. Obesity is caused by a variety of factors out of which some are: genetic, an existing medical condition, stress, insomnia and overeating.
The fact is that we lead today extremely busy lives, most of the time multitasking at work, in the car and/or at home and that creates stress, which leads to overeating or eating comfort foods and/or eating ready-made foods due to lack of time.
One of the big problems with children obesity is that parents have little or no time to spend with their children to make healthy foods and/or teach children about obesity, which will help them to be aware of the dangers that overeating poses. Here are a few ways in which you can teach children about obesity so they are aware of the dangers ahead.
Discussing Meals
Families should make time to sit down at breakfast and dinner everyday or to have at least one parent present at one of these meals in order to teach children about obesity. Discussing meals should be done in a fun and informative way so that your child will find it interesting and enjoyable in order for him or her to remember the details. For example, if you are informing your children about portion sizes, calories and saturated fats in foods, you should try to make it sound like fun as well as provide a little information at a time so he or she does not get bored and will remember the details.
Prepare nutritious, balanced diets and talk to your children about the importance of vitamins and minerals, which are found in fruits and vegetables and how they should make an effort to include them in their meals; most importantly, how it will directly affect their health and image.
Discussing Appearance
While some parents don’t talk at all about nutrition and appearances, others overdo it and that, too, is not healthy, as children can easily get obsessive and stressed over things like food and appearance, and that can turn out to be harmful and dangerous for your child.
When you teach children about obesity, you need to focus on their health and appearance; children may not fully grasp the health part but they will understand quickly if you talk about their looks, therefore, you must not over-stress it but always be encouraging and supportive, especially if your child is overweight.
Helpful Tip
A great way to teach children about obesity, and how food directly affects it, is by keeping informative charts in the kitchen where the calories of the most popular foods are shown in a fun way. You should also try to provide the right types of foods at the right time but also ensure that you do not deprive your child from fun foods that he or she enjoys.
Teach your children to enjoy food, eat slowly and wait a few minutes in between servings as well as try as much as possible not to eat in front of the television and/or in the presence of a distraction, as that is when everybody, not only children, tends to overeat. |
posted by Oliver @ 7:15 AM  |
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