Kids Health and
12 Steps to Having Fit and Healthy
By Steve Edwards
From the Million Dollar Body Club - Join Today and Workout to
today are the first in history who will live less time than their parents. The
primary reason for this is obesity, which is linked to an assortment of
ailments. Childhood and teenage obesity rates have been skyrocketing over the
past three decades, and the fatter you are, the sicker you are likely to
become. According to a study conducted by Weight Watchers International, Inc.
and the American Health Foundation, 25 percent of American children are now
officially overweight. This is more than double what it was 30 years ago and
the numbers have risen with each successive study.
Fast food takes a lot of the blame,
but according to Ken Reed, Director of the Center for the Advancement of
Physical Education, lack of exercise is the main offender. "Over the last 25
years, caloric intake in toddlers and young kids has gone up three or four
percent, but the level of physical activity has dropped nearly 20 percent to 25
percent." Certainly we need to eat better but, more importantly, we need to
find a way to get our kids exercising.
The government tells us that kids should exercise 60 minutes a
day, but a study published in The Lancet in 2006 suggests that number
is too low for optimal heart health. The study states that kids need about 90
minutes of daily exercise to avoid most heart disease risk factors. Given that
kids should sleep about 10 hours a night, spend most of their day in school,
and, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, spend an average of five
and one half hours a day in front of a TV, game, or computer, we don't need a
study to show us that we face the challenge of fitting more activity into a
Nutrition, of course, is important
too. With a Stop and Stuff on just about every corner, the opportunities to
consume the wrong types of calories are abundant. Coupled with the fact that
most schools offer low-grade foods to their students, we're starting with an
uphill battle in this arena as well.
It's not as gloomy as it sounds. Many
of these trends can be easily reversed. In fact, with knowledge on what to
avoid and by focusing a bit more on your child's physical fitness, you can
pretty much assure that your child grows up strong and healthy. Here are 12
steps to ensure that you have healthy kids.
- No bottles before bed. In fact, no bottle at
all seems like a better bet as kids that are breastfed are less likely to be
obese. A bevy of recent studies, which show infant obesity rates as high as 44
percent in some demographics, have linked a large part of the problem to
sending infants to bed with a bottle. Not only is the child getting more
calories, it's creating a learned response to eat before bed that is hard to
reverse as the child gets older. Infants should have some body fat, but an
obese infant is more than twice as likely to grow into an obese adolescent, who
is more than twice as likely to become an obese adult.
- Make your toddler
toddle. The 90-minute guideline for exercise is for
school-age kids, but it's recommended that younger children get even more.
Infants should be encouraged to move as much as possible because it develops
motor skills that will help them throughout their life. Toddlers should have at
least 30 minutes of planned activity per day and 60 minutes of free play, where
they're allowed to move and roam as they like. Preschool-age kids should get at
least 60 minutes of planned activity and 60 minutes of free play. With life
more hectic than ever, and both parents often working, this may take some
planning and creativity but, hey, think of all the time and money you'll save
when your kid never has to go to the doctor.
- Walk to school (or at least some of the way). This alone could make one of the biggest differences in
activity levels. A generation ago, most self-respecting parents would laugh at
their child's suggestion to drive them to school. Nowadays, lines of SUVs
stretch out for blocks around campuses filled with kids burning nary a calorie
whilst waiting to be dropped on the front step of the school. In some
neighborhoods, this lost time is enough to fill most of the child's exercise
Lack of busing can shoulder some of the blame but the
primary reason is fear. The world has gotten scary, or so we think, and parents
drive their kids to keep them safe. In reality, the damage done from lack of
activity is putting them at far more risk. According to former Department of
Justice statistician Callie Rennison, our fears are mainly based on
sensationalism in the media, which seem to promote every child abduction to the
top of the headlines. "99.9 percent of child abduction cases are family
related," she states. "Statistically, our kids are much safer in public than
they've ever been."
Numbers aside, most parents will likely balk at
the idea of making their kids the lab rats in some "walking to school"
experiment. But, at least, you can drop them off close to school. The last part
of the commute, the part while you're waiting in line, is a place where your
kids could be moving in what is probably one of the safest situations
imaginablea line of cars filled with highly-protective parents.
- Fight for recess. As schools' budgets
dwindle because "results" are based on test scores, "optional" classes like
recess are being cut. But it can be argued that recess is one of the most
important classes your child has. According to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), it's
not just how much children exercise that counts but how long they exercise for
that's important. Kids should not exercise for prolonged periods of time. They
benefit far more from short bursts of exercise throughout the day. This is the
reason that recess periods have been included throughout a typical day of
schoolthose that are now being threatened if they aren't already
But don't stop at the inclusion of recess either. One study on
third graders showed that their recess only included 25 minutes of vigorous
activity per week. This, as they might say on ESPN, isn't going to get it done.
Inquire about recess as though it were any other course important for your
child's scholastic development and demand that it be effective.
- Juice: it's not for breakfast anymore. The
American Academy of Pediatrics reports that many children get most of their
calories from beverages, when they'd be better off getting them from fresh
fruit and other healthful solid foods. Most of these calories come from soda
(more on this below), but juice can fly under the radar, masquerading as a
health food. Take a look at the orange juice label. This former icon of a
nutritious breakfast, which is still praised in some less-enlightened cultures,
is mainly sugar. The refining process has leeched most of its useful
ingredients and all of the fiber, turning a perfectly healthful food, an
orange, into little more than a morning sugar rush.
- The cafeteria: just
say no. Brown bagging is back. Having your child bring
their lunch from home can ensure they're eating well. School cafeterias have
been getting progressively worse. Despite the huge successes enjoyed by some
that have switched to healthier menusfor example,
check out what happened
at this schoolmost feel too restricted by budgets and bottom lines not to
farm out their concessions to the lowest bidder.
Of course, as a
parent, you have some say in this. Whether you child goes to public or private
school, all are accountable to their community base. Parents have banded
together in many communities to change their school's nutritional structure.
You can too.
- Enforce TV and game limits. You
got the part about five and a half hours a day, right? That was an average. We
could probably surmise that this time increases in relation to body mass index
(BMI). That's a lot of hours of not moving.
You can make arguments
that games, TV, and computers are educational. But even if you monitor your
child's content so that it's 100 percent educational (if this is possible),
it's important that you enforce time limits for sitting still. Sitting for
extended periods is not only bad for you but it instills a habit for, you
guessed it, sitting for a long time. These devices are addictive, the same as
any food or drug can be. Without foresight and a plan, it's possible for even
the best intentioned of us to find ourselves constantly craving our fix in
front of a monitor.
- Make exercise a habit. While we're discussing habitual behavior, exercise is one habit
you want to develop in your children. While you're structuring their day add an
exercise period. You needn't get scientific and write a periodizational
exercise program. In fact, you shouldn't. But by scheduling exercise at a young
age they'll get used to the feeling that it's something they should be doing
Keep in mind that some exercise is inappropriate for a growing
body. Weight training is warned against and rightly so in some cases. This
doesn't mean that resistance training should be avoided, which can include
weights. What you don't want growing bodies to do is a lot of maximal lifting
with heavy weights. Exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and a lot of
gymnastic-type movements are great. Most home exercise videos are perfectly
fine for kids. For young kids, things like Tony & the Kids! may be
more fun, but your child is pretty much ready for Turbo Jam® or Power
90® as soon as they feel like trying it. Just don't let your 10-year-old
start power lifting with Magnus down at Man's World.
- Assign chores. Just because we find child labor in the developing world
appalling doesn't mean that we're bad parents if we have our kid mow the lawn.
Children should learn to do the same work around the house that you have to do
for them. Weeding, sweeping, raking leaves, and doing laundry are all
calorie-burning activities that add up little by little. Sure, they'll
complain, but that's a lot easier to deal with than a case of type II diabetes.
Just tell 'em to be happy they don't have to put in a 12-hour shift in a
Honduran factory like some kids do.
- Stop drinking soda.
Well, duh. Perhaps you haven't heard this enough but soda
accounts for more calories consumed than any other food. Teenagers in America
get an estimated 13 percent of their calories from soda, making it nearly
impossible to eat a balanced diet. Diet sodas are terrible, too. Want more
- Try some sports. Not all kids are
good at sports but almost everyone has an aptitude at some physical activity.
Start your child young by allowing them to experiment with different sports.
The more sports they try, the easier it will be for you to see which ones they
excel at and which they don't. A more benign approach to the old East German
method of finding athletes at a young age, it's a great parenting tool because
it helps you guide them into things they'll do well at. They get exposed to
different things, get some exercise, and, in the end, you'll probably find
something they'll be good ator at least decentwhich will help their
self-esteem as they develop. It's hard for kids to understand why they're bad
at something. This tactic can help them, and perhaps you, too, see how the
human body is designed and why it's normal to be different. We can't all be the
star quarterback but we can all be the star something, which will be a lot
easier to achieve if you're aiming for something you have an aptitude for.
Keep in mind that sports don't just mean team or traditional sports.
Martial arts, snowboarding, swimming, dance, and rock climbing are all just as
effective as football and soccer for building healthy bodies.
- Get outside. When we grow up some of us will
be inside people and some will be outside people. As kids, however, we should
all get some exposure to the great outdoors. There are an endless number of
outdoor activities you can choose from, but the simplest, hiking, is one of the
best activities you can do with your kids. It's great exercise, especially if
you live around hills or mountains, which will ensure that the intensity will
be high. It builds motor skills because you walk on rocks and trees, etc. And
it's a learning tool because you'll encounter the natural world and, most
likely, develop an interest in the way it works. You don't need to have
Yosemite in your back yard to enjoy hiking. Any city park will do, especially
for kids who still find wonder in the most basic natural acts.