Tag Archives: Health

Child Fitness, Child Health, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Many Kids’ Meal Items Offer Little Nutrition Study Finds

I just read this article from CNN discussing the findings from a nonprofit health advocacy group which found that most kids’ meals fail to meet the standards for basic nutrition and had to share it.

 ‘Obesity on the menu’ for kids, group says

Among the findings, of the nearly 3,500 meals studied 97% failed to meet basic nutritional standards. In addition, 50% of kids’ meals had more than 600 calories and 66% overshot the standards for sodium content.

If there is good news in all of this, it’s that healthy options are on the rise for kids’ menus in restaurants across the country. The director of the National Restaurant Association, Joy Dubost says that today 3% of kids’ meals are healthy, compared with just 1% four years ago.

What do you think about the findings? Do you try to encourage your kids to order more nutritious menu options when dinning out?

 

Child Fitness, Child Obesity, Fitness, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Fitness and Good Health

Fitness has been shown to be the most important lifestyle factor for good health. Many health experts believe increasing physical activity and exercise is an almost magic elixir for improved well being.

Yet, despite the proven health and psychological benefits of increased fitness, a large percentage of the population does not get a sufficient level of physical activity for optimum health.

If fitness and exercise are so important to our health, why don’t more people get adequate amounts of physical activity?

Six reasons are often suggested:

  • Past bad experiences with exercise
  • Lack of energy or being tired
  • Not enough time available
  • Worried about getting hurt
  • Bad weather, lack sidewalks, neighborhood not safe
  • Concerned about feeling self-conscious

Sadly, these concerns get in the way of the most valuable thing people can do to improve their health — increasing their fitness through increased physical activity and exercise.

Another roadblock to fitness is people believing that exercise is critically important to weight management. People begin a weight loss program which includes exercise and, when it doesn’t work, they stop and lose out on all of the benefits (which doesn’t included weight loss) of increased fitness.

Finally, people often overestimate the amount of physical activity which is necessary for a level of fitness that improves health. Research studies have now demonstrated that a majority of the health benefits of increased fitness come from only a moderate increase in physical activity.

What’s need is a more accurate understanding of the impact of fitness on health and the best methods to increase physical activity and exercise without it being a burden.

As contributor to the Better Kids Institute, I plan to write a series of articles about fitness that I hope will provide real help to parents. I will be discussing the reasons why fitness is so good for everyone’s health and offer advice that is not based on scientific truths rather than myths.

Allen Oelschlaeger (allenoelschlaeger.com) is known for his no-nonsense and passionate approach to sharing his expertise on weight loss, nutrition and fitness and is the creator of the B.I.T.E. method for effortless weight management. Allen has degrees in biology and pharmacy and was an executive in the medical industry for over 20 years.

Child Fitness, Child Nutrition, Child Obesity, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Child Nutrition Overview

Nutrition is defined as the process of providing your body with the food necessary for life and growth. In order to understand nutrition, you must realize that all food put into your mouth is either expelled as waste or converted into just four substances: glucose, amino acids, fatty acids and glycerol.

That’s it.

No matter what you eat, within a few hours, these substances are all that’s left. Then, these four substances are absorbed into the blood stream and, through several complex processes, burned for energy within the body’s cells (amino acids are first used to make protein molecules, such as enzymes and antibodies, and then only the excess is burned).

If there’s more glucose, amino acids, fatty or glycerol than what the cells need, the excess is stored as fat for later use — if, if there’s less, fat (and muscle) is utilized to provide the balance of your energy needs.

The point here is that, relative to energy needs, the body doesn’t care where the energy comes from. 1000 calories is 1000 calories whether they come from candy or carrots, white or whole wheat bread, low-fat or high-fat ice cream, steak or potatoes, corn oil or olive oil. The nutrition of these products varies but a calorie of energy from one food is no different than the calorie of energy from another food.

However, despite this reality, most Americans (66% in a recent survey) get this wrong and believe the specific kind of food eaten is the most important factor for losing weight. Therefore, good nutrition for many people is more about losing weight than “providing your body with the food necessary for life and growth” – the more valid goal for eating well.

So deciding what to eat should be based on providing good nutrition for your body rather than losing weight. Weight loss is based on how much you eat, not on what you eat.

But, what foods or combination of foods provide good nutrition?

As you’re probably aware, there is an overwhelming amount of advice in this area and, sadly, much of it is contradictory. As a result, many Americans are so confused they don’t know what to eat in order to provide their body with good nutrition.

As a contributor to the Better Kids Institute, I plan to clear up this confusion with the article I contribute to this site.

If you want additional information about nutrition, beyond what’s provided on this site, here is an additional resource you may want to access: Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family

Child Health, Child Nutrition, Child Obesity, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

A Healthy Breakfast to Start the Day

As concerned parents it’s important that we look for breakfast cereals that are low in sugar but still contain at least 5 grams of fiber in one serving.

Eating a healthy breakfast is particularly important if your child is overweight or has trouble keeping their weight under control. No matter how rushed you and your children may be each morning, or even if your kids aren’t usually hungry in the morning, then you need to make breakfast a grab-and-go event. Offer foods that travel easily such as yogurt and trail mix or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole grain bread.

Kids and teens who skip breakfast are not only at risk for developing a weight problem, skipping this meal also leaves kids and teens tired and irritable during the day… and hungry. Studies have shown that children who don’t eat breakfast perform poorly under stressful conditions in school like taking tests, learning new concepts and peer pressure. And the hungrier they are, the more likely your kids are to reach for high calorie foods that aren’t very good for them.

Child Health, Child Obesity, SYN Digital Enrollment Director

Fix a Healthy Snack for Your Children

I don’t know why, but let’s say for some reason you went for that bag of potato chips instead of the carrots and hummus as your snack. All is not lost if you can find the time to burn off some of those extra calories with some additional activity. Just by spending a half an hour on the basketball or tennis court you could burn approximately 275 calories. You see, snacking in itself isn’t bad for us, as long as we’re mindful about what snacks we choose and how much of them eat.

As a rule of thumb, try to eat snacks that are low in fat, sugar and sodium. If you’ve been in the dark about how big a snack should be then you should know that about 100 calories is the norm. Doesn’t sound like much does it? Don’t worry, when you’re snacking on healthy food, 100 calories is more food than you think. For example, two Oreo cookies are about 100 calories. Twenty Lay’s potato chips (a serving size) add up to 150 calories. But healthy snacks that fit into the 100-calorie snack size include 1 cup of blueberries, a medium-sized banana, or a cup of carrots with 2 tablespoons of hummus for dipping.

Take the time to teach your kids to combine food groups in their snacks; this will add to a snack’s health factor. Protein and carbohydrates are a good pairing, think cheese and crackers, yogurt and fruit, because these types of combinations are filling enough to hold you over until your next meal.