HEALTHY EATING FOR CHILDREN

Dr. Oz visited on ‘Oprah’ yesterday to encourage parents across America to have their kids eat healthier and stay active. Earlier on this show, Jessica Seinfeld showed how you can hide vegetables in food with purees so that children will eat nutritiously without them knowing. She has put together a cookbook with these recipes called ‘Deceptively Delicious.’

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Dr. Oz said that kids don’t like to eat vegetables because they have more sensitive taste buds. Kids taste bitter easier because way back before civilization happened they needed to have a way to avoid poisonous foods which often were bitter. They tended to desire sweet foods because they were not poisonous. So that is why kids today tend to like sweet foods and bland foods. Dr. Oz said that children tend to follow a white food only diet because of their bland and sweet tastes.

Oprah showed a segment from the Discovery Channels TV show called “Honey Were Killing the Kids.” They showed a family with a mom and dad that were physically active and fit that had three children that were all very much overweight and ate junk food. In this show they do a time lapse showing what the children would look like if they continue their lifestyle of lack of exercise and eating junk food. The children as adults looked huge and very unhealthy. One of the children would be almost 400 pounds as an adult if he didn’t change his eating pattern. The family was on Oprah and they have changed their eating habits to healthy foods and also have increased activity for the last 10 months. The children have all lost weight.

Dr. Oz said that the goal with children is to allow the growth to be the weight loss. So when the child gets taller, they don’t gain more weight. In these cases the children lost weight because they had excessive weight.

Dr. Oz said that he sees the obese adults with health problems that often start in childhood. The problems are often sleep apnea, acne, hormone changes, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Type 2 diabetes develops when the body blocks the ability of insulin to work. Dr. Oz warns that this is the first time in history that children today will have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

Dr. Oz further explains that the obesity epidemic in children will cause an enormous amount of children to develop diabetes. There will be 35% of children today that will develop diabetes. If they are black it will e 40 % and Hispanics will have a 50% chance of developing diabetes.

Dr. Oz showed us a shocking display of 49 pounds of sugar which is the average amount of sugar that a pre-teen eats every year. This is way more than it should be. He recommends that children should eat 7 – 10 grams of fiber for breakfast every day. This will help them maintain even energy throughout the school day.

Dr. Oz said that you should never eat food while watching TV. Research suggests that you will eat on average 225 more calories by doing this. Another problem with watching TV is that you lack physical activity.

Dr. Oz tells the Oprah audience the top 5 ways to help get your children into shape. They are as follows:

1. Never withhold food that is in the house. If you don’t want the kids to eat it then don’t buy it and bring it home. By singling the child out they can develop unhealthy desires for the foods that they cannot have making them want it all the more.

2. Never eat dinner in front of the television.

3. Have your kids eat 7 – 10 grams of fiber every day for breakfast.

4. Healthy foods such as vegetables have to be tried at least 10 times before it will be accepted by children.

5. Get moving as a family. You can become active by getting a pet that you can take on a daily walk. Dr. Oz has the Dance Dance Revolution game at his house to keep every one active.

By Nicole Wilson
Best Syndication News Writer

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