Food & Drink

Healthy Habits Help!

Today about 1 in 3 children (ages 2-19) in the United States are already overweight or obese. 

Obese & overweight children are at risk for serious health problems like type 2 diabetes, asthma and heart failure. Extra weight can make it harder to breathe and can inflame the respiratory tract. Also, being overweight or out of shape makes the heart work harder. This breaks my heart to hear that children are suffering, and WE can do something to change this.

How can reverse this trend? 

Health and nutrition starts at home. Make sure your children are eating five or more servings of fruit and green vegetables. There are great cookbooks coming out like Deceptively Delicious that help you incorporate this into your child’s meals. Don’t expect the schools to feed your child well, as we see on TV shows like Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Get rid or at least minimize your child’s fats, sugars, salt and calorie intact. Some of the easiest foods to feed our children are the worse for them. They may help you now, but there will be consequence in the long run.

Finally, get your kids out and moving. Did you know that 92% of elementary schools do not have daily physical education (PE) classes year-round? On top of that, nearly 1/3 of elementary schools do not schedule recess on a regular basis. Hello?! Recess is every child’s favorite subject 😉 Recess is not merely “child’s play,” but rather that it’s hard for children to learn without a morning break as they get antsy and less focused after long periods of sitting.

How are you going to help stop this epidemic?

Wife. Mom. Editor. Host. Speaker. Culinary Explorer. Fashionista. Altruist. Persuader. Coffee Aficionado. Arachnophobic.

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