What do you put in their bucket?
There are stories all the time about America’s growing love/hate affair with health and fitness. We all love to be fit and healthy, but so many people hate doing anything to make it happen. That in turn is reflected in the growing (and growing) trend of obesity, and this is not only in the United States, but unfortunately also reflected abroad. And I may be off on this, but I doubt it, children always seemed to be thinner twenty or thirty years ago. Of course not all children were thinner, but most were. This is reflected by recent statistics that have been gathered.
In an article from the CDC obesity among children has tripled since 1980. The percentage among really young children (under 11) has risen from 6.5 to 19.6 and for teens the rate has gone from 5 to 18%. It’s not just our imaginations folk; kids are getting fatter. I will point a finger right at the sedentary lifestyle that is so prevalent now. Video games and computer interaction has replaced the neighborhood games of Tag and Kick the Can. then was
That number boggles the mind. But what can parents do about it? That seems to be the real challenge. I know in raising my four children I found that the punishment of “no screens” was the most dreaded thing that could happen. Now adding loss of phone privileges to that is appropriate since almost all phones have screens as well. The thing is that the loss of screens seemed to wake up opportunities to get outside and run around like kids did “back in the day.” They continued to actually play more outside for weeks after a punishment as they came to appreciate the fun that was to be had in a natural setting.
The other thing that I found, and continue to find, is that you are the one who regulates their diet. Giving in to the temptation to buy a bag of potato chips or cookies just takes your kids to a place where they expect that and don’t have as much appreciation for more healthy snacks. Even neighborhood kids who come over to our place know that there is always a plethora of fruit, and they take advantage of that. (I’m glad to see it.)
Having unusual fruits around is an invitation to explore. Kids who have never eaten a pomegranate are usually amazed when you break open the skin and they see the glistening purple buds and they love the taste and sensation of eating them.
The “trick” if there is a trick, is to make food interesting. There are so many recipes and so many different dishes that you can have tasty tempting snacks and meals that keep kids (and you) away from the junk food habit.
Obesity isn’t just going to go away. Unless there is some real effort on our parts to educate our children on nutrition and healthy habits, they will never develop them. And who knows, in the process we end up more fit and healthy ourselves
