All across America, parents know they should feed their kids
healthy foods and make sure they are active to avoid chances of
obesity or diabetes.
All across America, parents know they should feed their kids healthy foods and make sure they are active to avoid chances of obesity or diabetes.
Yet, most kids eat fast food or processed food on a regular basis and spend most of their home time watching TV or playing video games.
Public health officials are struggling to get parents to realize the need for a wake-up call. While excuses prevail, officials say the most successful people make being healthy a priority and lifestyle change. There is help out there.
Why stay healthy?
Type-2 diabetes, formerly an adult disease, afflicts more and more children every day. The sad part is that diabetes is preventable.
The incidence of obesity, in both kids and adults, is climbing by 10 percent every decade.
In 2003, obesity alone cost taxpayers and companies $75 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Taxpayers pay about half the sum through Medicare and Medicaid programs, which cover sicknesses caused by obesity, including type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several types of cancer and gallbladder disease.
People on track to obesity are inactive and don’t eat as healthy as they could, said Cathy Huggins, a personal trainer in Hollister. These people are at risk of depression and anxiety.
“I’ve had people go off their blood pressure medication,” Huggins said about people who start eating better and getting exercise. “You are stronger, better able to move around without falling. People are at risk of unnecessary illness and premature death.”
Even people who are skinny aren’t necessarily healthy. Huggins has had clients who aren’t obese but who had high body fat and high cholesterol because they ate a lot of convenient and fast food.
The wake-up call has failed to hit so many parents and kids that Gilroy has started a nutrition task force to increase awareness about the frequency of obesity and ways to stop the spread of preventable diseases.
The goal is to bring a collaboration of agencies and programs together to improve the health of children in Gilroy, according to Lillian Castillo with the Santa Clara Health Department Nutrition and Wellness Unit.
“Being healthy is beneficial to you, your child and to society in general,” Castillo said.
How to do it
While there are differing opinions on the best strategies to use to lose weight and be healthy, most health experts agree that plans need to be realistic and consistent.
“The biggest key is consistency – with your eating plan and your exercise plan,” said Lynn Kjelson, clinical nutrition manager with Hazel Hawkins Hospital in Hollister. “Stay away from fad diets – they eliminate food groups. It’s trying to do something quick which is not realistic for a lifetime.”
Castillo said the most successful people have a realistic plan that fits their lifestyle. They also have support and behavior-modification strategies.
Also, the best way to lose weight and maintain health is to combine eating better and exercising regularly.
As far as food goes, get away from fast food and processed foods. They have high fat and calories and little or no nutrients important to health and losing weight. People need to eat more fruit and vegetables, especially fresh.
When making a change over to eating healthier, do it slowly, Castillo advises. It’s easier to stick with and live with.
“There is no quick anything. We need to eat to feed our bodies,” she said.
People should also be prepared for resistance – from their body and their children and spouse, Castillo said. Tastebuds get used to the fat people eat, so they don’t do well with change. Also, kids don’t want to say goodbye to foods that taste good, but also contain fat.
Eating better takes planning since it’s not as quick or convenient as fast food. If people don’t plan, they’re more likely to fall off the wagon.
The best way to plan is to buy food for the whole week and cook or plan out meals at the same time. People can even cook twice as much and freeze so they get two meals out of one, Castillo said. Casseroles are a good way to eat better and take less time.
“I’m a big fan of one-dish meals because I work,” Castillo said. “You can do a lot with casseroles. Or, when I make lasagna, I add some zucchini and carrots to get the vegetables in there. When you plan, it’s easier, less expensive and you’re going to feel better.”
Other suggestions include keeping a food diary, eating early in the day, eating slowly, avoiding temptations and thinking healthfully, Kjelson said.
To make it easy, March is National Nutrition Month, so various campaigns are available for information and support.
To be successful with exercise, the experts advise consistency and slow changes as well. People are more likely to stick with something that’s not so much of a dramatic change.
“If you make consistent, slow changes, you will have more success,” Kjelson said.
Exercise in today’s society has become ironic – people pay others to clean their house, wash their cars and keep up their yards, yet they pay for a membership to a gym, trainer Huggins said. Those activities are forms of physical activity and are free.
Castillo suggested buying a pedometer.
“We get a lot less physical activity than we think,” she said. “A pedometer will measure how many steps you take in a day. You’d be surprised by how little the number of steps is that you take.”
People are advised to walk 10,000 steps a day, about four and a half to five miles.
Get help
There are several agencies and organizations out there to help people lose weight and develop healthy lifestyles – which is important to do before it’s too late.
“I have people who, unfortunately, waited until they had problems – they have no choice,” Huggins said.
Most people seeing trainers, nutritionists and dietitians already have weight issues.
Most gyms or health clubs have personal trainers on staff – if anything, to show newcomers how to use machines and equipment. Most hospitals have nutritionists, dietitians and other experts available to people and doctors can put people in touch with them as well.
There are Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and programs at local hospitals that offer programs and support for people wanting to lose weight, exercise and change their eating habits. Also, groups like Take Off Pounds Sensibly meet once a week locally to provide support to others.
