Children need to eat healthy foods to prevent childhood obesity

It is not a miracle that today young kids don't like to eat vegetables. Young minds need to eat their vegetables and not just junk foods like cheese pizza, pepperoni pizza, smokies sausages, hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, and of course, candy. Kids need to eat vegetables - though they may not like it - as parents, we need to set a good example. Eat vegetables, grow healthy, and be good readers.

According to Castro, Samuels, & Harman (2013), "Factors that have been identified as related to childhood obesity include limited intake of healthy food and limited physical activity." 

The researchers state that low-income families have limited resources to spend on health foods and tend to buy low-cost foods, more energy concentrated. These foods are full of fat, high in sugar, and contain low amounts of vital nutrients for a child's growth. 

With the advent of mobile devices, children are even less willing to do physical exercise and instead spend time on social media using smartphones. 

The low-income population is those most affected with childhood obesity where parents are working multiple jobs, and their cultural foods are more energy-dense and high in fats and less nutritious. The children also tend to binge on sweets in the absence of an adult watching them at home. 

 Although most of the participants were of the Latino population, it sheds light on an epidemic affecting most low-income American children. 

The authors concluded that teaching parents how to create and grow community gardens improves children's and parents' eating habits and tends to eat more vegetables and fruits. 

As parents, here are two ideas to mitigate childhood obesity:

1. Encourage our children to eat vegetables and fruits. We do so by being good role models.
2. Get our children to join communal physical activities like soccer, biking, 5-10K races, walking and being outdoors.

On a humorous note, the researchers reminded the participants that "French-fries is not considered vegetables."

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References

Castro, D; Samuels, M; Harman, A. (2013). Growing Healthy Kids: A Community Garden–Based Obesity Prevention Program . American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44(3S3):S193–S199).

 Dr Jerry (2019)