Fat Kids will Die Younger ::: A Serious Issue

There has been a lot of debate lately about why so many kids are overweight... Is it fruit juice and soda, fast food, unhealthy school lunches, or too much time in front of a Play Station playing video games? Most likely, it is a combination of things. It would be nice to have someone to blame though, because that would imply that there is something easy to fix or change that could tackle this big problem. If you really want to narrow the reason for the rise in obesity to only one thing, it would have to be calories. Kids are both eating and drinking too many calories, which are converted into fat, are not active enough to burn excess calories, or are doing a combination of both of these things. Remember that you gain weight if your body has more calories going in (the stuff you eat and drink) than are going out (calories burned by daily activity and extra exercise and physical activity).

In addition to oversized portions, many kids get extra calories by eating extra meals. Consider an overweight seven years old I recently talked to, who would have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after school snack and a bowl of cereal at bedtime. If you added in the 2 or 3 glasses of fruit drinks and soda he was drinking each day, that easily translated in to and extra 600 or 700 calories each day and helps explain why he gained about 35 pounds in the past year and now weights as much as the average 14 years old.

Switching to a more reasonable after school, eliminating the bedtime snack, and choosing healthier drinks, like low fat milk, water and diet drinks, would help this child quickly get to a good first goal of not gaining any more weight.

The other big problem is that most kids are not active enough. Remember that that the latest Guidelines for children should engage in at least sixty minutes of physical activity on most, preferably all days of week. In addition to encouraging more 'free play’ after school and on weekends, you can help your kids get more active by getting them involved in sports at an early age. This might could a team sport, like squash & Tennis coaching camp, swimming classes, aerobic & Yoga classes, Martial art, or fitness training program. All these facilities & activities are available in every fitness and wellness club in each country.

If you are not sure why your child is overweight or what you can do about it, be sure to schedule an appointment with every club’s trainers and coach & talk about it. They will give a diet plan according to there day schedule & activity level which can also help to your child to lose weight.

As per a research, a generation of overweight and obese children will not live as long as their parents. The heart foundation’s disturbing prediction is based on a trend analysis, which found up to four in 10 children will be overweight or obese children by 2010.

Foundation Chief Executive Mr. Maurice Swanson said in these years the mean increase in weight for children aged seven to fifteen would be the equivalent of carrying as extra two house bricks or more then 5 kg. that would mean 35% of females and 27% of males would be overweigh or obese.

By 2010, this will rise to 38% of girls and 28% females of males.” we are so used to bearing about how our life expectancy is increasing so its quite starting to think that if this issue is not addressed, a whole generation of kids islikely to have a shorter life expectancy that their parents”. Further added Mr. Swanson;

He has written to the government and the opposition calling on the parties to commit funds to tackle the growing problem. “both parties have made what you might call encouraging motherhood statements, but no trim commitments to new resources”, he said.

That’s why we would like to meet whoever is elected to develop an action plan within three months. heart foundation cardiovascular health director Trevor Shilton said the issue was WA’s fastest growing health problem. From 1985 to 2003 girths increased by 5 cm to 7cm.

The prediction is a best case scenario. In fact, it could worsen and inaction would be the surest way to see it worsen”, said Mr. Shilton. “for governments, that will have big implications for health budgets.” He said the problem had taken 15 years to develop and would probably take as long to fix.

Politicians, parents and the community needed to unite to implement the foundation’s 10 points plan, which included healthy menus in school canteens, requiring all planning decisions to consider the effects on the levels of activity, and requiring compulsory physical education of 150 minutes a week for school children.

Make it a daily challenge to find ways to move your body. Climb stairs if given a choice between that and escalators or elevators. Walk your dog; chase your kids; toss balls with friends, mow the lawn. Anything that moves your limbs is not only a fitness tool; it’s a stress buster too. Think ‘move’ in small increments of time. It doesn’t have to be an hour in the gym or a 45 minute aerobic class or tai chi or kickboxing. But that’s great when you are up to it. Meanwhile move more. Though for the day