Pre-Teen Obesity: An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth 100 Pound Cure

Whether you live on the west coast or the east coast, the silent killer called obesity is aggressively moving through our communities. More than likely, if you are not directly affected, the chances are that you have friends or family members who are loosing control of their weight.

In all honesty, we can not totally place the blame for this on the individuals themselves. Several studies have shown that for a number of people, their chemical and genetic makeup aide in their body's ability to process certain fats. Sure being 100 plus pounds over weight might have been good in the Ice Age but today this is simply not the case.

We must not allow our children to become victims of an over active appetite. If you pay close attention to the dietary counselors, you'll discover that a slightly overweight child soon becomes an overweight teen. As you may have already guessed, this teen now becomes an obese adult. Unfortunately, abnormal weight gain is the least of the problem. The major issues center around the many diseases associated with childhood obesity, including asthma, diabetes and some cancers.

Preteens, tweens and teenagers are also prone to body image dysmorphia, driven by peer pressure, social imaging and just the changes their body is going through. Being a teenager is hard enough as it is; it's even worse when you're carrying 40 or 60 extra pounds of body weight and alarmingly, the fastest growing market segment for diet products like SlimFast and MediFast are teenaged and younger girls.

The good news is that this trend can be stopped. In fact, you may be surprised at the simple solution.

Think back to when you were a kid. If there were video game consoles, they were things like the Atari 2600. Your friends came over in person, and you ran around outside and played in the park, running around with the excess energy that all children have.

If you felt tired or felt dehydrated, you immediately reached for a glass of water or milk. Sweets were a treat for good behavior rather than your main course. Snacks did not come prepackaged but rather apples, oranges and bananas were your choice.

Contrary to the popular belief, it is possible to training children to eat healthy foods. Caffeine laced drinks are a prime example. Researchers have uncovered an alarming link between drinking diet sodas and consuming high fat luncheon meets with cases of certain brain cancers. If you gain nothing else from this article, at least follow this one tip, please, do not allow your kids to drink soft drinks. Remember, water first before any juices or milks.

When they have snacks, give them fruits and vegetables, or baked goods that are also low in sugar. Make sure that you have a dedicated family meal every evening, where everyone talks about what they did during the day - these reinforce that meal times are an important social occasion, not a pit stop between bouts with the Game Cube or Wii.

Also, make it a habit to make your time after meals an active one. Rather than eating a big meal and head up stairs to sleep, why not take the family for a nice walk in the park or around the block. You'll have time to connect, the children will release a lot of their built up energy and they will learn that an active lifestyle is part of a healthy routine. Not only will you feel better, you'll also connect with your kids.

The key to providing life long health for your kids is inculcating these habits early in life, so they become habits. Explain why you're doing it when they ask, but don't preach. Your kids will adopt the behaviors they see you doing - you're their parent, their role model, and these are the habits they'll stick with as they get older.

Article Source: http://www.lowcarbdietarticles.com

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