This article looks at the problem of childhood obesity and what we can all do to help improve the diet of our young.
A comment a mother made to her two young sons whilst on the train this morning got me thinking. The mother was talking about how they were looking forward to a day out in London, and what they would do later. The mother said “when we are on the way home we can grab some doughnuts!” Now, it is true I don’t know whether or not the doughnuts were a one off treat after a special day out or a regular occurrence. What spoke to me most powerfully was the woman’s choice of words. “We can grab some doughnuts!” Now maybe her children did not want any doughnuts, she let her decision influence the dietary intake of her children. I think there is a lesson to be learnt here.
You see all of us would agree we want the best for our children. We all want them to succeed and prosper in life. However, how many of our decisions are sabotaging these worthy ideals.
I thought to myself the mother could quite easily have said “let’s pick up some fresh fruit or smoothies later!” but she didn’t.
You see it’s not as if there is not a problem here. The proportion of overweight children has increased. It is a fact that obesity levels in children have been stedily rising over the years according to the online national statistics office.
This is not good news. Our children are literally dying early because of a poor diet and inadequate exercise. This has got to stop. Not next month, not next year, but now.
The good news is that there is so much we can do. Remember, little changes done often will create a big change, long term. I am not saying that you cannot indulge your sweet tooth once and a while, but it is important that it is now and then, not a habit that is done often. Like everything in life, balance is key.
The Government currently recommend an intake of at least five portions of fruit or vegetables per person, per day. It’s so easy to ensure you get the reccommended five a day intake so that’s good news for all us busy people. For one thing it does not have to be all fresh fruit and vegetables. Fresh, frozen, chilled, 100% juice, canned and dried fruit and vegetables all counts. You can also count the fruit and vegetables in takeaways but some of these will be high in added fats, sugar or salt so eat in moderation!
So as you are all clear as to what makes up one portion of fruit or vegetables I will tell you here. One portion of fruit is one medium apple, one medium banana or two small satsumas or three dried apricots. one hundred percent juice contributes to your 5 a day as well. One portion of vegetables is three heaped tablespoonfuls of cooked carrots, peas, or sweetcorn or one cereal bowl of mixed salad.
What I have found in my experience is that whilst your nutrition is extremely important, in and of itself it is not enough. To reach and stay in peak, optimum health you need to participate in regular exercise. I believe it of crucial importance to choose an activity that you enjoy if you are to make keeping fit a routine in your life and something you stick to. Exercise should be fun.
You may have heard different guidelines on how often you should work out I truly believe the human body is made for regular movement. Really we could all be doing much more than we are currently, daily I advise, unless you have a medical condition that would prevent this. You can choose from a wide range of activities, from badminton and squash, to walking, cycling and gardening. Anything that gets you a little out of breath is good and will help keep you supple and active.
I have found a particular group of exercises called Integrated Movement training to have been particularly useful and beneficial. It is great fun and can be completed in as little as 10 minutes! Done twice daily this can get you in great shape, combined with the dietary advice I have given you, you are well on your way to a new, fitter you, one full of energy and feeling younger.
I touched on it briefly earlier but I do want to stress the importance of balance. I know from firsthand experience that if you try to change everything over night you are setting yourself up to fail. I remember being obsessive over what I ate and was it good for me or not and I began to lose my enjoyment of food, and have food cravings, which are not healthy.
The key to sensible eating is moderation and balance. By all means eat healthy, nutritious foods, eat widely from all food groups, but when you feel like eating your favourite chocolate bar, cake, or takeaway curry don’t beat yourself up over it. Life is too short.
As long as you are eating the right things more often than not, combined with an effective exercise regime, you can afford a treat now and then and still live a healthy lifestyle.
I hope this article has been helpful for you. What I really want you to come away with is the realisation that a healthy lifestyle is co-existent with normal’ life. You don’t have to exist on the rabbit food’, and you can fit a healthy diet into a busy lifestyle.
Little changes like swapping your usual snack choice of chocolate or biscuits for fruit, nuts or an organic yoghurt really are so simple but highly effective. Introducing a smoothie for breakfast or some porridge helps your body stay healthy and tastes great.
With the exercise it is important to choose something fun that you enjoy and that you will stick with. Remember, if you really want to see a change in yourself and your children’s physique and health you need to exercise regularly, ideally every other day at least.
The system I find particulary effective and usefull is the Integrated Movement Training system. The Integrated Movement Training system utilizes all of the body’s 600 + muscles making it a highly effective, workout which burns many hundreds of calories and can be fitted into two 10 minute sessions daily.
Start slowly, become confident with the exercises and you will progress nicely.
Above all enjoy your life. Exercise and healthy eating are about getting you to enjoy a higher quality of life. This is great. Whether you want to play longer with your children or grandchildren, perform better in your chosen sport or just live day to day with more energy and less pain, eating healthily and exercising will help you achieve this.
Take great care of yourself and our future. I wish you all the success in the world. To your health and happiness.
- James Lambert
If you have Type 2 Diabetes or know someone that does, listen up!
Did you know that that wonderful spice in your pantry can improve diabetes? It’s true! Studies show that when diabetes patients were given a small amount of cinnamon every day, their glucose levels fell by as much as 29%…their triglyceride levels fell by 30%…and their total cholesterol dropped by as much as 26 percent. The best part is cinnamon has no side effects!
Besides all of the above, cinnamon can help you lose weight. By stabilizing your blood sugar, it helps control the glucose spikes that trigger the “sweet tooth” cravings.
Since cinnamon is proving to be a wonderful spice for blood sugar levels, I recommend that you sprinkle cinnamon on a piece of toast or in a smoothie, or on a banana. I’ve personally started adding it to my morning smoothie. If you’re diabetic, you should incorporate between a quarter teaspoon and one teaspoon into your daily diet.
Not only is it good for you, it tastes good too. So use it!
- Lisa Buldo
Oppskrift: Frokost Smoothie
Inneholder: Blåbær, bringebær, jordbær, yoghurt naturell, müsli uten sukker, flytende honning, peanøtter, litt ferskpresset eplejuice.
Kjør alt i blenderen i ca 40 sekunder og frokosten er klar.
Frokost-smoothie er et velbalansert måltid, og passer perfekt for deg som ikke har så stor appetitt på morgenen.
Denne frokosten inneholder det meste: antioksidanter, vitaminer, mineraler og godt med proteiner av høy kvalitet fra yoghurten. Peanøttene gir sunne fettsyrer.
Slik kan du begynne dagen med et næringsrikt måltid som gir deg overskudd i timene utover dagen.
Vask alltid frukt og grønnsaker før de juices.
- benditjuicing
Is it possible to make your own smoothie and bring it to work for lunch?
Basically i have a smoothie maker and love making them, but i want to have them for work as they’re filling and of course healthy. But don’t know what to keep them in? I’ve got a fridge at work which helps.
- pinkcakespoon
Two People – Jean Jacques smoothie
special for s.. :D
- kenanf
The aim of this article is to point out the goodness that is inside carrot juice, and to list the nutrients that are in it. Carrot juice on its own can be pretty boring although at the same time being very good for you, and by adding different ingredients into your juicer it can be both tasty and good for you at the same time.
It’s a common known fact that a liquid nutrient is far superior to any other of the tablet variety. Once the liquid is in your mouth it starts to work straight away providing excellent nutrients for the body, where as a tablet has to let the acid in the stomach do the work, and only a small percentage of goodness actually goes into the system.
With carrot juice you have an abundance of vitamin A and vitamin C. Another ingredient sometimes over looked is Potassium which helps with muscle control as well as being an excellent way of reducing cholesterol levels.
It is true that carrot juice on its own or any other vegetable that you make into juice can be an acquired taste, and if you’re thinking about trying to induce your children into taking these healthy juices they will probably take one taste and spit it out.
Now it is a fact of life that children do love smoothies or shakes, and by making fruit smoothies with bananas, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants or any other of these types of fruits and then mix in a little carrot juice the battle is then won.
For a healthy option to thicken the mix up you can add natural yoghurt and you find that in normal circumstances that it is trial and effort to get things right.
By using milk in a shake the children will also get a good dose of Calcium. Please note that you don’t have be a child, to drink these, as things like Calcium, vitamin C (in the fruit and the carrots), and vitamin A are a good prevention against things like Osteoporosis.
All together the nutrient value of carrots is superb, and when you work out that a cup of juiced carrots and fruit can be between 70 and 100 calories per cup depending on which fruit you mix with the carrots, so it’s ideal for those on diets and it also acts as a good antioxidant.
- Mick Hince
So you have heard about a negative calorie diet where you can eat food but lose calories! Pretty amazing but we all know negative calorie diets are more complicated than that. It takes good organization skills to make this diet work and at it’s core you need to know exactly what foods are the best and should be included more often, those than are not too bad in terms of calories and those that you should avoid like the plague! To help you develop your plan here is a free list of negative calorie foods to help you on your way!
Apple – A great snack all the time and can be used creatively in salads
Apricots – good with breakfast cereals
Artichokes
Asparagus
Beets – can be made as sweet or sour recipes
Blackberries – a good snack and an essential part of a fruit salad
Broccoli – One of my favorites, can be enjoyed a bit crunchy or steamed
Brussel sprouts
Buffalo fish – Fish have a lot of other great nutritional advantages too
Cabbage – great for sauerkraut
Cantaloupe
Carrot – don’t dismiss the humble carrot as a snack if you don’t have an apple either
Cauliflower – another great vegetable like broccoli
Celeraic – an unusual vegetable and some say an acquired taste. Great in a stir fry.
Celery Chicory
Celery Root
Cherries
Chervil – Like parsley, a good seasoning. No one said your diet had to be boring!
Chinese Cabbage – Good with some garlic
Chives
Clams
Cod – another fish!
Corn
Crabs
Cranberries
Cucumbers – Good cooked or raw!
Currants
Damson – a kind of plum but quite bitter, often used to make jams
Eggplant – One of the most underestimated vegetables, great stuffed with other foods even!
Flounder – More fish … seeing a pattern?
Frog legs – You don’t need to be French to eat these!
Garden Cress – more nice seasoning
Garlic – a favorite of mine to add to almost any dish.
Grapefruit
Grapes – you can eat these by the bucket load and have some other very nice properties that are good for you
Green Beans
Green Cabbage
Honeydew Melon
Huckleberries
Kiwi
Kohlrabi – A kinds of cabbage, very fleshy and sweeter than its similar cousins
Kumquats
Leeks
Lemon – another useful seasoning, this diet can be quite tasty.
Lettuce
Limes
Lobster – Expensive but if good food can be good for your weight then go for it!
Loganberries
Mangoes – a great summer fruit
Mushrooms – High in protein if you are missing your meat.
Mussels
Mustard greens
Nectarine
Okra
Onion
Orange – High in vitamin C also
Oysters
Papaya
Parley leaves
Parsnips
Peach – Great in a soy smoothie
Pear – Add these to your smoothie too!
Peas
Pineapple
Plum
Prunes
Pumpkin – A must have for pumpkin soup in the winter
Quince
Radishes
Raspberries
Red cabbage
Rhubarb
Rutabagas – Very much like a turnip
Sauerkraut
Scallions
Sea bass
Shrimp – some more crustaceans for your meals
Spinach
Squash
Strawberries
String beans
Tangerine
Terrapin
Tomato – always a good standard vegetable for the salad or just on its own
Turnips
Watercress
Watermelon
Zucchini
While there are more foods like this for negative calorie diets this free list of negative calorie foods should give you some idea of where to start your dieting plan so you can start eating the right foods to shed those calories and lose weight!
- Hengster
With summer just around the corner, many parents are attempting to put together a healthier diet for their children. We all know that three meals a day will not keep growing kids nutritionally satisfied all day. Kids always ask their parents for a snack. It is almost a part of their daily routine. It is during this time that a parent must decide whether he/she will hand their child a bag of potato chips or think of another enticing and healthy alternative.
Some fun and healthy snacks include, fruit smoothies, trail mix, whole grain muffin, low fat microwave popcorn, and string cheese. When dealing with a child’s snack, it is important to keep the snacking process fun. For instance, you can place on the table in little bowls some cheerios, dried fruit, chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips, and along with your child create his/her very own trail mix. This way the child concentrates more on the fun part of creating the snack and a little less on the nutrition.
The same idea goes for fruit. You can let your child be very creative by allowing him/her to pick and choose his/her favorite fruits. Once your child has chosen the fruit, you can create a smoothie, add the fruit into vanilla yogurt, or even melt some dark chocolate to dip the fruit. The possibilities are endless. When it comes down to kids and food always try to keep snack time fun and interesting. You should also remember to always incorporate something that you know the child enjoys eating into the new healthy snack. You can’t simply place a bowl of whole grain in front of your child and expect him/her to munch. Mix things up by throwing in a few mini chocolate chips or mini peanut butter chips. There are many healthy foods out there that are delicious; the trick however is in how you present these foods to kids.
- Lauren B. Wallace
kimya Dawson – the smoothie song
Kimya’s mew smash hit!!!
what the heck fest 2006 – departement of safety
- angelospencer1
Hella Delicious 03: Peanut Butter, Banana,Tahini Smoothie
See www.helladelicious.com for recipe and nutrition details. Music by Mujaji. See mujaji.tv. Visit theinterzone.net for affordable video spotlights.
- zzzeroX