Eat Healthy

Healthy Habits

Top 10 Tips to Help Children Develop Healthy Habits

You can help your child develop healthy habits early in life that will bring lifelong benefits. As a parent, you can encourage your kids to evaluate their food choice and physical activity habits. Here are some tips and guidelines to get you started.

1. Be a good role model - You don’t have to be perfect all the time, but if kids see you trying to eat right and getting physically active, they’ll take notice of your efforts. You’ll send a message that good health is impor­tant to your family.
2. Keep things positive - Kid’s don’t like to hear what they can’t do, tell them what they can do instead. Keep it fun and positive. Everyone likes to be praised for a job well done. Celebrate successes and help children and teens develop a good self-image.
    
3. Get the whole family moving - Plan times for everyone to get moving together. Take walks, ride bikes, go swimming, garden or just play hide-and-seek outside. Everyone will benefit from the exercise and the time together.
    
4. Be realistic - Setting realistic goals and limits are key to adopting any new behavior. Small steps and gradual changes can make a big difference in your health over time, so start small and build up.
    
5. Limit TV, video game and computer time - These habits lead to a sedentary lifestyle and excessive snacking, which increase risks for obesity and cardiovascular disease. Limit screen time to 2 hours per day.
    
6. Encourage physical activities that they’ll really enjoy - Every child is unique. Let your child experiment with different activities until they find something that they really love doing. They’ll stick with it longer if they love it. check out these activities for kids.
    
7. Pick truly rewarding rewards - Don’t reward children with tv, video games, candy or snacks for a job well done. Find other ways to celebrate good behavior.
    
8. Make dinnertime a family time - When everyone sits down together to eat, there’s less chance of children eating the wrong foods or snacking too much. Get your kids involved in cooking and planning meals. Everyone develops good eating habits together and the quality time with the family will be an added bonus.
    
9. Make a game of reading food labels - The whole family will learn what’s good for their health and be more conscious of what they eat. It’s a habit that helps change behavior for a lifetime. Learn more about reading nutrition labels.
    
10. Stay involved - Be an advocate for healthier children. Insist on good food choices at school. Make sure your children’s healthcare providers are monitoring cardiovascular indicators like BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol. Contact public officials on matters of the heart. Make your voice heard.

By American Health Association, availble at: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/HealthierKids/HowtoMakeaHealthyHome/Top-10-Tips-to-Help-Children-Develop-Healthy-Habits_UCM_303805_Article.jsp

Obesity

Situation and trends

Worldwide, at least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese, and an estimated 35.8 million (2.3%) of global DALYs are caused by overweight or obesity. Overweight and obesity lead to adverse metabolic effects on blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin resistance. Risks of coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke and type 2 diabetes mellitus increase steadily with increasing body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height. Raised body mass index also increases the risk of cancer of the breast, colon, prostate, endometrium, kidney and gall bladder. Mortality rates increase with increasing degrees of overweight, as measured by body mass index. To achieve optimum health, the median body mass index for an adult population should be in the range of 21 to 23 kg/m2, while the goal for individuals should be to maintain body mass index in the range 18.5 to 24.9 kg/m2. There is increased risk of co-morbidities for body mass index 25.0 to 29.9, and moderate to severe risk of co-morbidities for body mass index greater than 30.

In 2008, 35% of adults aged 20+ were overweight (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) (34% men and 35% of women). The worldwide prevalence of obesity has nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008. In 2008, 10% of men and 14% of women in the world were obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2), compared with 5% for men and 8% for women in 1980. An estimated 205 million men and 297 million women over the age of 20 were obese – a total of more than half a billion adults worldwide.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity were highest in the WHO Regions of the Americas (62% for overweight in both sexes, and 26% for obesity) and lowest in the WHO Region for South East Asia (14% overweight in both sexes and 3% for obesity). In the WHO Region for Europe and the WHO Region for the Eastern Mediterranean and the WHO Region for the Americas over 50% of women were overweight. For all three of these regions, roughly half of overweight women are obese (23% in Europe, 24% in the Eastern Mediterranean, 29% in the Americas). In all WHO regions women were more likely to be obese than men. In the WHO regions for Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and South East Asia, women had roughly double the obesity prevalence of men.

The prevalence of raised body mass index increases with income level of countries up to upper middle income levels. The prevalence of overweight in high income and upper middle income countries was more than double that of low and lower middle income countries. For obesity, the difference more than triples from 7% obesity in both sexes in lower middle income countries to 24% in upper middle income countries. Women's obesity was significantly higher than men's, with the exception of high income countries where it was similar. In low and lower middle income countries, obesity among women was approximately double that among men.

REFERENCE:

Global Health Observatory (GHO), Risk factor report. Obesity, situation and trends. http://www.who.int/gho/ncd/risk_factors/obesity_text/en/ Published 2014. Accessed November 10, 2014.