(This blog follows the news that four in ten San Leandro .)
Linda Michaelis RD, MS says summer can be a great time to get your overweight child started on a healthy eating regimen. Linda works with many families in the greater San Leandro area to set up a fun and enjoyable food plan.
Many of the families that Linda works with have health insurance that covers nutritional counselling for children. Her website lists insurances that cover weight loss.
Linda takes families to the supermarket of their choice and shows them the best, tasty meals and snacks for children. She teaches the family how to read the food label for the important nutrition facts such as protein, fiber, fat and sugar.
Linda is adamanat that moms and dads support their child in an exercise program for the summer. It can simply be taking the child to the nearby school and having them run the track or power walking for a few loops.
Mom and dad must participate in the healthy eating program with their child so that they will not feel singled out. The home should be stocked with healthy foods along with 100 calorie treats that can be served after lunch and after dinner.
Linda assists families in learning how to order healthy entrees in their favorite restaurants. In addition, she shows families recipes that contain veggies that children enjoy. She likes to see families go to a farmer's market once a week and orient the child to all the fruits and veggies of the season.
She also stresses the importance of the child to participate in making healthy recipes that they will be proud of.
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We are grateful than our community leaders and voters have had the vision to initiate such things as the park and field improvements near our public schools. Not a day goes by when we don't see them overflowing with games and practices. The farmer's markets are also an important amenity. Parent/family wellness education, bike and pedestrian friendly infrastructure, and diverse /family focused/ offerings for year round exercise and outdoor play are things we should all advocate for the health of our entire community.
Study finds lack of social acceptance may affect test scores" --The Bay Citizen 6/14 "Obese children face risks to their emotional and social well-being that can harm their academic performance, new research suggests." http://www.baycitizen.org/health/story/study-links-childhood-obesity-poorer/?utm_source=Newsletters&utm_campaign=204f04a774-June_14_Daily_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=204f04a774&mc_eid=bc4f1c7480
For heaven's sake, here's a nickel, buy some common sense.
It's news like this that inform my deep skeptism of chains like the new "Fresh and Easy" planned for downtown San Leandro in the near future. The profit motive for "bait and switch" is enormous and I'm sure the bean counters and shelf designers know all to well where to place all the high profit food items (processed, nutrition poor, long shelf life) for maximum effect. Remember when we learned (in the late 70's I seem to recall) that grocery chains placed all the sugary kids cereals at kid eye height and reach)? There is so much "theatre" and "staging" that goes on behind the curtain in grocery layout and that really hasn't changed that much over the decades. All the processed foods front and center. Sugar, check. Fat, check. Salt, check. All perishable "real" food at the ends and far corners of the store. Add to that pricing incentives and confusing/infuriating labels and nutrition info. It's no wonder we all need a professional consultant to help us sort out the mess.
He's a great food writer.
My soulmate and I often compare the current mess to being in a battle against the food industry in particular as well as other agencies. One low point in particular was a day about 4 years ago when we decided to try to understand the label on a Trader Joe's cereal marketed towards kids. We had been buying it for a couple of years because my daughter liked it and it "seemed" healthy. The front of the box read "Whole grain, natural, etc., etc," What we learned was that the sugar to grain ratio was exactly opposite to our "adult" cereal. This simple fact had been masked pretty skillfully in the labeling. It took us an excessively long time to compare apples with apples because of a couple of factors (different serving sizes, several different sweeteners). The "deception/masking" really angered us both, no joke. Happily, Lord Pollan is making a small dent in our consumer awareness, even with my daughter who really resents the lack of sugar and processed foods at home and in her school lunches. "Don't buy anything with ingredients listed that a third grader can't pronounce" is a Pollan quote that even she repeats and appreciates.
My daughter doesn't appreciate our 1/4 acre lot...she is an only child and it gets a bit boring for a 12 year old out there. I don't believe it's healthy to keep kids on "lock down" but sadly that is what many families do because they don't feel safe letting there kids be free to run and bike in their own neighborhoods. We have the resources to keep my daughter busy in organized sports. She loves soccer and basketball. We feel quite lucky that we can support her in this way by helping referee games and pay for sports camps and things of that nature.
Thank goodness for sporty-good-hearted-dads!
Forty and fifty years ago, simple housewives, with high school diplomas, were able to feed and raise children without 40% of them becoming fat or obese. Now, we have registered dietitians, and also in this Patch we see a "precision nutrition lean eating coach and certified trainer". We grew up with no need for either of these services. Have we really become that dumb and helpless. So clueless we can't figure out a simple healthy eating plan. Exactly what has happened in the last 40 to 50 years that made current mothers and fathers so clueless? This is not rocket science. Grandma kept it all in her head. Ask yourself a simple question. What is my family eating that isn't good? Cut that stuff by 50% over time. What is my family eating that is good? Keep eating that stuff. What aren't we eating that we should? Start eating that stuff over time. Example, Fresh vegetables... Start eating more Example, Coke, fake juice drinks.... begin to buy and drink less. Give it 6 months to a year and see what happens. BTW, start walking and playing more outdoors. Hint-- If its sold in a 7-11, don't eat or drink it more than once a week.
I do agree with you point about fresh food. Here's the same idea in less words: "Eat real food. Mostly plants. Not too much." - Michael Pollan "Five ingredients or less" - Michael Pollen "...and look for foods high in protein" - Sex, Genes and Rock and Roll I find it really helpful to have a subsciption CSA box which delivers local organic and seasonal produce once a week. Cool thing is I don't even have to deal with the grocery chains, the processed foods, and my daughter's begging for unhealthy food items.
Michael Pollan gives a reader simple valuable direction. A easy and inexpensive book (any of his books). Contrast that with what you see in the shopping carts as they leave the supermarket. I am always amazed that the body can actually process what I see in most carts. The liquid sugary drinks alone are something to behold. I was in the Southshore Alameda Safeway and amazed at the soda/drink section. Long aisles stacked 5 to 6 shelves high. I stepped it off to see exactly how many feet of soda there was. Turns out there was 960 feet of single shelf space. (not counting the juice and juice "drink" section. By contrast, the Traders Joes next door had only 60 feet of shelf space. Parents buy the food.
Adult oriented healthy cereals have typically 17% sugars. Lucky charms is 34% sugars. Interestingly, Cheerios weighs in at 4% and corn flakes at 11%. Corporate America can make healthier food than those alternative labels when it wants too. High fiber cereals typically have high sugar content to counteract the blandness from the fiber. It makes me angry though to have to watch out for the people who market their food as healthy when it is not that much different than everything else out there.
There is nutritional research out there that says we will eat until we get 300 calories/75 grams of protein (2000 calorie diet). It appears our bodies can recognize they have had enough protein and thus switch off appetite. Sugar appears to bypass all the bodies appetite regulation systems and thus you can consume that big gulp without ever feeling full. So by eating a reasonable amount of bacon and your cholesterol etc is not an issue, you might be avoiding overeating due to consuming enough protein daily. Just a conjecture on my part though.
The way we raise pigs is pretty abominable.
Regards, http://www.creativebioscience.com