Sue Scheff: Teen Obesity, Life Expectancy and What Can You Do?
by Sue Scheff on Mar 28, 2010
Last week I wrote about Food Revolution, and what exactly is in our school’s cafeteria. It was one of the most read articles. It is shocking to actually read in detail what we put into our bodies, and especially what our kids are eating. I applaud Jamie Oliver who is just about single handedly trying to make healthy changes, one school at a time. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the problem of teenage obesity is now at its highest level in U.S. history. About 15% of teens are obese today, compared to just 5% in the 1960s. Last week, Connect With Kids posted another exceptional article about this timely subject.
Source: Connect with Kids
Obesity and Life Expectancy
“I remember dreading going to the doctors because they just told me how overweight I was.”
– Catherine, 16
Sixteen-year-old Catherine attends a Jazzercise class five times a week. She’s trying to dance her way out of a problem she’s had since she was a little girl: obesity.
“I never knew what portion sizes were, or when I was full, because I just ate to the max,” she says.
In the third grade, Catherine needed special clothing tailored to fit. In the sixth grade, she weighed more than 200 pounds.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the problem of teenage obesity is now at its highest level in U.S. history. About 15% of teens are obese today, compared to just 5% in the 1960s.
“And I don’t want to live like that. I want to be active, I want to do a lot of things, I want to meet people, I want to travel,” Catherine says. “Just like everyone else, I have dreams.”
But those dreams may be cut short if she doesn’t lose some weight.
But those dreams are at risk.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have been following almost 5000 children in Arizona for over 40 years. The studies show that the heaviest kids are twice as likely to die young… from cancer, infection, heart disease… diabetes…
“[The formulas] very, very effectively show that the younger you are, and the more obese you are, the more years of life you lose at the end,” says Dr. Ranveig Elvebakk, a bariatric physician. “It is anywhere from three to 20 years on the person who is 20 years of age and overweight.”
The health effects of obesity are well known: heart disease, diabetes, stroke and other chronic problems that cause premature death. The earlier you catch a weight problem, the easier it will be for your child to change and the less damage the weight will cause on his or her body.
Elvebakk says it is important to remember that the epidemic of obesity is NOT a problem of genetics.
“It is our culture that makes us fat; it’s not genes,” she says. “Our gene pool has remained unchanged over the past 59,000 years. There is no change in genes over the last 10 years. What makes us overweight is our lifestyle and the way we think about food.”
She says parents should insist on exercise and nutrition from an early age. But in Catherine’s family, it’s the kids who are now asking for better nutrition.
“When I go to the store, I used to buy all this kind of junk food and keep it in the cabinet for them, and now they tell me no, you’re not supposed to bring that home,” explains Lorraine Allen, Catherine’s mother.
With nutrition and exercise, Catherine is slowly shedding the pounds. She’s trading them in for more years on the end of her life – and more time to fulfill her dreams.
Healthy Lifestyle Begins with Exercise, Balanced Diet
People who are severely obese as adolescents or in their early 20s can expect to have significantly shorter lives, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers focused on subjects whose body mass index (BMI) was more than 24, the reference for adults aged 18 to 85. BMI is calculated based on weight and height. People who have a BMI over 30 are considered obese. The study, based on years of federal health survey data of thousands of people, examined the extent to which obesity could affect years of life lost. For every degree of being overweight, younger adults generally had greater years of life lost than older adults. Specifically, it was discovered that severely obese (BMI over 45) young females could lose four to eight years from their life expectancy. The results for males were even more astounding. They could have 12 to 20 years cut off of their lives!
Why is obesity such a problem for today’s children and adolescents? The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites the following causes for childhood obesity:
- Overweight in children and adolescents is generally caused by lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns or a combination of the two, with genetics and lifestyle both playing important roles in determining a child’s weight.
- Society has become very sedentary. Television, computer and video games contribute to children’s inactive lifestyles.
- Forty-three percent of adolescents watch more than two hours of television each day.
- Children, especially girls, become less active as they move through adolescence.
Because diabetes, hypertension and other obesity-related chronic diseases are now more common in adolescents, the recent study results highlight the importance of weight control in the nation’s youth through more physical activity and better dietary habits. Several organizations have found that today’s youth are considered the most inactive generation in history. In fact, the National Association for Sports & Physical Education reports that only 25% of all kids in the United States are physically active. And since daily physical education has been eliminated from schools in all but one state (Illinois), the burden now rests on the shoulders of parents to encourage their children to be more active.
Tips for Parents
With the CDC reporting that almost a third of children and adolescents are obese or overweight, it is now more important than ever to encourage your child to maintain a high level of physical activity. The American Council on Exercise offers the following tips for incorporating exercise into your child’s daily activities:
- Set an example for your child and treat exercise as something to be done on a regular basis, like brushing your teeth or cleaning your room.
- Invite your child to participate in vigorous household tasks, such as gardening, washing the car or raking leaves.
- Go biking, rock climbing or inline skating with your child.
- Jump rope or shoot baskets with your child.
- Plan outings and activities that involve some walking, like a trip to the zoo, a nature hike or even a trip to the mall.
The other component of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is practicing proper eating habits. Instead of high-calorie foods and snacks, provide your child with fruits and low- or non-fat foods. The American Obesity Association (AOA) does not recommend dieting for teens because it can prevent them from growing to their full height. Instead, it suggests that your teen “eat lean” and try some of these healthy snack options to get the nutrition he or she needs:
- Dried fruit mixed with sunflower seeds
- Bagels with peanut butter
- Low-fat cheese and crackers
- Baby carrots dipped in low-fat salad dressing
- Baked chips, low-fat cheese and salsa
- Fat-free popcorn with parmesan cheese
- Yogurt smoothie
- Frozen bananas
- Fresh fruit
Exercise and nutrition go hand in hand, but without your support, your adolescent will have a tough time maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The U.S. Surgeon General’s Office offers the following strategies for helping your teen stay fit physically and emotionally:
- Let your child know that he or she is loved and appreciated whatever his or her weight. An overweight child probably knows better than anyone else that he or she has a weight problem. Overweight children need support, acceptance and encouragement from their parents.
- Focus on your child’s health and positive qualities, not your child’s weight.
- Try not to make your child feel different if he or she is overweight but focus on gradually changing your family’s physical activity and eating habits.
- Be a good role model for your child. If your child sees you enjoying healthy foods and physical activity, he or she is more likely to do the same now and for the rest of his or her life.
- Realize that an appropriate goal for many overweight children is to maintain their current weight while growing normally in height.
References
- American Council on Exercise
- American Obesity Association
- Centers of Disease Control and Prevention
- Journal of the American Medical Association
- National Association for Sports & Physical Education
- U.S. Surgeon General’s Office
Tags: At Risk Teens, Food Revolution, Parenting, parenting advice, Parenting Teens, Parenting Tips, Teen Exercise, Teen Nutrition, Teen Obesity
Sue Scheff: Teen and Childhood Obesity
by Sue Scheff on Feb 12, 2010
The headlines over the past week have been about the weight of our children. It is important that we teach our children healthy eating habits while they are young. It can be difficult with the high speed of life and always on the go- that Happy Meal is just easier! Sadly in a lot of cases, also cheaper than buying healthy food.
Source: Connect with Kids
Larger Portions
“If you are overweight as a child, or obese as a child, you have a 90% likelihood that you will be overweight or obese as an adult.”
– Rachel Brandeis, registered dietician
While the CDC reports that obesity among American kids has leveled off, fully a third of our children are overweight or obese. Among the reasons for this epidemic is this: both children and adults have forgotten something they knew when they were born.
Five-year-old Emma McCurdy sits at the kitchen table counting her goldfish crackers.
“22, 23, 24, 25,” she says aloud.
“Can you eat 25 goldfish?” asks her mother, Maura McCurdy.
It’s difficult for most parents to know just how much their kids can, or should, eat.
McCurdy agrees: “You don’t. And that’s really hard.”
It’s even more difficult when everywhere we go, portion sizes are getting bigger and bigger. Fast-food restaurants offer to “super-size” everything from French fries to sodas. In fact, studies show that restaurant portions exceed recommended portion sizes by as much as 800%. And the more our kids are served, the more they eat and the bigger they get, which sets them up for lifelong health problems.
“If you are overweight as a child, or obese as a child, you have a 90% likelihood that you will be overweight or obese as an adult,” warns Rachel Brandeis, a registered dietician.
Babies are born with an innate ability to stop eating when they’re full, but that instinct gradually fades, especially in the face of huge portions and their parents’ demands.
Brandeis says that we need to help kids maintain that instinct.
“A lot of times, what we want to do is have our children clean their plate. We think that’s the way to proper nutrition, when in reality, what we really want to be able to teach our children is to self-regulate their food intake,” she says.
One way to help is to serve reasonable portions at home. But what is a reasonable serving?
“Usually, a good rule of thumb for portion sizes for a toddler is 1 year of age equals a tablespoon,” Brandeis says.
So, for a 2-year-old, that means two tablespoons of vegetables, two of meat and two of fruit. If parents serve those portions and allow their kids to decide when to stop eating, when they get to be Emma’s age, they eat because they’re hungry, not just because it’s there.
Maura agrees: “I think they’re kind of smart. They eat when they’re hungry. We should probably pay more attention to them rather than say, ‘Clean your plate, clean your plate, clean your plate.’”
Researchers suggest that ever-larger food portion sizes, both inside and outside the home, correlate to a sharp rise in American waistlines and may be partially to blame for the rising numbers of overweight and obesity cases in the United States over the past 30 years. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who analyzed survey data of 63,000 people aged 2 and older, found that portion sizes increased for nearly all home-cooked and restaurant-prepared meals between 1977 and 1998. In fact, the size of an average soft drink is now 20 fluid ounces and 193 calories, compared to 13 fluid ounces and 144 calories nearly three decades ago. Consider these additional findings from the study:
- The average cheeseburger grew from 5.8 ounces to 7.3 ounces, swelling from 397 to 533 calories.
- Salty snacks grew from 1 ounce to 1.6 ounces, climbing from 132 calories to 225 calories.
- Pizza was the only food that did not increase in size or calories between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, and portions actually decreased in size.
- The largest portion sizes were found in fast-food restaurants between 1994 and 1998, but for desserts, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, the largest portion sizes were actually dished out at home.
Tips for Parents
Children who are overweight are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes as well as these additional health complications:
- Cardiovascular problems
- Orthopaedic abnormalities
- Gout
- Arthritis
- Skin conditions
- Obstructive sleep apnea and respiratory problems
Being overweight also is likely to negatively affect a child’s social and psychological development, and it has been linked to the premature onset of puberty. Moreover, the health threats posed by being obese in early childhood can be long lasting, with overweight adolescents at greatest risk of becoming overweight adults. Given the seriousness of the health consequences associated with being overweight, and the rate of increase in the past few decades, the U.S. Surgeon General has declared overweight prevalence in children and adolescents “a major public health concern.”
Variety in food choices is a key ingredient in helping children to establish healthy eating habits. Consider trying these additional tips, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, for helping you and your child maintain healthy, balanced diets:
- Go family style. Adults and children do better at controlling portion sizes when they serve themselves. Children as young as 3 can serve themselves. The dinner table should not be a battleground. As a parent, you are responsible for bringing in healthy food and putting it on the table.
- Talk to your child so he or she can learn from his or her own body how much to eat and to stop eating when he or she is full.
- Instead of forbidding your child to eat sweets, provide him or her with nutritious foods first. Stopping your child from snacking just before dinner is wrong if he or she is munching on healthy foods.
- Be aware of portion sizes. At home, start with reasonable serving sizes and keep food for second helpings in the kitchen, not at the dinner table. When your family is eating out, ensure that your child doesn’t feel like he or she has to finish everything on his or her plate.
- Get out of the habit of having a lot of food for not a lot of money. It is something that fast-food providers get you to think about. This practice is really not good value in the long run. It is better to make a decision to go for smaller portions.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Child Trends DataBank
- Journal of the American Dietetic Association
- Journal of the American Medical Association
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Surgeon General
Tags: Childhood Obesity, parenting advice, Parenting Resources, Parenting Teens, Parenting Tips, Sue Scheff, Teen Help, Teen Obesity
Sue Scheff: Getting Teens Involved in Physical Activities
by Sue Scheff on Jun 20, 2009
More and more kids and teens are more attached to their electronical gadgets rather than physcial activites. What happened to the past generations of playing kick ball or riding your bikes with neighborhood friends? PE4Life helps parents incorporate physical education back into your lives. Learn More:
Source: PE4Life
Parents are busy with a full workday, helping their children with homework, engaging their children in after school activities, and so on. This doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for physical activity in your own lives. Do you realize that schools have devalued and cut physical education to the point that the majority of children get one day of PE per week? Children today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents for the first time in one hundred years because of the epidemic of obesity, according to Dr. William Klish, Professor of Pediatrics and Head of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine. Lack of PE at school is a disservice to your child’s health. Speak up. Demand that your school offers daily quality physical education. Use PE4life as a resource partner to enhance your school’s PE program. A recent study revealed that 81% of teachers and 85% of parents favor requiring students to take physical education every day at every grade level. As parents, you can rally people in your community to get involved by ordering a PE4life Community Action kit video and show it to the PTA, the school board and other community groups. The next step is to invite PE4life to make a presentation to your school leaders, bring a team of people to train at a PE4life Academy, or invite PE4life to do an in-service for your school staff. As your resource partner, PE4life can provide these and many other services to your school as you work to get children more active and healthy.
The PE4life Approach to Physical Education:
- Be offered to every child every day
- Be available for all students, not just the athletically inclined
- Provide a wide variety of sports and fitness activities to promote an active and healthy lifestyle
- Assess students on their personal progress toward fitness and physical activity goals
- Incorporate technology on a regular basis
- Extend beyond the walls of the gymnasium to form community and business partnerships
Today’s “New P.E.,” as exemplified by PE4life, is a health-and-wellness-based approach to physical education that caters to all students, not just the athletically inclined. Students are encouraged to pursue a variety of sports and physical activities (team and individual) – for a lifetime.
- Get Involved—Become a Friend of PE4life, get your community involved, sign up up for the PE4life newsletter and communicate to government leaders.
- News & Info—Get the latest information on physical education, childhood obesity, exercise and the brain, youth fitness and legislative news. Also link to other great websites.
- Results—Review research findings and measurable outcomes of PE programs.
- Grant Info—Find creative sources of funding for the physical education program at your child’s school and a forum where you can ask questions or share your thoughts and successes.
- PE4life Program Services—Find information about our Program Service Packages, how to order our services, training dates, academy locations, and testimonials.
- Events–Find dates for Academy Training, National PE4life Day, PE4life Workshops, and PE Conferences.
Students in PE4life programs are inspired by the opportunity to set personalized goals and be graded on effort not athletic ability. PE4life Programs incorporate technological tools so students can develop personal responsibility through self-assessment. With these tools, students are able to set goals appropriate to their individual fitness levels and check their progress as they move forward. Gone are the days of grades based solely on a stopwatch. Today’s “New PE” places more emphasis on assessing a student’s progress toward cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance goals.
We’ve heard time and time again from parents who have attended PE4life Program Service training sessions that they wish they’d been able to participate in a physical education program like this when they were in school. None of us can turn back the clock, but we can all help make the benefits of a health-and-wellness-based physical education program available to our children.
“Kids bring their excitement about daily activity into their families. PE4life keeps kids and famillies together: the foundation of a stronger America.”
–Archie Manning, Former NFL Pro Bowl Quarterback & League MVP
Tags: Parenting, Parenting Resources, Parenting Teens, Parenting Tips, Physical Education, Sue Scheff
Sue Scheff: Childhood Obesity is a Big Problem
by Sue Scheff on May 01, 2009
IU2U.org – It’s Up to You….What a great informational website on child obesity, eating healthy, and learning about how to make healthy changes in your family’s diet.
Live a Healthy Lifestyle by Dr. Oz Mehmet offers great advice on this fantastic website as well as other experts and professionals.
KNOW THE FACTS - Today teens are eating more and participating less in physical activity than the healthy amounts experts recommend.
What are kids eating - Kids’ Food has Excessive Sugar, Fat and Salt – learn more details here: http://iu2u.org/kids_food_trends.php
Effects of Obesity – It’s not just a “weight problem.” Learn the many ways becoming obese at a young age can affect a child now and in the future. Click on the figure below to see the effects of childhood obesity.
Learn more at http://iu2u.org/index.php and join their FaceBook group at http://apps.facebook.com/causes/271974
Tags: Child Obesity, Eating Healthy, Parenting, parenting advice, Parenting Teens, Parenting Tips, Teen Obesity
Sue Scheff: Teen Health – Can exercise help people learn?
by Sue Scheff on Apr 25, 2009
PE4Life is a great website to help parents get involved in more activities with their kids. Can exercise help you learn? Check out this recent clip on CBC in Canada – http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/special_feature/brain_gains/ (On the page click on Brain Gains to watch the entire piece).
Source: PE4Life
Parents are busy with a full workday, helping their children with homework, engaging their children in after school activities, and so on. This doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for physical activity in your own lives. Do you realize that schools have devalued and cut physical education to the point that the majority of children get one day of PE per week? Children today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents for the first time in one hundred years because of the epidemic of obesity, according to Dr. William Klish, Professor of Pediatrics and Head of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine. Lack of PE at school is a disservice to your child’s health. Speak up. Demand that your school offers daily quality physical education. Use PE4life as a resource partner to enhance your school’s PE program. A recent study revealed that 81% of teachers and 85% of parents favor requiring students to take physical education every day at every grade level. As parents, you can rally people in your community to get involved by ordering a PE4life Community Action kit video and show it to the PTA, the school board and other community groups. The next step is to invite PE4life to make a presentation to your school leaders, bring a team of people to train at a PE4life Academy, or invite PE4life to do an in-service for your school staff. As your resource partner, PE4life can provide these and many other services to your school as you work to get children more active and healthy.
The PE4life Approach to Physical Education:
- Be offered to every child every day
- Be available for all students, not just the athletically inclined
- Provide a wide variety of sports and fitness activities to promote an active and healthy lifestyle
- Assess students on their personal progress toward fitness and physical activity goals
- Incorporate technology on a regular basis
- Extend beyond the walls of the gymnasium to form community and business partnerships
Today’s “New P.E.,” as exemplified by PE4life, is a health-and-wellness-based approach to physical education that caters to all students, not just the athletically inclined. Students are encouraged to pursue a variety of sports and physical activities (team and individual) – for a lifetime.
- Get Involved—Become a Friend of PE4life, get your community involved, sign up up for the PE4life newsletter and communicate to government leaders.
- News & Info—Get the latest information on physical education, childhood obesity, exercise and the brain, youth fitness and legislative news. Also link to other great websites.
- Results—Review research findings and measurable outcomes of PE programs.
- Grant Info—Find creative sources of funding for the physical education program at your child’s school and a forum where you can ask questions or share your thoughts and successes.
- PE4life Program Services—Find information about our Program Service Packages, how to order our services, training dates, academy locations, and testimonials.
- Events–Find dates for Academy Training, National PE4life Day, PE4life Workshops, and PE Conferences.
Tags: Parenting, Parenting ADHD, parenting advice, Parenting Teens, Physical Education, Sue Scheff, Teen Exercise
Sue Scheff: Teen Bullying, Teen Obesity and Friendship and Family
by Sue Scheff on Jan 29, 2009
I just read the most lovely and educational book called Grumble Bluff by Karen Bessey Pease. This tale tells of two young girls in that difficult and awkward stage of tweens – one is overweight and one has a horrific and painful situation she is living with. Both are bullied and teased relentlessly. Even reading how some kids are so mean made me feel so sad and angry on the inside.
If you are a parent of a teen or tween – buy this book today – read it and have your child read it. You will feel warm inside at the end and then anxious for the second book. Kathy and Greta (characters) will become part of your family too – and what a great way to open lines of communication between you and your kids.
Synopsis:
In the serenity of Grumble Bluff, the girls discover the power of their friendship; how to triumph over the tragedies of life, and how to laugh again.
Tags: Bullying, Child Obesity, Parenting, Sue Scheff, Teen Obesity
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