‘Walking School Bus’ Project Aims to Curb Child Obesity

A generation ago, almost half of all schoolchildren walked or biked to school. That rate now is closer to 13 percent. So here’s the question: What difference does walking to school make on a child’s health?

In hopes of finding answers, researchers at Seattle Children’s Hospital have launched an experimental program called “the walking school bus.”

Walking to School

The program involves a team of adults who will escort schoolchildren to and from school every day for the rest of the year.

“We’re trying to get kids to walk more so it ups their physical activity,” said April Downs, a student at Seattle Pacific University and one of the study’s research assistants.

Six Seattle elementary schools are participating in the study funded in part by the National Cancer Institute: Sanislo, Graham Hill, West Seattle, Emerson, John Muir and Rainier View. Three schools will have walking school buses in place while the remaining will not. At the end of the year, all kids will be given a survey to determine whether the walking school bus changed students’ attitudes around walking.

After the first year, additional schools will be able to participate in the project, which targets schools in lower-income neighborhoods with higher numbers of minority children who are at higher risk for obesity.

Additional Exercise

Figuring out how to battle child obesity is what motivates Dr. Jason Mendoza, a pediatrician and researcher with Seattle Children’s Research Institute.

Mendoza says it’s not easy figuring out what works when it comes to getting kids physically active. So he wants to see whether the kids who walk are actually inspired to exercise later on in their day. That physical activity will get measured over two weeks by outfitting each kid with an accelerometer—a type of pedometer that measures all levels of activity.

“It’s not just an individual’s choices,” Mendoza said. “It’s the setting in which they live. It’s the policies that affect them; it’s so many things influencing that outcome.”

When Mendoza piloted the study in Houston, he found that kids who walked to school exercised an extra seven to eight minutes more each day.

“Some of their parents in Houston commented that they started walking more because their kids encouraged them to do that,” he said.

Mendoza is also planning a “bicycle train” program later this year. Kids will get free bikes, helmets and bike locks, as well as accelerometers.

Source: kplu.org

When Schools Offer Healthy Snacks, Kids Eat Them

When schools offer healthy snacks for lunch or in vending machines, children’s diets improve.

“Our study shows that schools can make the kinds of changes required by the forthcoming USDA guidelines, and these changes can have a positive impact on children’s nutrition.”

The US Department of Agriculture will ask schools to implement its “Smart Snacks” nutrition standards on July 1, 2014. The recommendations will set limits on calories, salt, sugar, and fat in foods and beverages, as well as promote snack foods with more whole grains, low-fat dairy, fruits and vegetables.

For the study published in Child Obesity,researchers tested standards similar to the USDA’s new requirements and demonstrated that Smart Snacks has the potential to improve students’ eating habits.

Schools Can Sway Kids’ Diets

For example, schools that started healthful snacks in lunchtime a la carte or vending programs boosted their students’ overall daily consumption of fruit by 26 percent, vegetables by 14 percent, and whole grains by 30 percent. Students also increased their consumption of fiber, calcium, and vitamins A and C.

Researchers also compared schools that adopted a variety of nutrition programs and policies. Some schools made only limited changes, while others implemented more comprehensive programs to assess and improve the school’s nutrition environment.

Changes schools made included raising nutrition standards for snacks and beverages, offering taste tests of healthful foods and beverages to students, marketing healthful foods in school, and removing advertisements of unhealthful foods.

When schools implemented three or more new nutrition practices or policies, students’ overall diets improved.

“Creating school environments where the healthy choice is the easy choice allows students to practice lessons learned in the classroom and form good habits at an early age, laying a foundation for a healthy future,” says Shannon Carney Oleksyk, contributing author and healthy living adviser for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Researchers say what made the study unique, in part, was that they measured students’ overall diets, not just what they ate in school.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research program and Michigan State’s AgBioResearch supported the project.

Source: nydailynews.com

Early Bedtime Could Help Prevent Childhood Obesity

Lack of sleep in young kids contributes to the obesity epidemic, according to Temple University researchers. A small study of kids aged 8-11 found they ate 134 fewer calories per day on weeks when they slept longer.

Setting an earlier bedtime for your children could help keep their weight in check, a new study finds.
Fast food, too much screen time, and sugary sodas are not the only factors to blame for the childhood obesity epidemic, experts say. Lack of sleep is also an important factor, the findings show.

Scientists from Temple University in Philadelphia enlisted 37 children aged eight to 11, with more than a quarter of the subjects overweight or obese. The first week of the study, the children slept their normal amount. During the second week, the children randomly had their sleep time reduced or lengthened, and in the third week they were given the opposite sleep schedule.
Findings showed that when children slept longer, they ate around 134 fewer calories per day and lost half a pound in weight.

“Findings from this study suggest that enhancing school-age children’s sleep at night could have important implications for prevention and treatment of obesity,” said head researcher Dr. Chantelle Hart, from Temple University in Philadelphia. “The potential role of sleep should be further explored.”
The findings were published online November 4 in the journal Pediatrics.

A separate study on adults published earlier this year found that a lack of sleep causes changes in brain activity that can lead people to feel hungrier and crave more fattening foods. A team from the University of California used MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans to spot changes in the brain activity of sleep-deprived test subjects. Their findings appear in the journal Nature Communications.

Source: nydailynews.com

Childhood obesity up in Tennessee

Dr. Amy Marlow says many parents don’t recognize — or want to admit — their children may be overweight.

“Parents don’t have a good indication of what being ‘overweight’ really is. They are desensitized because of the percentage of children they see who are overweight. You’re seeing all these overweight kids and you think that’s the norm,” said Marlow, who is a pediatrician at Mountain States Medical Group Pediatrics. Marlow has a special interest in treating pediatric obesity along with nutritional counseling.

Today, a third of U.S. children and teens are obese or overweight, including one in eight preschoolers.

Numbers like these indicate childhood obesity is a serious health concern, Marlow says.

Earlier this summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of a study in which nearly 12 million preschoolers from 40 states plus Washington D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico had their body mass index (BMI) measured. Most of these children came from low-income families who received assistance from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), a federal program that gives grants to state-level health and nutrition aid projects.

The majority — 21 states — showed no significant changes in their current obesity rates, while 19 states had a slight decline, and three states registered an increase. Tennessee was one of the states where rates increased.

Marlow says even though some states reported a decline in rates, it was only slight and is no cause to think progress is really being made to combat what is truly an epidemic.

During well checks, Marlow says pediatricians check every child’s body mass index. If this number, which is based on height and weight, is above the 85th percentile, the child may face some serious health issues either now or in the future.
“Kids that are in that range have a higher rate of hypertension, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and gall bladder disease,” she said.

Jennifer Walker, a registered dietitian with Holston Medical Group’s Healthy U, says in the past 30 years childhood obesity rates have tripled, and she agrees these children are headed down a very dangerous path.

“Childhood obesity leads to childhood morbidity and long-term morbidity. We’re looking at diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver, emotions issues — overall a shortened life span for kids who are obese at a young age,” Walker said. “Kids as young as 10 are being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and hypertension. It’s heartbreaking.”

Because of obesity, unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical inactivity, some medical experts predict this may be the first generation that will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

A number of factors have contributed to the dramatic increase in childhood obesity in the past three decades in our country, Walker says.

“We eat larger meals. There’s a huge portion problem. We have more energy-dense foods (such as snack foods and candy). People eat out so much more than they did 30 years ago. They don’t cook at home anymore. We use more convenience products. And absolutely one of the biggest correlations is the television, the computers and the video games. So many more kids are inside versus outside playing. They’re not walking to school anymore. There’s just less time for kids to play at home and there’s also less physical activity in our schools,” she said.

With some lifestyle changes, improvements can be made to these children’s health. But parents must be on board.

“Parents are responsible for bringing in the groceries, for taking their kids to places where they can be physically active, limiting screen time. It has to be a family approach. The parents have to be invested in it for it to be successful,” Marlow said. “I do try to find out what barriers there are, what obstacles there are to their kids being healthy. I try to stress and focus on the kids being healthy. I use words like ‘strong’ and ‘fit.’ I tell parents we are the role models. Kids look to us for guidance. They learn from us and if we provide that healthy environment and we do things like parking at that first spot we come to and walking, taking the stairs, buying the fruits and vegetables, eating at home and drinking water, our kids will follow that.”

Walker also points out families have to admit there actually is an issue at hand.

“A lot of families don’t even believe they have a problem. They just feel like their whole family is overweight or they’re just big-boned. Their perception is that this is all just normal,” she said.

Both health experts recommend following the “5-2-1-0 initiative”: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables; 2 hours or less of screen time a day; 1 hour of physical activity and 0 soft drinks or sugar-sweetened drinks.

“It’s fairly memorable, I hope,” said Marlow. “And actually the kids are a lot more educated than their parents are on the nutritional and physical activity parts of all this from initiatives the schools have put in place.”

Source: timesnews.net

10 Ways to Get Kids to Eat Their Vegetables and Fruit

A reader recently asked on the Don’t Mess with Mama Facebook page for advice on how to sneak vegetables and fruit into kids food because her own child didn’t like to eat them. While our community had great advice on how to add vegetable purees to foods like spaghetti, I was pleasantly surprised that the majority of responses recommended our reader to not sneak vegetables and fruit and find other ways to get kids to enjoy them.

1. Include kids in meal planning.
Rather than make meals ad hoc, include the kids in deciding what to cook for meals. Negotiate foods served at meals – e.g. serve a standby vegetable your kid likes for lunch and agree on a new vegetable to try for dinner.

2. Read cookbooks together.
This is a fun activity to encourage kids to be a part of the meal planning and find new ways to prepare their favorite foods.

3. Cook with kids.
There is no better way to get kids to try new foods than cooking in the kitchen with them. Kids as young as 2 years old can help measure, stir and add ingredients. Older kids can help chop and cook foods – as well as do taste tests.

4. Grow your own food.
This is one of the easiest ways to get kids to try fruit and vegetables. Start with a seed or seedling and work with kids to plant their own garden. They’ll love seeing their plants grow and picking their first bounty. I can’t grow tomatoes fast enough because my kids pick them from the backyard as soon as they ripen. This is a great way to introduce kids to organic farming too.

5. Shop with kids at the grocery store.
Keep kids involved when buying foods for the household. Show them the types of food to buy – e.g. meat, seafood, produce, etc. – and discuss ways to cook with the ingredients. Make it a point to spend a lot of time in the produce department to point out different types of fruit and vegetables – as well as seasonality, buying bulk vs. packaged, how to read food labels, how to measure, comparing prices, etc. You can even make it fun by giving kids a grocery list and letting them find food in the store (maybe time it between siblings and give the winner a prize like deciding what’s for dinner that night).

6. Take kids to the farmers market regularly.
This is an excellent way for kids to learn what’s in season and get to know farmers by name. It also encourages a “shop local” mentality at an early age. Plus, most farmers markets offer produce to try – which allows kids to try before you buy. My kids absolutely love trying foods at the farmers markets.

7. Join a CSA.
Save money and get produce in season with a CSA (community supported agriculture). The great thing about a CSA is that you don’t always know what you’re going to get, which is kind of fun. So if you end up with parsnips, work with your kids to find new parsnip recipes that you can try. I love the idea of trying new recipes to encourage kids to try new things.

8. Offer fruit and vegetables often.
It’s so simple it seems crazy, but it works. Rather than give my kids a bag of chips to snack on, I always have a veggie or fruit tray sitting out on the table. They graze on it pretty much all day.

9. Be a role model.
You can’t expect your kid to eat fruit and vegetables if you turn your nose up at it. So be sure you model the characteristics you want your kids to follow. Try new vegetables and fruit. Try new, exotic foods. Use new recipes for old family favorites. Encourage a sense of adventure with food.

10. Encourage the herd mentality.
It never fails. I get a friend or other parent who tells me their kid never eats fruit and vegetables. One playdate at my house and that kid is eating sugarsnap peas and cherry tomatoes. Why? When other kids watch my kids eat their fruit and vegetables, they join in. It’s like a herd mentality. Other kids want to go with the flow and usually end up eating our veggie tray with no problem. So if you’re child doesn’t like to eat fruit and vegetables, have him/her hang out with other kids who do. Work ahead with the parent of a veggie-loving kid to stage a vegetable intervention.

What’s your best tip to encourage kids to eat their fruit and vegetables – without sneaking it into their foods?

Source: Dont Mess with Momma Blog

How parents can help fight childhood obesity

September is national Childhood Obesity Awareness Month and organizations around the country are planning educational events for children and families to encourage kids to get moving and stay healthy.
Jim Clark, licensed social worker and CEO of Daniel, Florida’s oldest child-service agency, tells us about obesity trends in children and how parents can help kids make better food choices to stay healthy.

In June, the American Medical Association officially recognized obesity as a disease. This decision has really brought this problem to the forefront and brought to light just how much more common it has become, especially among children.

Clark says, “Diagnosing obesity usually starts with charting a person’s BMI, or body mass index which is basically a person’s weight in relation to their height. Children’s BMI’s are usually charted by their pediatricians.”

According to Clark generally if a child’s BMI is between the 5th and 85th percentile for their age they are considered a normal, healthy weight; those that are in the 85th to 94th percentile are considered overweight; and those in the 95th percentile and higher are considered obese. He says 1 in 3 kids are obese or overweight.

“As for how big a problem it is,” Clark says, “it’s staggering. According to the federal government’s Task Force for Child Obesity, over the past three decades obesity rates have tripled. Now 1 in 3 kids in America are considered to be obese or overweight. In the African American and Hispanic population that 33 percent jumps to about 40 percent.”

Clark says the issues children could face as a result of obesity are quite serious.

“Unless we stop the trend of childhood obesity experts predict 1/3 of children born in the year 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives,” Clark says.

Clark says other potential hazards include:

• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Asthma
• Sleep apnea
• Social discrimination or self-esteem issues

Clark says here are some ways parents can help:

1. Watch portion size

If you go back thirty years ago the portions were much smaller. And if you’ve ever traveled to foreign countries you’ll find much smaller portions there as well. There is no need to super-size at fast-food restaurants or at home.

2. Control snacking

As for snacking, again, thirty years ago, snacking between meals was an occasional or perhaps once per day treat. Now kids average three snacks per day, with one in five school-age children having six snacks each day. That could easily add 200 calories or more to your children’s diets. Snacking can be very good for your child throughout the day to keep his/her blood sugar at a constant, but only if meals are smaller and you are giving your child good choices for snacks. Fresh fruit, small portions of nuts or cheese and crackers are good choices.

3. Drink water

Sugary soft drinks have zero nutritional value for your children. They are full of calories, many have caffeine which isn’t the best idea and they do damage to teeth. That doesn’t mean your child should never have a soda. However, the older your child is when he/she discovers it as an occasional treat the better. It should be just that, a treat at birthday parties or special occasions.

Also watch out for juices. Juices and sport drinks have a tremendous amount of sugar and calories. Limit your child’s intake of juices or simply blend a half cup of juice to a half cup of water.

4. Exercise and limit screen time

Eight to 18-year-olds spend an average of 7.5 hours each day in front of entertainment media, whether that is TV, video games, or cell phones. That can’t help but take away from physical activity time. So limit screen time in your household- two hours (for non-school work) is generous. Enroll your child in sports, take family walks, swim at the beach, or pool. Just get moving! But remember, another key is setting a good example as a parent. Make sure you are exercising with your children or showing them that you exercise too.

For more information on helping your kids eat healthy log onto danielkids.org.

Clark recommends these some additional resources:

CDC.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm
MayoClinic.com/health/childrens-health/HQ01107
Heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/HealthierKids
LetsMove.gov

Related Videos:

Source: news4jax.com

How Eating Breakfast Makes Your Child Smarter

It’s common knowledge that kids should rise and dine to ace their academics. Research has shown that eating breakfast can improve a child’s cognitive performance in the classroom, particularly memory and attention span.

“You wouldn’t expect your car to run on an empty tank, right? Same thing with your body. If you want to perform well, you have to fuel well,” says Mansur Mendizabal, a D.C.-based fitness trainer and owner of www.mansurtraining. com. This means giving your body the carbohydrates and protein it needs.

More interestingly, a study just published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, explains why and how a morning meal impacts the brain. 

According to the researchers in this study, children have a higher rate of metabolizing glucose in their brains as compared to adults. Glucose is the fuel that feeds the body. This higher rate of using glucose, coupled with their longer nighttime slumber, puts children at a higher risk for depleting their storage of glucose, called glycogen, in their body overnight.  Thus, eating breakfast, or “breaking the fast” so-to-speak, is physiologically important to provide children with the energy-charged glucose to kick start and fuel their brains.  According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), over 40 percent of American children do not eat breakfast on a daily basis.

As a parent, providing breakfast isn’t an issue.  Rather, it’s coming up with breakfast ideas that kids will actually eat that is a hair-pulling challenge.  On this front, I solicited advice from my nutrition colleagues who are wizards when it comes to meal ideas. 

Here are their brain-fueling breakfast suggestions for kids of all ages, including you:

Dave Grotto, RDN, busy author and father of two teenage girls, often has less than 5 minutes in the morning to prepare breakfast.  He relies on one of his favorite Hungry Girl quick recipes, Denver Omelet in a Mug to serve them a fast and satisfying breakfast.  Best of all, cleanup is a cinch.

As a mother of three and author of MyPlate for Moms, Elizabeth Ward, RDN, starts her family’s day with her most fave Pumpkin Smoothie.   Combine 1 cup each of low fat milk and canned pumpkin along with 2 teaspoons brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, a pinch ground cinnamon, and 2 ice cubes in a blender.   Serve with whole grain toast.   The beauty of this smoothie is that it provides a serving of veggies, which are often hard to squeeze in the AM.

Culinary nutritionist and author of 1,000 Low-Calorie Recipes, Jackie Newgent, RDN, recommends starting the day off with her Banana-Nut Toastie. Spread a nut butter between 2 slices of whole grain bread.  Top one slice of bread with sliced bananas, a few dark chocolate chips, and an optional pinch of cinnamon or cayenne.   Cover with the other slice of bread and grill in a skillet or Panini press.  Who wouldn’t like a tad of antioxidant-rich dark chocolate to start their day?

Need a healthy breakfast on-the-go?  Try this high fiber, easy-to-make Grab-and-Go Granola Bar created by Janice Newell Bissex, RD and Liz Weiss, RD, of Meal Makeover Moms.  This is just one of their many healthy recipes available on their new app for busy families.

Grilled Cheese French Toast is a household favorite for Elisa Zied, RD, author of Younger Next Week and mother of two hungry boys.  To make this cheese stuffed toast, sandwich a slice of Swiss or cheddar cheese in between two slices of whole wheat bread.  Dip the sandwich in a scrambled egg and brown in a fry pan coated with nonstick cooking spray.   Served with fruit and nonfat milk.

According to Keri Gans, RDN, author of The Small Change Diet, “A homemade Yogurt Parfait could be the perfect breakfast option for the busy family, especially with varied taste buds.  Each family member can create their own parfait by choosing a cup of low-fat Greek yogurt topped with a high-fiber cereal, fresh fruit, and a sprinkle of nuts.”  Set up a breakfast bar in the kitchen and let them do the assembling.  Defrosted frozen berries are an easy way to keep fruit on hand should you run out of fresh during the week.

Lastly, Karen Ansel, RDN, a mother and media spokesperson for AND, suggests a Hummus Breakfast Bagel.  Spread hummus on half of a whole wheat bagel and top with tomato slices. “By using hummus instead of cream cheese, you can work in protein and healthy fat, ” claims Ansel.  Consuming both protein and fat at breakfast will help keep you and your kids full until lunch.

Please share you breakfast favorites below.

Here’s to a productive school year!

Source: boston.com Blog

Nutrition: Best to Eat Before and After Exercise

The body needs fuel to perform. But what fuel? And when? These are the questions many of us ask ourselves as we get ready for a long run or finish up an hour in the weight room.

“You wouldn’t expect your car to run on an empty tank, right? Same thing with your body. If you want to perform well, you have to fuel well,” says Mansur Mendizabal, a D.C.-based fitness trainer and owner of www.mansurtraining. com. This means giving your body the carbohydrates and protein it needs.

Pre-workout

Early-morning workouts present challenges beyond just dragging yourself out of bed. If you have less than an hour before your workout, you will have to eat something that is easily digestible and high in carbohydrates. And, of course, make sure you hydrate.

“If you are working out early in the morning, maybe you have a banana before the workout, since the body has used up most of the glycogen stores overnight,” Suzanne Girard Eberle, sports nutritionist and author of “Endurance Sports Nutrition,” says. “A sports drink may even be appropriate.”

But to some, eating a meal early in the morning just doesn’t feel right.

For them, D.C.-based nutritionist Kristen Ciuba recommends splitting breakfast in two: eating half of it before working out and half after. Think peanut butter on half a slice of whole-wheat toast before working out and then the other half afterward.

“Time it so you are eating at least 30 to 40 minutes before the workout and then 30 to 40 minutes after the workout,” she says.

But if you have more time, full meals — which balance carbohydrates, protein and fat — are the best preparation for any physical activity, Girard Eberle says. In other words, if you can swing it, eat a full meal two hours or more before working out, she says.

That’s what Mendizabal does. He works out at least 90 minutes a day. Some days are devoted to cardio (running, swimming or biking) and some days he does strength training. And a couple of times a week he combines cardio and strength. But no matter what the workout looks like, he fuels the same way.

“The only difference is that when I run, I have to wait longer between eating and exercising. But I still eat the same breakfast,” he says.

That breakfast often looks like this: toasted whole-wheat bread with almond butter, Kashi GoLean cereal with fat-free milk, a banana and coffee. For hydration on long runs and bike rides, Mendizabal also will take water with Nuun (electrolyte) tablets.

“I don’t like Gatorade. It has too much sugar,” he says.

Mendizabal, who weighs about 165 pounds, estimates that he consumes a little more than 3,000 calories a day, spread out over three meals and three snacks.

“My snacks can be anything from a yogurt to a protein bar — but I don’t really like those — if I am running short on time between clients,” he says. “But I always try to get something with protein, especially after the workout.”

Post-workout

After a workout, the muscles are repairing, and it’s important to help that process along by supplying the body not only with carbohydrates, but also with protein, Girard Eberle says.

“If you can time it so you are eating a well-balanced meal within 30 to 60 minutes after working out, that would be best,” she says.

If not, go for a snack that has some carbs and some protein. And rehydrate, particularly in the heat.

For workouts lasting longer than 90 minutes, she recommends using sports drinks or GU, a sports nutrition gel high in carbohydrates that endurance athletes often use during long-distances rides and runs.

Eat smart

So what if your main goal is to lose weight and get stronger? Is all this talk of 3,000-calorie days, snacks, sports drinks and GU going to work against you?

Not necessarily, says Ciuba. It’s important to create a calorie deficit (in other words, consume fewer calories than you expend), but that doesn’t have to be done within the same hour or two that you are working out.

“Try to spread your calories throughout the day,” she says. “Be careful of the total, but don’t cut out the snack before or after the workout.”

In other words, if your daily intake is 1,500 calories, then you could have 400 calories per meal and two snacks of 100 to 150 each, she says. Most people tend to eat most of their calories at night and few if any in the morning. But if you work out in the morning, fuel then, and cut your portion sizes in the evening.

“Your goal is you want to burn more calories by working out as hard as possible,” Ciuba says, adding, “To work out as hard as possible, you have to make sure your body is ready.”

Source: The Washington Post

Top 5 Nutrition Myths

“Quick fat loss with this one simple tip!” “Eat what you want and shed the weight!” “I lost 50 pounds in five weeks – here’s how!” Those are the sorts of quotes you see peppering the pages of health and nutrition magazines. And something nearly every article has in common? The perpetuation of very common myths to weight loss. Here are five of them, and the reasons why they simply aren’t true.

1. ”Eat breakfast to jump-start your metabolism.”
This one has started from a pretty simple place. If you’re not eating in the morning, you’re not starting your body’s metabolism and fat-burning mechanisms. But that’s not how our bodies work. Actually, if you don’t eat the right things for breakfast, you’re liable to jump-start your fat storing – not fat burning. Everyone’s body is more susceptible to insulin spikes early in the day. Insulin is used for two operations in the body: muscle repair and fat storage. The more you spike your insulin, the more energy your body is going to store as fat to save for later. However, when you skip breakfast and put your body into a fasted state, it’s forced to look for energy stores to keep your body running optimally. The optimal stores are the fat.

2. ”Small meals keep your metabolism active throughout the day.”
Once again, it would seem to make sense. If your body has something to burn, it will. Right? What isn’t taken into account, however, is that your body is designed to consume large amounts of food when it’s available and slowly release the nutrients to keep your body going. Smaller meals help keep those who need to be eating happy, but they can be detrimental to diets if portion control is a struggle. Eating a couple, or even one, large meal can create a great feeling of being full.

3. ”If you don’t eat enough your body will go into starvation mode and you’ll begin putting on weight.”
Simply put, your body requires energy to run. It will not begin storing energy if it needs it to operate. This starvation mode doesn’t begin until you go without food and nutrients for weeks. On the other hand, the lower your intake of calories is, the more efficient your body will begin running. Things like a reduction in body temperature (which you can feel by your fingers and toes getting cold), less waste product from digestion, and general fatigue are signs that your calories may be too low, and causing a reduction in your metabolism, but it’s highly unlikely you’ll start putting on weight as a result.

4. ”To keep fat off your body, eat less of it on your food.”
This one began in the early stages of nutrition studies. Scientists in the 1940s concluded that since those with high-fat diets had high-cholesterol levels, low-fat diets were the answer to a healthier life and less heart disease. By the 1980s, the low-fat diet approach was a nationwide mindset. However, fat is very important in anyone’s diet. Just as the scientists predicted, fats are responsible for your cholesterol levels. That means your HDL (the good cholesterol) as well. Fats are responsible for keeping those leveled out in your body. The omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are essential for mental health, balancing the hormones and chemicals responsible for our moods. Finally, many fat-free or low-fat foods use sugars as a way to replace the flavor lost when removing fat. Too much sugar is far more detrimental to your body than some fatty acids.

5. ”Don’t eat within two hours of going to sleep.”
When you’re sleeping, your body is in an inactive state and stores anything eaten in the last couple hours as body fat. Not exactly. There are some hormonal changes that happen when you are sleeping, but food consumed isn’t affected. The total caloric intake is far more important than the slight changes that take place when your body is at rest.

The science of nutrition is constantly changing and evolving. The easiest way to confirm something is to test it yourself, note your results, and adjust accordingly. Knowing is half the battle.

Source: metroweekly.com

Preschooler Obesity Rate Falls in 19 States

How heavy can one country get? Until recently, the sky seemed the limit. If recent trends continued, government researchers warned in 2008, some 86% of U.S. adults would be overweight or obese by 2030, and a third of our kids would be fully obese by the time they turned 20.

But the fever may finally be breaking. A wisp of good news came from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which announced Tuesday that obesity rates have recently declined among low-income children in 19 states and territories. “While the changes are small,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in announcing the new findings, “for the first time in a generation they are going in the right direction.”

The new study isn’t definitive, but it suggests that conditions are improving even for the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable children.
The CDC researchers reviewed height-and-weight records for 12 million preschoolers who participated in WIC and other nutrition-assistance programs. Their analysis covered 43 states and territories, and it yielded good news for nearly all of them. Obesity rates either fell or held steady in 40 of the 43 jurisdictions after rising steadily in recent decades. Only three states—Colorado, Pennsylvania and Tennessee—saw upward trends from 2008 to 2011, and those increases were all minor.

Nationally, about 13% of preschoolers are overweight or obese, but the risk is still significantly higher among kids who are poor enough to qualify for nutrition assistance. In California, for example, 16.8% of the enrollees were obese in 2011, despite a significant three-year decline (the 2008 figure was 17.3%). New Jersey and Massachusetts still hover at similar levels (16.6% and 16.4% respectively), despite similar reductions in recent years.
Puerto Rico’s low-income kids had the highest obesity rate of any state or territory (17.9% in 2011), but the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands saw the steepest three-year decline (from 13.6% to 11%).

What accounts for all these encouraging trends? The study didn’t identify causes, but health authorities believe that public policy and public awareness have both helped. “Many of the states in which we’re seeing declines have taken action to incorporate healthy eating and active living into children’s lives,” says Janet L. Collins, director of the CDC’s obesity division.

Specifically, the CDC points to growing community efforts to make nutritious food affordable and accessible and ensure that all kids have safe places to play. First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Child Care initiative has probably helped too, with 10,000 child care programs now embracing its prevention strategies.
“I think the main reason [rates are falling] is that people are rallying together as stakeholders in this battle,” Dr. Lindy Christine Fenlason of Vanderbilt University told NBC News Tuesday morning. “We’re talking about teachers and parents and caregivers, those in the media, those in government, and those in the medical profession. Everyone has come around to support people in making changes to have a healthy weight.”

That’s not to say the epidemic is anywhere near over. Obesity still affects 12.5 million children and teens in this country, and the potential consequences are devastating, ranging from arthritis and sleep apnea to heart disease, diabetes, stroke and several cancers. But the latest findings show that progress really is possible.

Source: MSNBC