Childhood obesity

I am in the process of writing a chapter about childhood obesity in our new weight loss book and as I was doing some research, I was shocked to learn this: For the first time ever, the life expectancy of the generation inlcuding ages 6-19 are expected to live LESS amount of years than the boomers. With the advent of new antibiotics, early cancer dtection, less cigarette smokers, etc. one would think that each younger generations should be outliving the previous generation, The explanation though is this: the growing rate of obesity io children and teens. 1/3 of children are overweight and there is over an 80% chance of an obese child remaining an obese adult. (Word of the day: Olympics). The rate of diabetes is rising in a dangerously aggressive manner and it is anticipated by the year 2030, 35% of Americans will have this disease. The rates of stroke, heart attack, renal failure, loss of sight and all the nasty complicatiuon of diabetes will soar. Society will have a very difficult time handling this situation from both a financial standpoint and ethical standpoint.

The reasons for this epidemic of childhood obesity include parental issues, computers and gameboys replacing playing outside, cola companies inundating us with ads, and many other contributing factors which will be covered in the book ( Self promotion is okay in this blog).

As parents, it is our obligation to try as best as possible to address this immediately within our own family unit. Rewarding our children or grandchildren in ways other than high calories is something we all need to learn. Also, addressing the issue aggressively with our familiy members is very important. The schools need to keep the Coke and Pepsi machines out of there and inside the schools more education is needed about nutrition. Many other thoughts will be in our book which will hopefully come out in February.

Rainy days and weight gain

It is raining in the D.C. area today and this reminds me to bring up a seemingly common sense issue. When we are either snowed in, rained in or otherwise prevented from doing outdoor activities, we tend to sometimes reach for food sources in the house that somehow alleviate our boredom. These foods tend to be the chips, popcorn, homemade cookies and other high-caloric items that tend to thwart our mission to lose weight.

Solution: we cannot change the weather patterns (and if you can, please start working on gas prices) but we certainly can change the food sources that are available in our household.

This seems simplistic, but it sometimes escapes us: Do NOT have the food sources around the house that would tend to sabotage our weight loss efforts. If the chips, dips, popcorn, nuts, cookies, etc. are not around the house, you would have to get in the car and drive in the rain or snow to the local 7/11 to pick them up. Little chance of you doing that, right? However, if the food sources are in your kitchen cabinets, much easier to obtain that food source.

Another issue: great series of articles in the Washington Post this week about childhood obesity. I believe you can probably read this on their website: www.washingtonpost.com . This is a very big problem in America. I am devoted an entie chapter to this subject in my weight loss book that is coming out in January.