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Preventing Obesity In Children

By Rey Vetangelo


If you are overweight or obese, you are not alone. And chances are, you have tried a myriad of diets that were either ineffective or difficult to maintain. Maybe you are interested in weight loss surgery, but cannot afford it. Perhaps you have even considered traveling to a weight-loss clinic in Mexico to have gastric sleeve surgery done at a lower cost, but aren't sure about the risks. Surgery may not be the only solution you have left. One popular diet that many people have found to be successful is the Zone Diet.

For instance, if you are 6 feet tall, your healthy weight range is higher than that of someone who is 5 feet 5 inches tall. Since BMI is more precise, yet still easy to calculate (there are currently dozens of free BMI calculators available online), it has been used in some form for the last 200 years. However, lately there has been some speculation about new measurements of physical health that might be even more accurate than BMI.

So then, what can us, as parents do to recognize unhealthy patterns and give our children the opportunity to develop the habits that lead to them growing into healthy, active adults? To begin with, the changes must start with us. Then we must give our kids the opportunity to make healthy choices on their own, teaching them the patterns they need to know to continue making those decisions for a lifetime.

For instance, athletes who train intensively can develop large amounts of muscle that add to the body's overall weight. Thus we could find that taller individuals who are obviously overweight are being given a similar BMI to shorter athletes.

Have a conversation with your child's doctor if you are very concerned. Remember that many children carry their baby weight well into their older childhood years, and some children put on weight right before a growth spurt. While an adult may be able to do a fad diet or get weight loss surgery in Mexico, a child's body is growing and changing, so making drastic changes can be incredibly harmful to their ability to grow.

Yes, to some extent. Weight loss is relatively slow, but Dr. Sears attributes that to the fact that the weight lost is nearly all from fat and not muscle or water. Those who stick to the Zone Diet find that even if their weight doesn't melt away, they have healthier cholesterol levels and/or blood pressure, resulting in decreased risk of heart disease and other obesity-related health issues.

Other factors that make this diet effective are that it is relatively easy to follow "one-third" and "size-of-palm" rules, and that online membership is free with inexpensive cookbooks available.

Also, let your children learn to make healthy dietary choices. Teach them what foods will give them the energy they need to be active. As you incorporate these foods into their diet, allow them to make their own choices, picking foods they like to eat from the selection of foods that are healthy.

While the medical community has yet to completely adopt a successor to the BMI measurement, the fact that there are accurate options to choose from is encouraging. With the number of people that use their BMI ratio as evidence that they need to fly down to Mexico for weight loss surgery, it pays to use a measurement that can tell you the true state of your body and your health before making such an important decision.




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