Quincy Chiropractor Milton Chiropractic Dr. Jay Provenzano — More and more we hear about obesity in the news and how unhealthy it is to be overweight. Well for quite some time now it has been affecting our children too.
This phenomenon is mostly due to poor diet and lack of exercise. It is too easy to grab a bag of chips and a soda while playing video games than it is to make a wholesome sandwich or have a piece of fruit and have a glass of water. This trend that we are allowing our kids to make habit is what is going to ultimately lead to early onset diabetes, high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease and/or high blood pressure.
So what are we going to do about it?
Well my suggestion for those parents with young children or infants is to start them off right by giving them, for their first foods, vegetables! Then after several months add fruit so they do not acquire a taste for the sweetness.
For those parents that have children that they know are struggling with weight is to start educating yourself and your child. Don’t buy the products that are unhealthy so they will not be tempted by it.
There are also several cookbooks out there that help make healthy foods “taste” better to your child. Essentially we need to help our kids make better choices but we also need to lead by example, which will only help the adults as well.
It’s about being proactive and not taking a leisure approach to the foods our kids eat. The FDA has approved over 14,000 chemical additives to be used in our foods. Our bodies don’t know what to do with these chemicals so it stores them as fat. That’s why eating real food is the only way to go.
Dark green leafy vegetables, fuit, fish, chicken nuts and seeds. General rule of thumb, if it comes in a box, bag or can its probably not the best choice. Also, sticking to the perimeter of the super market is where the ‘healthiest” and most fresh foods are!
Of course in the world we currently live there’s a pill for that. However, those pills don’t come risk free. They all have “side effects” that typically include: headache, nausea, vomiting, constipation or diarrhea, muscle pain or weakness, inflammation, fatigue, nerve damage and a possible break down of muscle tissue which can be fatal. Given these facts I would choose changing my diet as opposed to the aforementioned list of drug symptoms.
It would certainly be who of who to talk to your family chiropractor about lifestyle changes to make in order to reduce your risk of obesity and your child’s. This topic is constantly discussed in my office and when armed with the right information most people do very well!