There’s a surge in the percentage of children that are overweight, obese or extremely obese. It’s a phenomenon that’s world wide for both children and adults. It’s more prevalent in adults with half the adults being overweight, obese or extremely obese and one in every six child falling into those categories. While it is prevalent in America, it’s also high in Mexico, New Zealand and Hungry. Until recently, Japan and Korea were the countries with the lowest obesity rates, but as the Western food permeates the cultures, Obesity is rising in Japan due to a change to the Western diet. That tells you it’s primarily from the food eaten and a sedentary lifestyle. It’s easier to stop childhood obesity before it has a chance to start.
Start by focusing on eating habits.
It’s easy to understand why kids and adults gain weight. The American diet is horrible. Everywhere you look there’s an advertisement for sugary foods, burgers and fries. Fruit drinks are far removed from fruit juice and even juice isn’t as healthy as water and a piece of fruit. Even food that calls itself healthy, really isn’t. High fructose corn syrup may come from a natural source, but there’s nothing natural about it. The body doesn’t process it properly and it adds to the extra pounds in the population. Furthermore, it’s cheap, so manufacturers put it in everything. Eating healthy has become a lost art that’s hard to regain due to the changes in society.
Kids and adults are less active.
While I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to the days when children worked in the fields doing manual labor or we had no conveniences that made our work easier, America is just too sedentary. Our outlets aren’t physical, with many of them involving just the muscles of the fingers to type. Even work is far less active. This inactivity slows the metabolism and burns fewer calories daily.
The solution is easy to identify, but not nearly as easy to institute.
A healthier population needs to have a better diet and be more active. Both adult obesity and childhood obesity take their toll in type2 diabetes, increased risk of cardiovascular disease and increased risk of several types of cancer. It attacks the esteem of the obese person and creates social isolation. Switching to a diet of whole foods with limited processed foods and ensuring a program of daily activity or a protocol of fitness can reverse the problem. It’s not easy and it takes the efforts of the whole family.
You don’t have to have an obese child to understand how healthy eating and a program of fitness can help them grow up healthier and fitter with a longer life.
Eating healthy doesn’t have to become a huge fight. Making healthy switches to lower calories and increase nutrition can make the change barely noticeable. There’s a lot of healthy snacks your kids will love.
Too often children learn what they live. If you want your children to be more active, you should be more active, too. Plan fun family weekends of hiking, roller blading or bike riding. You’ll be making memories, having fun and improving everyone’s health.
If you’re not sure where to start, contact us at Evolution Lifestyle Fitness. We have programs to improve your fitness and ones to help you learn how to eat healthier. No matter what you or your child’s weight, there’s help for everyone to get fitter and healthier.
For more information, contact us today: evolutionlifestylefitness.com