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A
goal for kids: Eat less, eat better
May 31, 2007
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
It’s
true that exercise is a key to weight control.
Not many of us, though, can climb enough stairs or walk long
enough to offset a steady diet of chicken biscuits and Krispy
Kremes. That’s as true for adults as it is for kids.
“My 7-year old is really struggling with his weight,”
one reader told me. “We’ve been increasing his
activity (ice hockey, roller blading, football, swimming,
DDR …) but it’s not making a significant impact.”
Consider that a 60-pound child would have to play football
or swim for an hour and fifteen minutes to burn off one six-piece
order of Chicken McNuggets. Add a can of soda and that child
would need to ride his bike for another hour and twenty minutes.
That’s why it’s critical for parents and kids
to get a handle on how to plan and fix meals that nourish
without piling on excess pounds. As every parent knows, it’s
not an easy thing to do.
Where to start? A smattering of reasonable resources exists,
beginning with books on feeding kids ages 5 through 12. They
include:
* American Dietetic Association Guide to Healthy Eating for
Kids by Jodie Shield, RD and Mary Catherine Mullen, RD (Wiley,
2002). The book emphasizes advice to help kids make wise food
choices.
* A Parent’s Guide to Childhood Obesity: A Road Map
to Health by the American Academy of Pediatrics and Sandra
Hassink, MD (ADA, 2006). The book counsels parents on managing
snacking and sneaking food as well as how to partner with
school personnel and health care providers to help kids control
their weight.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also maintains
an interactive Body and Mind (BAM!) web site for kids that
includes games, kid-friendly recipes and snack ideas that
are useful. In contrast, I do not recommend the kid’s
version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture MyPyramid eating
guide. As I’ve covered in an earlier column, for all
practical purposes, it’s useless.
Two cookbooks I recommend are pleasant paperbacks with lay-flat
bindings and simple, wholesome recipes that are easy for older
kids to make on their own. They are Munchie Madness by Dorothy
Bates, Bobbie Hinman and Robert Oser (Book Publishing Company,
2001) and Kids Can Cook by Dorothy Bates (Book Publishing
Company, 2000).
The cookbooks are vegetarian, which is ideal because the recipes
are generally lower in saturated fat and emphasize fruits
and vegetables. Full disclosure: I wrote brief nutrition sections
for both and receive less than $35 per year in royalties.
For this summer, also keep these tips in mind:
* Cut poolside snacking. Kids don’t need chips and cookies
while they swim. A bottle of cold water to drink is enough.
Ditto for other sports events.
* Limit between-meal snacks to fruit. There’s plenty
of it in the summertime, including watermelon, cantaloupe
and honeydew melon. Frozen grapes and bananas are also refreshing.
Make healthy choices easy to access and keep desserts out
of reach until designated times.
* Fix lighter meals. A good dinner can be a toasted tomato
sandwich on whole wheat, a cantaloupe half with a scoop of
nonfat cottage cheese, a bean burrito or a bowl of whole grain
cereal with nonfat milk.
* Get your kids involved. Once they’re out of school,
take them to the farmers market and let them help shop for
food and plan and prepare meals. Let your kids contribute
to family meals so they gain a sense of pride and confidence
in their ability to care for themselves.
Any successful approach you take with your kids will necessarily
be flexible, since more often than not, it’s impractical
to script out precise daily menu plans.
But remember: Where consistency really counts is in the overall
goal for kids: Eat less and eat better.
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