Healthy Eating Habits in Children - The Secret

Although, not a well publicized statistic, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past two decades-15% of American children are obese according to the U.S. Obesity Task Force.

With TV commercials bombarding children's minds with 'junk food' options and fast food restaurants enticing parents to 'take a break' from tedious cooking by offering toys or a play room, staying on a healthy eating plan is difficult. In addition, playing outside is a distant thought if children are accustomed to using T.V. the computer, and a plethora of video games as fun activities. Couple this with no P.E. in school and parents have an up hill climb.

There is good news, however. Humans are born with the most important effective weight management tool-a hypothalamus, which helps to regulate the amount of food required for maintaining optimum health and weight.

The main function of the hypothalamus is homeostasis, or maintaining the body's status quo. Factors such as blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance, and body weight are held to a precise value called the set-point. Although this set-point can migrate over time, from day to day it is remarkably fixed.

If you have cared for or observed infants and young children, you know that it is difficult to make them eat when they are not hungry-and it is almost impossible to deal with them when they are hungry. Toddlers in perpetual motion sometimes eat only small amounts of food, but they eat frequently enough to meet their needs, because at this juncture their natural weight management tool has not been overridden or indoctrinated with poor nutrition habits and eating practices.

You have probably noticed that during periods of rapid growth, particularly the teen years, children may be hungry all the time. When their calorie requirements decrease, they lose interest in food-thus they avoid eating more than their body needs.

The bad news is if parents have poor nutrition habits and/or use food to soothe emotional pain, or numb out pain-a.k.a. mindless eating, children will be indoctrinated with these poor habits and practices. For example, if parents or caregivers feed a baby to calm them every time they cry, the baby soon learns that eating is the only way to receive soothing for discomfort. When they are given food to keep them quiet or busy, they learn that they can distract and entertain themselves with food.

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