Kids Health

Nutrition is hardly being taught in our schools and yet the knowledge of what to eat is of such crucial importance, that quite literally your life and that of your children is at stake.

Nutritional intake, as we all know, is directly related to our bodily functions.

And if we eat more than we need, we get fat! And certain foodstuffs often send the wrong signals. Carbohydrates are worse than fats. Fats tend to give us a "full" feeling a lot quicker than carbs (grains, sugar etc)

We can have wonderful theories about how and what and why and.... etc...

we don't get fat from not eating.

Calories in, Calories out!

How do calories get out?

You burn them... you burn them by simply living, by walking and talking.

You burn calories by daily activities.

How much depends of course on the nature of the activity.

You drink a can of Coke, expect an intake of some 160 calories.!!!

You'd have to walk for at least 30 to 40 minutes to burn those calories.

250 ml of chocolate milk 189 cal. !!

40 minutes of downhill skiing.

Chocolate chip and marshmallow granola bar 120 cal. !!

30 minutes of easy roller blading.

Double burger with veggies etc. 540 cal.!!

1 hour of jumping rope.

Slice of medium cheese pizza 140 cal.!!

30 minutes dancing.

10 jelly beans 104 cal. !!!

30 minutes biking.

250 ml Frosted flakes 140 cal.!!

30 minutes of strolling.

regular 4" bagel 245 cal.!!

30 minutes of jump rope

This gives you a bit of an idea when you read about calorie content on a box of cereal, on snacks and other foodstuffs.

Child obesity rates are soaring across Canada. Now one in four Canadians between the ages 2 and 17 are overweight or obese, and the numbers are increasing.

And so is juvenile diabetes

On top of that there are now children as young as 15 years old with clogging arteries and high cholesterol.

Cholesterol clogging the arteries?

That's what the drug companies would like you to believe, but it is not true.

Cholesterol does not clog arteries., Cholesterol is a a vital substance needed in every cell of the body .Cholesterol is needed to construct the important membranes which surround cells.

There is much more information on the Healthy Heart page.

The real villains in our body are the free radicals. Some we produce ourselves because our bodies are continually renewing, but many are produced in a variety of different ways.

Smoking is one of the worst, always linked to lung cancer, it is even more deadly to your heart. The free radicals do damage to your arteries and your arteries get all sorts of help to repair the damage. Cholesterol, among other things is needed for the repair and the Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL) are the carriers to get it there.

Free radical damage is also caused by sugar and wheat flour; especially wheat flour with the germ and bran removed. Right ! White bread!

Furthermore there are the vegetable oils, sometimes loaded with transfats and always loaded with Omega6 fatty acids A more unstable fatty acid and easily damaged by free radical activity. Far better to get enough Omega3.

When buying margarine check for non-hydrogenated (transfats) and a balance between Omega3 and Omega 6 of 1:2, otherwise -if you can afford it- forget the whole margarine spiel and treat yourself to butter.

Remember this, and this may sound like heresy, but saturated fats are not the problem a lot of nutritionists would still like us to believe. Expect the Food pyramid to be adapted, little bit by little bit. However there is a lot of commercial interest at stake and I would not want to gamble my life and health on the shaky premises on which present nutrional advice is based.

According to one of the highest sources (Head of the Nutrition and Health Department at Harvard: dr Walter Willet) the changes in the nutritional recommendations are long overdue.

The three most feared are white bread, sugar, and polyunsaturated fats, especially Omega 6 However we might as well include whole wheat bread as well. If you have read "Wheat Belly" by dr. William Davis,MD, you know exactly why (http://www.wheatbellyblog.com

So what example are we setting for our kids??

or are we not going to be around anymore......

when our kids will be struggling with

early onset of diabetes ...??

It's not like we don't have a Choice !!!!

It is never too early to explain to your child how their daily lives will horribly change when they have to deal with the consequences of diabetes. Ask your school to get a health practitioner to explain these things to the students.

Word of Caution !!

When starting on a program of more exercise, don't overdo it. Especially when your child has not been very active, and certainly when he/she is overweight. Our body has a tendency to accumulate all sorts of toxins that we inhale or ingest. This is stored in the fat through our body. As soon as you start burning off that excess fat, those toxins are being released into the blood stream and subsequently through liver and kidneys removed from the body. Not all these toxins will make you sick, but some might give you a headache. Usually because there is more garbage in your bloodstream and less room for oxygen transportation, which annoys the gray matter up in your head.

Rest assured it is a passing thing and indication of something positive happening.

I can't get my child to exercise at all

Especially with kids who are already rather overweight, it is quite often a struggle: they cannot really participate in games other kids play, they are slow, shy.embarrassed, etc.

You may have to take a different route and get them to lose weigth first and get their stamina improved. The best thing to do that is in the safe security of your own home, where nobody will laugh or ridicule them. Let them keep it a secret, and let them surpise everybody when they are ready to join the school marathon. That'll be a victory so sweet!

You would have to invest in a treadmill, a rowing machine, or one of those computer games that require a lot of body activity.

And no, it does not have to be a 1000 dollar machine. They usually range from less than $300 and higher for a decent one. If you're lucky you can find one in the Classifieds and otherwise wait until Canadian Tire has them on special.

A lot of people start out enthusiastically, but find the going too tough and quit. Scour the Classifieds and the PennySavers, the Shoppers Markets, etc.

The attraction with these things is that a person can listen to their own music, can even watch tv.

Start slowly, alternate walking with short bursts of sprint. Walking at 2 to 3 mph and sprints at over 5mph.

Increase the length of the sprints over time and jog in between at 3-4 mph.

Try not to land on the heel or flat of your foot but on the ball of your foot when jogging or running.

Your calf muscles will hurt in the beginning, but that will eventually disappear.