By Rev. Dr. Sean Stringer, dc, mo, ctth
Obesity in the United States is at an epidemic rate. Over 75% of the U.S. adult population is overweight or obese with there being more obese than overweight individuals. The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s. Today, about twenty percent of school-aged children has obesity and one in three children are overweight or obese.
Obesity is defined as having excess body fat. Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors. It has been stated this is the first generation in history that will be outlived by their parents. Currently, the annual health care costs for an obese child is three times that of a healthy weight child and it will only grow from here unless we do something about it.
One of my areas of specialty is in weight management. I have helped 602 people in a two year span shed a total of 16,344 pounds of body fat with a three year success rate of over 95% of people keeping the weight off.. There are too many factor to cover in this article when successfully losing weight, but here are the top 5 recommendations of what you need to do in order to help your children lose weight and get healthy again.
Drink more water. Take your child’s weight and divide it by two. That should roughly be how many ounces of water they should be drinking per day.
Eliminate all sodas, juices, or other sweetened drinks (even artificially sweetened). Excess sugar is stored as fat and this is what is making your child fat. Artificial sweetened drinks cause more weight gain than regular drinks plus they are far worse for their health. So eliminate these drinks and get them used to water.
Eliminate processed and fast foods. If it is not made from fresh ingredients, do not let your child eat them. Processed and fast foods are high in carbohydrates which will pack that fat on to your child. Eliminate these foods from your child’s diet altogether.
Have them eat more good fats. Good fats are found in avocados, coconut oil, olive oil, grass fed butter, grass-fed ghee (clarified butter), avocado oil, grape seed oil, olive oil, red palm oil, nuts and seeds. These are the safest oils for your child (and you for that matter) to consume that are healthy for you. Vegetable oils and canola oils are not good for your health and should be avoided at all costs. 60-80% of your child’s calories should be coming from fats. And so you know….eating fats does not cause you to store fats.
More veggies and less fruit. Fruit are higher in sugars and should be eaten less. Depending on your child, they should eat 6-8 servings of vegetables per day and 1-2 servings of fruit. If you find it difficult to get your child to eat that many servings, then your next best alternative would be to get your child on a fruit and veggie nutritional supplement. Preferably a high grade one. If you would like recommendations on which feel free to contact me via email and I would be happy to share with you some good and affordable brands.
Again, obesity is an out-of-control freight train that must be stopped. I know how difficult it can be to make these changes but the quicker and earlier you do it in your child’s life, the better the outcomes will be. Start with one of the recommendations above and do it over the next 3 weeks and then add another over the next three weeks and so on. By making smaller changes over a longer time frame, the more likely you are to make this a permanent lifestyle change you and your child will be successful at adopting permanently.
BodyMind
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