Diet Management:
By urging children to eat more fruits and vegetables, you can inspire a much healthier lifestyle that is actually fun for kids! Replace soda and sugary drinks with water, milk, or fruit juices. Healthy after-school snacks and eating 4-5 small meals per day can help keep their appetite satiated, without resulting in the binge eating of unhealthy foods that can result in childhood obesity.
Give Them Freedom:
Allow children to make healthier choices as an alternative ad do not teach them about the complicated rules of calorie counting and nutrition as that may make them feel guilty without solving anything.
Be a Role Model:
Obesity often runs in families because children do what their parents do. For this reason, if you want to help your obese child lose weight, be a role model! Eat healthier foods, but also, start riding your bike more often – become more active and fit. Try to get your children to be active for at least 60 minutes per day and promote activities like football, baseball, or any other group activity. Also , try to prepare more meals at home, particularly breakfast and dinner, when your children are at home.
Limit Sedentary Activities:
Sedentary activity not only promotes snacking, eating, and obesity, but also decreases the physical movement and activity of the children. So limit activities such as watching tv playing video games and other sedentary activities.
Nutrition Tips
1. The glycemic load is key
This is the measure of how quickly a food containing carbohydrates turns into glucose. Studies have shown that when a kid eats a high-glycemic meal, his blood-glucose surges and then plummets -- leaving him even hungrier. A low-glycemic meal takes longer to digest so a child's blood sugar stays steady, and he'll feel full longer. In general, low-glycemic carbs have more fiber and are less processed.
2. Choose lots of veggies and fruits (but not all of them)
No surprise here: You should pile on the produce. However, corn and potatoes have a high glycemic index, and certain tropical fruits, such as bananas and pineapple, are more likely to contribute to weight gain than apples, grapes, oranges, cantaloupe, kiwi, or berries.
3. Try to include protein in most meals and snacks
In addition to being filling, protein stimulates the release of a hormone that helps the body release stored fat to use for energy, says Dr. Ludwig.
4. Fat isn't always the enemy
Healthy fats like unsaturated oils, nut butters, and avocado slow down digestion, and they make fruit, veggies, and whole grains even more filling. Fat is actually vital to health: It's needed to make cell membranes throughout the body -- and the types of fat your child eats affect his immune system, nervous system, and overall health.
5. Avoid foods that your great-grandparents couldn't have recognized
Fake foods (think chicken nuggets, fruit roll-ups, cheese puffs, and other highly processed products bearing no resemblance to anything found in nature) are rarely healthy choices, says Dr. Ludwig. When you choose grains, look for the least-processed options, such as stone-ground wheat bread, steel-cut oatmeal, and brown rice.
6. Food can affect behavior, too
When your child's blood sugar drops soon after a high-glycemic meal, she also has a surge in the stress hormone adrenaline. That can make her cranky, irritable, or unable to focus in class.
7. Kids don't have to feel deprived
No parent wants to put their child on a diet. But if the whole family focuses on low-glycemic eating, one child who has a weight problem won't feel singled out. By helping him focus on the quality of the food he's eating rather than the quantity, he can eat until he feels satisfied and still lose weight. For more information, go to endingthefoodfight.com.
Foods That Fill You Up
Shift the balance to carbs with a low- or medium-glycemic load, and cut back on ones that are high. Some examples:
- LOW Broccoli, carrots, avocado, apples, berries, beans, steel-cut oatmeal, hummus, nuts, unsweetened peanut butter, plain yogurt (add honey and fruit), milk, cheese
- MEDIUM Pineapple, sweet potatoes, banana, dried fruit, applesauce, sweetened peanut butter, pasta, high-fiber cereal, stone-ground bread, brown rice, ice cream
- HIGH Corn, potatoes, white rice, french fries, chips, huice, jam, sweetened yogurt, most bread, pancakes, waffles, pizza, popcorn, pretzels, taco shells, quick-cooking oatmeal, most cereal, frozen yogurt.
There are plenty of other options that can be applied to your child’s lifestyle and behavioral patterns, but these listed above have been tried and true, and can definitely solve the problem of childhood obesity for members of your family.