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On the front page of the December issue of the Pediatric News journal was the new recommendation to test all 9 to 11 year olds for cholesterol level.  According to this article, “…heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular problems in adulthood are often the end result of cardiovascular risk factors that went unrecognized throughout childhood…”1
I’m glad to see that we, as pediatricians, are acknowledging the fact that heart disease, like many other diseases, really starts in childhood.  And while I fully support the screening process, I’m much more interested in prevention.  What should we do during that first decade of our children’s lives to make the screening unnecessary?  It’s all about diet and lifestyle.
For the past thirty years, child health has been going in the wrong direction. Childhood overweight and obesity has skyrocketed during the past 3 decades.  And that trend is directly linked to the increased incidence of a variety of heart related disorders in children, most notably high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, and high cholesterol levels.  This is a very serious problem, given that epidemiologists are proposing that life expectancy for this rising generation of children could be shortened by as much as eight years.  So, what are the primary factors leading to these disturbing trends?

• Our reliance on convenient foods that are full of additives and sugar while deficient in nutrients.  Our fast paced lifestyle has us purchasing more fast food, and more prepackaged foods to feed our families compared to previous generations.

• our schools are largely feeding our children prepared, and often fried foods, offering minimal fruits and vegetables.  Schools also rely heavily on snack and soda vending machines for revenue, at the expense of children’s health.

• our children are leading sedentary, technology saturated lifestyles. With the average child spending about 7 hours using media daily (yikes!), our children are being deprived of needed physical activity.  And schools have severely reduced or eliminated physical education in the curriculum.

We need to make some fundamental changes in the way we feed our children.  Don’t believe the myth that children don’t need to worry about what they eat until they grow older.  We have known for years that the roots of heart disease begin in childhood.  And remember, the habits they develop in childhood will persist into adulthood, so we want to instill the right habits now.  Here’s what we can do:

• Provide our children with a diet high in fruits and vegetables.  Studies have shown that even as early as toddler age, our children’s diets are severely deficient in fruits and vegetables.  It will take creativity given their finicky appetites, but there are numerous resources available.  Check out “The Sneaky Chef” by Missy Chase Lapine or the website www.cancerproject.org for menu ideas.

• Provide more home cooked meals for our children, so that we can ensure that they are receiving freshly prepared and healthy ingredients in their meals.  Studies have shown that children who eat more meals at home have lower rates of obesity and other health problems.

• Get our children exercising more.  The recommended level of activity is 60 minutes of vigorous activity every day.  I know it sounds daunting, but just getting them outside for free play will peak their natural tendency to exercise.  And we can exercise with them.  Remember to make it fun.  Playing ball together, family walks, or even family P90X.We often say that we want our children to have a better life than we have; so let’s give them a better legacy of health and longevity!

  Reference:

  1)      Splete, H.  Test Cholesterol in all 9- to 11-year olds. Pediatric News.  December 2011, Vol 45, No. 12.

   

If you ate too much at Thanksgiving dinner, it’s probably not a big deal.  But for many people, Thanksgiving is the beginning of a six week period of eating too much, and bingeing on way too many of the wrong foods.  Of course, the easy access to food makes it difficult to resist.  During the holiday season, so many people bring in “treats” to work, like cookies, cake and donuts.  Therefore many people start gaining weight over the holidays that they usually never burn off, and so starts the cycle of gaining weight year after year.

But if you caught the Dr. Oz show last week, you realize that carrying excess weight is much more than a cosmetic issue.  In fact, while most people know that being overweight is linked to heart disease and diabetes, many are surprised to hear how much it contributes to cancer.  It’s now estimated that 1 in 3 Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.  But you can substantially minimize your chances of being diagnosed with the most common cancers by achieving a healthy weight.

However, if you have tried to lose weight by listening to the most popular health advice out there, you’ve probably discovered that it doesn’t work.  For example, I was recently talking to a woman who told me she doesn’t understand why she can’t lose weight since she doesn’t eat much at all, and she rarely eats sweets, and she eats a lot of “low fat” and “low cholesterol” options.  So what’s the problem?  First, infrequent eating often works against you, because it slows your metabolism and creates wide swings in your blood sugar levels.  Second, losing weight is much more about what you do eat than what you don’t eat.  While it’s good to avoid a lot of sweets, it’s even more essential to get the right foods in every day.  And finally, many of the packaged foods labeled “low fat” or “low cholesterol” are loaded with sugar and refined grains and artificial flavors.  These strategies will not lead to weight loss.

I’ve spent a lot of time learning the research on what really leads to weight loss and reversal of chronic diseases, and I’ve learned how to cut through all the confusing information out there and get to the simple truths of what our bodies really need for optimal health.  It doesn’t require laboriously counting calories, starving yourself with the hCG diet, or depriving your body of essential nutrients on a low carbohydrate diet.

Starting in January, A Healthy Tomorrow is launching our brand new Online Health Club, where I will lay out step by step the journey to permanent weight loss and incredible health gain for children and adults.  The first month is free!  Look for more details over the next few weeks.

Here’s a tip to get you started on your journey to a healthy weight:

Eat beans every day.  Beans are high in fiber, filling, a great source of protein, and very versatile and inexpensive.  Don’t like beans?  Try this:  grind up the cooked beans in a blender and mix the pureed beans into another dish.  For great bean recipes, visit http://www.beanbible.com

Soda has become the All-American drink.  Soda drinking has increased substantially over the past 30 years in adults and children, and now accounts for 25% of all drinks consumed in the U.S.  But that 12 ounce “soft drink” is really hard on the body.  Until a year ago, I regularly drank soda like most people.  But when I started to learn about what soda was actually doing to my health, I canned the habit for good.  So I want to make sure that you know that soda is no “soft drink.”  Here are 4 ways that soda wreaks havoc on your body:

Soda is full of sugar: An average 12 oz soda contains 10 to 12 teaspoons of sugar, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup.  By now, most people know that sugar is a major culprit in weight gain.  But here’s a lesser known fact: the amount high fructose corn syrup in a single can of soda can raise the oxidative stress levels in your body for up to four hours!  Oxidative stress is a process in the body that causes damage to the cells and DNA.

Soda acidifies your body:  Space does not permit me to discuss the critical relationship between your body’s pH and your health.  But in summary, your body requires a slightly alkaline pH to perform optimally.  When the body’s pH drops merely from the optimal 7.4 down to 7.2, you are extremely sick.  Well, the pH of soda ranges between 2.3 to 4, which is highly acidic.  Introducing such an acidic liquid into your body makes it work hard to eliminate the acid and retain its alkaline state.  Disease thrives in acidic environments!  So, can the soda habit, and instead, drink water (pure, alkaline water is ideal) to keep your body disease-resistant.

Soda is bad for your bones:  And not just old bones, but even adolescents experience weakened bones from soda consumption. The cause may be a direct effect of leaching calcium from the bones because of excess phosphoric acid in soda.  On the other hand, the cause may be a low calcium diet in soda drinkers.  Whatever the case, is that Pepsi or Sprite really worth an increased risk of a broken hip?

Diet soda is equally bad: You may be thinking that you’re doing your body a favor by drinking diet soda.  “At least,” you may reason, “I’m not taking in all those calories and sugar!” Aside from the fact that artificial sugars are toxic chemicals (e.g. aspartame is associated with fibromyalgia, seizures and panic attacks, reduced memory and cognition), new research shows that artificial sugar increases your craving for sugar, and is associated with increased weight gain in the long term.

Soda is one of the many non-foods that we regularly consume that toxifies our bodies.  Instead, we need to start building up our bodies with whole foods and whole food nutrients that strengthen our systems for optimal performance.

References

http://www.americanchiropractic.net/general_%20interest/Statistics%20and%20Dangers%20of%20Soda%20.pdf

Logan, A. The Brain Diet.  (2006). Nashville, TN, Cumberland House Publishing.