A Healthy Tomorrow

Building Wellness Into The Next Generation

child health

Change 1 Thing! October Challenge

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“Change 1 Thing” Challenge

Have You Accepted the Challenge?

Take One Year to Develop a Lifetime of Optimal Health!

“Change One Thing” is a 12 step process over one year to help you achieve your health goals.  You simply commit to make one change in your lifestyle every month, so that by the end of the year, you will have completely transformed to a healthy lifestyle. Are you willing to take the challenge?

Your October Challenge (should you choose to accept it):

“I Will Restrict My Media Diet”

How is television (and other media) making us unhealthy?

Advertisements.

  • Several studies looked at food advertising on tv.  One study found that during Saturday morning television aimed at kids, 91% of foods advertised were high in fat, sodium or added sugars and low in nutrients.
  • Another study found that if you eat a diet consisting of the foods advertised during prime time and Saturday mornings, you will eat 25 times the recommended servings of sugar, 20 times the recommended servings of fat, and less than half  the recommended servings of fruits, vegetables and dairy.  The food promoted also contains low quality grains (ie mostly refined, low-fiber grains), and a deficiency of many important minerals and vitamins such as calcium, magnesium and vitamin E.
  • Content: The content of television has changed; it’s now much more fast-paced and flashy. A recent study showed that just 9 minutes of watching fast-paced cartoons resulted in a significantly worse performance on executive functioning tasks (like organization and time-management) compared to the same amount of time watching educational programming or drawing.
  • Time: Five hours of television daily adds up to 35 hours per week, almost equivalent to a full-time job, thereby  monopolizing time that could be used doing more family-friendly and healthy activities
  • Impact on Mental Health: Increased screen time is associated with attentional problems and poorer school performance.
  • Health: TV and video game time compete for physical activity, and therefore contribute to overweight. Studies have found that kids who watch too much television, and get too little physical activity are 3 to 4 times more likely to be overweight than kids who follow the recommended time in front of a screen and being active.

So what should our media diet be?

  • For kids less than 2, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time. Children in this age group learn much more effectively by interacting with a person rather than a screen.
  • For kids older than 2, no more than 2 hours of good-quality programming per day.
  • Adults: No official recommendation, but be the role-model by limiting your own screen time

What can you expect from this one change?

  • Weight loss: by replacing screen time with more physical activity, you will be on your way to achieve a healthy weight
  • Improved mood: Physical activity releases hormones that improve our mood
  • Better school performance and reading ability

Suggestions to make it happen

  • Give your children fun alternatives to screen time
  • Keep children’s bedrooms television free
  • Turn the tv off at bedtime

Don’t forget to continue your:

January habit of drinking at least 8 glasses of water per day (1/2 your weight in ounces of water per day)

February habit of eating 7 to 9 servings of fruit and vegetables per day

March habit of replacing refined white foods with whole grains

April habit of exercising for at least 30 minutes 3 times per week

May habit of detoxifying your system daily

June habit of sleeping for 7 to 8 hours each night

July habit of Eating early, eating often and stopping before it’s too late!

August habit of Increasing Omega 3 Fatty Acids in your diet

September habit of sharing a home-cooked meal with my family at least 3 times per week

Creative Ways to Get Your Kids to Appreciate Vegetables

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If American kids had disposable incomes, they’d probably buy groceries like every day was Halloween – reams of Twizzlers, bushels of candy corn, and pounds of M&M’s, Reese’s, and Kit Kats. Unfortunately, the popular US diet (for adults as well as kids) has its consequences. Namely, 39.6 percent of adults are obese. (Obesity is defined as having a BMI over 30.)

Perhaps even more alarming, about one in three US adolescents or teens is overweight or obese. The health risks associated with excess weight include sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. That’s why it’s important to teach your kids to eat well: so that they grow up to be healthy, active adults. To do so, this might mean coming up with creative ways to inspire your children to appreciate and enjoy that most dreaded of meals: vegetables. Here are some helpful tips to get you started courtesy of guest blogger Jason Kenner.

Farmers Market

If your kids eat at the school cafeteria every day, their idea of “healthy food” might narrow down to neon-colored peas or pineapple chunks smushed into plastic ramekins. To teach them about the bounty and splendor of vegetables, take them to a farmers market. You may not know yourself that these markets offer interesting and unusual veggies. From Kohlrabi, Jerusalem artichokes, and green zebra tomatoes to Romanesco broccoli with its intricate coral-like patterns, the offerings can be as lush and varied as perennials in a plant nursery! Letting your kids pick vegetables out of the booths might prove to be enough of a hands-on experience to get them at least familiar with some of the healthiest foods in the world.

Raised Vegetable Beds

If there aren’t many farmers markets in your area, you might consider planting a raised vegetable bed. All you need is to hammer four planks (preferably cedar, since it’s rot-resistant) into a box. Dig out a square gulch, not too deep, in your backyard and fit the box over it and fill it with manure and fertilizer. Then, poke your finger through the surface to make rows where you plant your seedlings. Each vegetable has its own preference regarding sun, shade, moisture, and the month of the year to put it in the ground, but you’ll get all that down. And when you do, you’ll be feeding your kids heirloom tomatoes all summer long, right out of your garden.

Something else to bear in mind: if your backyard needs some additional modifications, as an added bonus, many kinds of home renovations can also increase the appraisal value of your home. Just make sure you keep those receipts!

Delicious Meals

Parents don’t have loads of free time, so serving your kids gorgeous vegetable medleys may seem preposterous. If so, then try looking up recipes meant to be simple weeknight fare. These might include quesadillas, spaghetti with lentils, tortilla or minestrone soup, or spaghetti squash burrito bowls. Making vegetables a staple of your kids’ diet from a young age may help them eat well for the rest of their lives, a routine that will prove invaluable to their health as they get older.

It’s also essential that your kids are drinking enough water every day. Not only will they avoid the extra sugar that comes with soda and juices, but drinking water removes toxins, prevents dehydration, and regulates body temperature.

Parenting Tricks

Meanwhile, if all these tips fail to lure your kids away from McDonald’s and Arby’s, try good old parenting trickery. Dress up your platter o’ asparagus or broccoli with a dab of butter (which is better for you than you might think) or a fun dip. Make them pick their vegetables out of your raised garden beds so that they can participate in the (suburban) farm-to-table process on their own. Finally, eat vegetables yourself, keep them out as appetizers during meals, and don’t pressure your kids to swallow every wedge of cauliflower on their plates. The less you stress about the importance of eating vegetables, the less they’ll latch onto it as a point of contention, until it’s simply part of your household’s regular diet.

Dr. Teresa Fuller is a pediatrician with an expertise in integrative holistic medicine. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

Prioritizing the Importance of Nature for Our Children’s Health

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I’m so excited that one of the priorities for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2019 is connecting children and families with nature. In the Jan 2019 edition of AAP news, Dr. Yasuda, current AAP president, notes the research findings that benefits of exposure to green spaces for our kids include “greater physical activity, better mental health, reduced stress and increased resilience.” Further “nature helps improve their executive function, their ability to learn and their relationships with their families and other children.”
Richard Louv has been highlighting these findings for at least a decade, starting with his best-selling book “Last Child in the Woods” which outlines the many research proven benefits of time spent in nature. In fact, in a recent inspiring article on this topic, Dr. Louv invites us to imagine a world “….where antidepressants and pharmaceuticals are needed less and nature prescribed more. Where obesity – of children and adults – is reduced through nature play.” Read the full article, and get inspired to enjoy some family time in your local park or playground or even your own backyard.


References


Yasuda, Kyle, M.D, AAP News, Vol 40, No. 1, January 2019. P. 6


Louv, Richard, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008