The number of kids who are overweight and obese is rising rapidly. In fact, 1 in 4 kids are now overweight. Studies show that many kids are eating too much food, too much junk food and not exercising enough. In our segment Dr Rosemary Stanton gave some practical suggestions on how to tackle this problem.
Plan of action
Do not victimise fat children. Instead, work at changing our ‘obesogenic’ environment. That includes leaving the car at home more often, having more fun exercise (like flying kites or going swimming), having healthier school canteens, not stocking junk foods at home and doing something about advertising campaigns directed at kids.
Food issues
Drinks: water is best. Keep cold water in the fridge, freeze a bottle of water for the school lunch box and make a rule that kids drink only water in the car. It’s also important to set a good example yourself. Soft drinks are ok, but they’re not suitable as an everyday drink. Fruit juices contain vitamins, but one a day is enough. Fat-reduced milk is best for kids over 4 years old.
Breakfast: start with a good cereal like Weetbix or VitaBrits. Add some low-fat milk, fruit and perhaps some toast.
Lunch: use different kinds of bread and don’t add packets of crisps to the lunch box. For a treat, pop in some strawberries or blueberries.
Dinner: most home-cooked meals are healthier than takeaways. A homemade hamburger can have less than 10g of fat, but some fast food burgers have 3 times that much. Restrict fast foods to once or twice per month.
Snacks: keep plenty of fruit, different kinds of bread and healthy cereals in the house, and encourage the kids to make smoothies.
Advertising
Some kids eat junk foods as ‘every day’ foods instead of ‘sometimes’ foods. Rosemary thinks that’s partly due to advertising. There are regulations that say ads shouldn’t encourage kids to put undue pressure on their parents. If your kids pester you to buy advertised foods or drinks, write to the Advertising Standards Board and let them know.
There have been some recent claims that Sweden banned advertising during children’s TV viewing in 1992 and that the level of obesity continued to rise. Rosemary thinks such claims are misleading because Swedish TV didn’t allow advertisements at all before 1992. So kids didn’t see ads on Swedish television before the ban either and it’s therefore not valid to say an advertising ban didn’t work. Obesity is actually a much smaller problem in Sweden and the graph used to supposedly show banning ads doesn’t work is actually for 18 year-old males who are heavier now than they were in 1992, but are still not overweight.
Rosemary’s recommendations
There is no single answer to the problems of excess weight. It is a matter of eating less and moving more. Rosemary suggests that just as many little things added up to cause the problem, we need to do lots of small things to help solve the problem of obesity. Start by cutting back on junk food and enjoying more activity.
Further information
Advertising Standards Bureau
Level 2
97 Northbourne Avenue
Turner, ACT 2612
Fax: (02) 6262 9833
Email: [email protected]
(Note: complaints must be made in writing, and lodged by mail, fax or email. Telephone complaints will not be considered.)