Finding Answers to Childhood Obesity

Good morning to everybody,

          For quite a while by now, I have had this nagging thought coming back and forth to my mind: the fact that I don’t remember during my childhood and teenager years my mother being selective about what she put on our plates on a daily basis based on the calorie content of foods. 

         Being born and raised in Spain, our regular diet consisted of items like whole milk, butter and cheese products; substantial portions of saturated fat in our legume stews; fatty fish such as sardines (Spanish people have always appreciate fish because of its taste and low price), and bread with either a good size piece of chocolate or a generous portion of olive oil for our afternoon snacks among others. Olive oil was always present in our meals, one way or another as well as fruit and vegetables. In short, a diet to make health experts’ hair to stand on end!

          What amazes me now, looking back at those times, and after listening to nutrition experts’ mantra about the benefits of following a low fat diet to prevent obesity, is that nobody I knew at the time gained a pound with this diet! All my young friends were slim and, I would venture to say, healthy, considering the energy we spent playing outside day after day.

         Then, what could have been the reason for not gaining weight with this type of high fat calorie diet and at the same time being healthy? I would venture to say that the reason for not gaining weight was most likely the fact that we had no TVs, no computers, and no video games; in short, nothing that kept us glued to our chairs at home. But,  we did have friends! Lots of them! And we all played outside many hours a day, everyday.

          Being now a professional nutritionist, I have very few doubts by now that our daily physical activity at the time was what kept us thin and healthy. Thus, the question we need to ask those health professionals genuinely concerned with child obesity and trying to find a solution to this problem is: could it be that fomenting physical activity along with a healthy diet, and not a reduction in calories, should be our main objective when it comes to preventing child obesity? 

          Obesity is a serious health concern for children and adolescents. Data from NHANES surveys (1976–1980 and 2003–2006) show that the prevalence of obesity has increased: for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 12.4%; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5% to 17.0%; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5.0% to 17.6%.

With these figures in mind, let’s get serious about taking some serious ”action”.

Have a very healthy day, full of physical activity.

Emilia Klapp, BS, RD.
www.MediterraneanHeart.com