The Key to Improving Children's Health
Almost 30 years after the UN International Year of the Child , 2008 is shaping up to be a banner year focused upon improving the health of our children through the provision of nutritional information and recommendations for improvements to their lifestyle.
It seems a bit odd to be referring to lifestyle improvements for children; after all, don't children do what they've always done?
Wrong!
The lifestyles of children have changed dramatically and most of these changes are not positive for their health. Eating a breakfast bar during the morning bus commute to school is OK but it is not the same as sitting down at the kitchen table, having breakfast and then marching off to school. Playing the Wii game for a few hours a day in front of the widescreen is a lot of fun, but it is not the same as running your heart out chasing a soccer ball. Not the same for a child's mind nor a child's body.
Having a pizza delivered, with double everything and cheese product extruded into the crust might be great to order one night, but unless someone insists that everyone take a 5 km run afterwards, the extra calories have only one unflattering place to go. Do that or something similar a few times a week and you are beginning to talk about some pretty serious caloric and nutrient imbalances.
Maybe referring to children's lifestyle issues is not such a bad idea, after all.
The recent GMA Industry Health and Wellness Report highlights the goal of reducing obesity rates and encouraging healthy lifestyles for children. Not only do children have to be encouraged to pursue a fully balanced diet as shown in MyPyramid , but they should be taught the simple concept of energy balance and encouraged to do far more aerobic physical activity to keep their weight in check and their metabolic processes toned up.
In a recent paper entitled, "Children's diets: looking at the bigger picture ", Charlotte Musgrove, a nutrition scientist at the British Nutrition Foundation in London states that previously, the main focus was to provide enough energy and nutrients to meet the needs of a growing child. However, today there is a stronger emphasis on making sure that children are having a varied and balanced diet, and an active lifestyle. Of particular interest, is the finding that the message to eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day appears to be gaining ground. Although many children are still not consuming the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables, their intakes have increased over recent years. In 2000, children were on average eating only 2 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. One in five children did not report eating any fruit, and three in five children did not report eating any green leafy vegetables over an average week. Between 2001 and 2004, average intakes of fruit and vegetable portions per day increased slightly, with boys consuming 2.5 portions per day, and girls consuming 2.6. Data from 2005 shows the average number of daily portions of fruit and vegetables eaten was 3.1 (for both boys and girls) and there was an increase in the proportion of children eating five or more portions per day (Health Survey for England 2005 ). Good news, but still a long way to go.
Together with the balance of nutrients from the rest of the diet, with physical fitness programs to ensure their bodies are kept in tune and a social environment where they can flourish with support and mentoring, our children will thrive in good health.
Slowly, slowly, we are moving away from the single, silver bullet solutions to children's health problems, because although they seem easy and they have made many rich and famous - they don't work - they never have. Life is just not that simple. It's the whole diet as part of the whole lifestyle that will direct us to good health for our children.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler - Albert Einstein
Anyone promoting the addition or reduction of any single nutrient as the key solution to children's diseases is little different from the snake-oil salesmen of days gone by.
The problem is, they sold an awful lot of the stuff.
