Back to School and Eating Healthy

Our kids are back in school, so it’s time to turn the emphasis of this column towards our children. Not all of them need either a primer or a refresher course in lifestyle change, but unfortunately as this school year begins, there are more children than ever who are overweight and out of shape.

Since fully twenty five percent of all American kids between the ages of six and 17 are now obese, we’ve got a problem with too many kids having too much body fat. Too much body fat, over time, results in illness. The recommended percentage of daily dietary fat intake by the American Dietetic Association is about thirty percent of total calories. Many physicians feel this number is much too high. Many kids, whether overweight or not, consume far greater amounts of dietary fat than this.

If your child is not overweight, you’re not off the hook, especially if your family eats significant amounts of foods high in cholesterol or saturated fat. Especially if there is any history of early heart disease or stroke in your immediate family.

To enlighten us on additional data and strategies as we begin the 1996-97 version of the french fry and chip wars, I interviewed the principal architect and curriculum consultant of the "To Life!" lifestyle change course, Ellen Pincus. Ellen has a particular interest and expertise in working with overweight kids, and has designed a novel and effective parent/child cooperative approach to the problem. Here’s just the very beginning of the supportive conversation that Ellen has with the parents of overweight children:

Many of the eating patterns and food commitments we experience as adults began when we were children. When most of today’s parents were growing up, ice cream provided relief for any upsetting situation, without the side-effect of guilt. But what we didn’t know, did hurt us. Even with all the heart healthy information available today, American families, in 1995, continued to consume 265 million packages of "fast food" fries, with an average 25 fat grams per serving. And while we know that a soft drink contains 44 grams or 11 teaspoons of sugar, the soft drink consumption by children under age five has gone up 23 percent since the 1970s, while milk consumption has decreased by 16 percent.

Most experts agree that putting children on diets is not the answer. Rather, they should be gently switched to more nutritious foods, guided to make healthy food choices and encouraged to exercise as much as possible. Parents who demonstrate a commitment to healthy eating will provide the eating "blueprints" for their children when they become adults. It isn’t easy, or even possible, for an overscheduled mom to always provide the best foods for every child. I know, because as a mother, I’ve had my own successes and failures. But it isn’t that hard to make a very positive impact on good health and weight loss once you are armed with the proper information and a strong commitment.

The USDA food guide pyramid, which we’ve all seen on food packages, outlines the best way to eat. It emphasizes whole grains, vegetables and fruit, the inclusion of lean sources of protein, and very limited amounts of oils, fats and sweets. Consuming more vegetables, more often, promotes more weight loss, even if the vegetable variety is small.

As any parent knows, decreased fat intake means making wiser choices at the inevitable "fast food" restaurant. Most restaurants publish must-read nutritional information. You can easily rack up 60 grams of fat, much of it the saturated type, which begins the artery clogging process in children and teens, with a biggie burger, fries and shake. Or you can order a chicken sandwich at Chick Fil-A, a roast turkey delux at Arby’s, chili at Wendy’s, a teriyaki bowl at Jack in the Box or a Taco Bell Border Light for less than ten grams of fat. Milkshakes? At many McDonald’s, they now use low fat yogurt in their 1.3 fat gram vanilla shakes. Arby’s and Burger King’s milkshakes are ten grams of fat.

Plan in advance. Keep baggies of baked potato chips in the car and present them to the kids with the drive-through burger. They’re one fat gram per serving of 14 chips, compared to about 20 fat grams for a medium order of french fries.

Kids feel good about themselves when they like the way they look. Most will be willing to make reasonable changes if they believe that, with your help, they can look and feel better now or in the future. Some simple substitutions will make a huge difference. Did you know that 2% milk actually contains 37% fat, while skim milk has none? That one tablespoon of regular margarine contains 14 grams and 114 calories while a tablespoon of non-sweetened jelly has no fat and about 35 calories? That a whole tuna sandwich has about 25 fat grams when made with regular mayonnaise (2T), five grams when made with lowfat mayonnaise and only three grams when made with the no fat variety?

Do your kids like pizza? Two commercial slices add up to at least 20 fat grams. Create your own, nearly fat free, by using french or afghan bread, reduced fat mozzarella and nonfat tomato sauce. How about macaroni and cheese? Prepare Kraft dinner as directed and one serving contains 16.5 grams of fat. But if you use skim milk and skip the margarine, you’ll keep the taste while reducing a serving by 14 fat grams. There’s no getting around it. You’ve got to read those nutritional labels to stock your home with the healthiest products. Not all products are the same. You can bring home fish sticks that are eight fat grams per serving or others that contain twice as much.

Calories saved by substituting nonfat, low fat and low sugar products, especially for dairy and snack foods, will add up quickly. Careful choices for breakfast, lunch, dinner and after school or bedtime snacks, will make a huge impact on obesity. Most of the time, our kids are eating the foods we’ve brought home. My kids love sugar cereals. I’m not willing to serve them for breakfast, but most are low in fat and make a good snack. The tupperware container in my pantry is filled with a mixture of frosted and regular cereal. Adding skim milk and a few strawberries or banana slices to the cereal is a much more healthful snack than eating a doughnut. Lowfat popcorn, pretzels, fat and sugar-free jellos or pudding, bagels with all-fruit jellies, caramel rice cakes, low fat granola bars are all terrific calorie and fat savers, compared to pastries and fried chips.

O.K., a little work is required in the food preparation area as well. My kids are more likely to eat apples if I cut them up and serve them before they’ve asked for something else. And yes, a bribe or two helps. You can have a soft drink, I tell them, if you drink a glass of water first. They rarely want the soft drink after the glass of water! Yes, I’ll make tater tots, but you’ll have to eat all of the carrot sticks too.

I want my kids to be happy. I want eating to be fun as well as healthy. And I want them to like me as much as Billy’s mom who packs chips and candy bars for lunch every day. So I balance a bad eating day with a good one, "chill out" while on vacation and pack lunch bags with grapes and small servings of low fat cakes or cookies, instead of chips.

But I also have a major commitment to their ongoing good health. It’s my job to buy, pack and serve foods with great awareness of what’s in them. And it’s my job to attempt to teach my kids the good habits of healthy eating and physical activity that they’ll need later when they’re on their own. I want them to eat to live, not live to eat. And I want them to feel good about their bodies which need to last a lifetime.
 

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