De-stress your family to fight childhood obesity

A Swedish study of more than 7,000 families found that kids with a highly stressful family life are twice as likely to be obese when compared with children living in low-stress environments.

I know that when life gets crazy at my house, proper meals and bedtimes are usually the first place we make irrational decisions that lead to poor food choices and a lack of good sleep. So how much stress is there in your family’s environment?

Do you take time to communicate your feelings with each other? Do you reserve time on your daily schedule for exercise and relaxation? Do you have family discussions about good nutrition and healthy behaviors like exercise? Do you have an exercise plan for the family and is it a high priority or your things to do list?

Beanstalk Express offers resources for healthy nutrition, habits and ways to help end childhood obesity. Information from Beanstalk Express confirms the fact that childhood obesity is quickly becoming an epidemic.

From Beanstalk Express – Once upon a time, childhood obesity was not an epidemic among children. In fact, “once upon a time” was less than 30 years ago. From 1980 – 2004, the rate of obesity in preschool children has jumped from 5% to nearly 14%. Rates among elementary school children have increased from 6.5% to a whopping 18.8%. And, according to the Centers For Disease Control, these rates show no signs of slowing. Researchers at Yale University’s Psychological Bulletin estimate that by the year 2010, 50% of children in North America will be overweight.

What has changed in our society to explain that nearly 1 in every 3 children today is overweight? No one single thing – that would be too easy. Over the past 30 years, we have experienced a “global swarming” of cultural changes that have brought us to where we are today. Changes that include a computer and technology-dominated society that promotes sedentary behaviors and it’s now affecting our children with increased TV viewing, computer time and lack of free play. Much of the food we eat is fast, processed and easy – considered “necessary” in meeting the needs of our hurried and over-extended society. Even our mindset about how we eat, or even why we eat has changed with the effective marketing efforts of big food companies. Their efforts have changed the rules about eating and nutrition – no longer vital for life, food has become a source of recreation and instant gratification. No other demographic is more influenced by these marketing campaigns than our children.

We cannot point a finger at “who” or “what” to blame for the obesity epidemic because it is entrenched with influences. As a society, we are incapable of reversing the hands of time and returning to a culture that supported proper nutrition, encouraged physical activity and raised healthier children. But as parents, we are capable of creating a healthy environment within our homes that support healthy habits in our children. Childhood obesity can be prevented. And prevention begins at home.