Every parent wants good things for their children: a positive outlook on life, a healthy respect for authority, a strong sense of self, a disease-free body…a healthy body weight. Despite our best intentions, a recent report suggests that for the first time in two centuries, the current generation of children may have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. With all the advances in medicine, how could this possibly be true? The blame falls squarely on today’s toxic food environment.

In short, your kids are eating too much junk. And who can blame them? Junk food tastes great. The good news is that healthy food also tastes great. Take these simple tips and transform your child’s diet into one that is packed with good health.

1) Add Color
Adding bright and colorful fruits and veggies to your child’s plate will get their diet on the fast track to health. Fresh fruits and veggies are filled with fiber, vitamins and minerals that are essential to good health. If your kids are resistant then make it fun. Serve veggies with salad dressing as a dip. Cut fresh fruit in the colors of the rainbow and place them on a skewer. Serve a color themed meal – all green, all red or all orange. Use your imagination and you’ll come up with an endless number of ways to make fruits and veggies fun to eat.

2) Think Whole Foods
Processed foods are the biggest problem with our modern diet. Packaged and refined food products are devitalized and filled with empty calories that quickly lead to weight gain. Unfortunately, processed foods make up a large portion of the diet of many children. Train your kids to opt for whole foods, rather than packaged ones. Whole foods are foods that are in their natural state. An apple. A piece of sprouted grain bread spread with natural peanut butter. A piece of hormone-free chicken. A bowl of beans. You get the idea.

3) Use Wholesome Sweeteners
Refined sugar and corn syrup are packed into many of the foods that your kids love. There are more wholesome sweeteners available – sweeteners that add vitamins and minerals rather than empty calories. Use the following rather than white sugar or corn syrup:

Sucanat: This pure, dried sugar can juice retains its molasses content. Use it to replace white sugar in baking.
Pure Maple Syrup: Forget the “fake” syrups containing corn syrup. Pure maple syrup contains potassium, calcium and some amino acids.
Brown Rice Syrup: Use this dark syrupy sweetener instead of corn syrup. It takes longer to digest and won’t spike your blood sugar like refined sugar.
Dates: Throw a few seeded dates into your blender to sweeten your smoothie rather than adding white sugar.

4) Make Smart Substitutions
Kids love pizza and pasta and peanut butter sandwiches, and that’s not going to change any time soon. Rather than fight your kids on their favorites, try making smart substitutions to make their favorites more nutritious.

Pizza: Up the nutritional content of your pizza by opting for wheat crust over white, adding veggies to the toppings and sticking with lean meat toppings.
Pasta: Use sprouted grain or whole grain pasta rather than traditional white pasta. Add veggies to your pasta sauce. Stick with red sauce, since white sauce is so high in fat.
PB&J: A PB&J, made with white bread using sugar-filled peanut butter and corn syrup-filled jelly, is fairly void of any real nutritional value. Try the PB&J Makeover recipe below instead for a sandwich that will provide real wholesome fuel for your child’s day.

5) Ban Sugary Drinks
One of the best things that you can do for your child’s good health is to instill in them a love for water rather than sugary drinks. Soda pop and juices are filled with empty calories that encourage weight gain. The easiest way to do this is to stock your house with lots of pure, filtered water. Don’t have fruit drinks or soda pop readily available so that they grow accustom to drinking only water.

If you have been making the effort to shop smart and provide healthy food choices for your family, you probably pay close attention to the food labels on our packaged food.  In fact, there has been considerable government effort to come up with a better and more consistent way to label foods.  Currently, there are approximately 12 or so recognized systems in place to label food, and the result has been inconsistency and confusion for the consumer.

(Click here to read full article.)

The Institute of Medicine, an independent non-profit advisory organization, took a closer look at the food ratings and symbols manufacturers, supermarkets, health organizations and government agencies use. In their report, an IOM committee of nutrition experts analyzed the science behind the dozen or so different labeling systems and made recommendations on how front-of-package labels should be changed.

- The big takeaway is that there needs to be a standardized process for labeling food that allows consumers to make informed buying decisions.

-The second big lesson is to get in the habit of turing the package over and reading the nutrition facts.  This will provide more accurate information about what the product actually contains.

Here are MY 3 Never-Fail Food Shopping Tips:

1.  Shop the perimeter of the store. You may not have noticed, but all of the good stuff is around the perimeter, while all of the processed stuff is lining the shelves of the aisles.

2.  As best you can, avoid the “white” foods. As a general rule, you will always win when you limit the following: salt, sugar, pasta (wheat pasta if you must), rice (basmati, jasmine, brown and wild rices are better choices), dairy and potatoes (yellows and sweets are ok)

3.  In the words of words of Jack Lalanne, “If man made it, don’t eat it!” You have to respect words of a 96 year old who can swim the English Channel , but I also agree that in the world we live, this is a difficult challenge, so I don’t live strictly by this rule.  BUT, when given the choice of a natural whole food, and something that has gone through several steps of refinement, try and opt as often as possible for the less refined.

I have included a pretty good video on how to prepare a nutritious lunch for your kids.  Enjoy!

Try to wrap your brain parts around this…Three out of four Americans will be overweight or obese by 2020, and disease rates and health care spending will balloon similarly, concludes a study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development .  As shocking as this number may appear, what is more shocking is the simplicity of the summary conclusions of the article.

1.  Cheap Food and Lack Of Exercise.

And #2.  Obesity Shortens Life Expectancy Spans by 8-10 years, the same as smoking.

I find these conclusions staggering because I can’t believe that 75% of Americans didn’t already know this!! But maybe I shouldn’t be so naive.  I had a discussion with a very successful, professional woman whose 8 year-old daughter is already considered obese.  She says, “Until recently, we would eat at McDonald’s twice a week, until I found out how many calories are in a Happy Meal.”  I was stunned!!! Is the debate still ongoing as to whether or not Micky D’s is good for us?  So I sat back and considered, maybe the common sense information may not yet be that common sense.

Think about this statement, “Citizens of the world’s richest countries are getting fatter and the United States is the worst offender.”  The correlation is obvious, Wealthier nations are Fatter nations.  Food options are cheaper, people are spending less time preparing food, and people are choosing to exercise less.

The study also warned companies and individuals alike to develop a comprehensive strategy to combat the problem.  Better than that, let’s develop our own plan.

When you are serious about winning the battle against obesity , Here are Six Easy Steps You Should Incorporate:

1.  Drink Only Water For 1 Week.  You can continue to eat what you like, but step on the scale on Day 1, and then again on Day 7.  If you notice a change, if so, why not keep up this healthy behavior for another 30 days.  This is a clear example of “if some is good, more is better.”  People who drink mostly water are healthier and thinner than people who don’t.

2.  If you are sedentary, walk 20-30 minutes a day; if you already walk, try jogging for 20-30 minutes 3-4 times a week; if you already jog, try sprinting a couple times per week. I recommend doing 5-8 40 meter sprints to start; f you already sprint, incorporate hill sprints.  Essentially, whatever you are already doing, try to incrementally increase the intensity of your cardiovascular exercise.  The human body hates stasis, and will remodel much faster if you can change things up.

3.  Eat MORE green stuff! Vegys are essentially “Free Calories”. You can fill up quickly, without adding unwanted stored calories.

4. Eat LESS white stuff.  In short, the most damaging foods for your body are the simplest of sugars, and the white foods are loaded with them.  Reduce your intake of pasta, bread, sugar, refined white rice (basmati, brown and jasmine aren’t that bad for you), table sugar, flour, and white potatoes (sweet potatoes and yams are still acceptable).

5.  Eat slowly!! It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to register that you have filled it with food. if you slow down and try to spend at 30 minutes eating, you will feel satisfied sooner and reduce the chance of over-eating.

6.  Biggest Tip Of All:  Pay closer attention to how you feel 20 minutes after eating. You should feel alive and energized!  If you feel slow and lethargic, ask yourself what might be doing that to you.  Was it that diet Coke, that piece of cheesecake, that Grande Mochachino from Starbucks? Chances are you are ingesting exactly the wrong foods for your body to be efficient and healthy.

Good luck, and I hope to see you hanging out with the 25% of those of us who have no intention on being considered Obese in 10 years.

To read the article in full, click here.

We have often discussed the effects of childhood obesity on young people and families, but did you ever think it would adversely affect the military?  According to a recent report from the Army, “more than 25 percent of the young recruits, all under the age of 25 years of age, are too obese to work in the military.”

This recent phenomena has forced the Army, as well as other branches of the military to alter its typical training regime because the obese recruits simply cannot follow the regular training programs.

We have to do better!

Ignorance is Not A Victimless Crime! We have got to take active steps to understand the causes of childhood obesity and deal with them.

Here are my 3 simple jump start tips:

1. Turn off the TV and the Computer! Turn off the TV completely and limit the computer to school or DIRECT work related use.  Try this for 1 week.  I know, this is like taking some one’s cigarettes away, so start slow and don’t be shocked by any withdrawal symptoms.

2.  Throw out all of the soda and “juice drinks”! Try sticking to water, milk and limited amounts of fresh fruit juices.  Again, try this for one week.

3.  HERE IS MY PERSONAL FAVORITE!! When you are forced to discipline your child, don’t yell at them or send them to timeout.  At a point, this is basically worthless. GRAB THE RUNNING SHOES AND GO OUTSIDE AND RUN WINDSPRINTS.  I LIKE HILLS EVEN BETTER.

I realize some of you might call my third suggestion a bit “old-school“, but your child will soon become keenly aware that small violations equal 5, 40 meter hill sprints, and egregious violations of household rules result in hill sprints until the parent gets tired of watching them run . And yes, this trick my be harder to incorporate the older your child is, but here is a suggestion. As a parent run with them!

This trick works on many levels:

1.  It changes the parameters of sedentary punishment.

2.  They get physical, tangible benefit from their punishment.

3.  It might get you off the sofa as well.

For more oldschool tips that work, contact me at Dr.Bill.Booker@gmail.com