While a small percentage of the population is well-versed on health, the larger portion are unaware of what is beneficial or harmful to health or do not care to know. Some are unfortunately under the false impression that excess weight means robust health. I remember when my first son was born slightly below the normal weight everyone around me expressed concern about his health. To my surprise, when I relayed these concerns to his doctor he spontaneously retorted, “This is a healthy child!” I later realized what he meant; excess weight does not necessarily translate into hale health. This erroneous belief has led many to assume that excess weight is the criteria to good health and energy.
Contrary to this understanding, it is the way to health decline, chronic disease, and even premature death. In support of lowering body weight, some scientists go as far as believing that calorie restriction can contribute to remaining disease-free and maintaining health balance, both of which lead to longevity. I am not advocating restricting calories for children below their developmental needs, but rather watch their diets closely and restrict extra calorie-intake of “harmful” foods that contribute to obesity and disease.
Not only have our children become overweight and out of shape, their waistlines have also grown at an alarming rate. Children of all ages, infants, babies, toddlers, and adolescents, appear to be rolling rather than walking. They are often sprawled on couches, gobbling “super-sized” hamburgers or snacking on huge bowls of chips while intently watching television. A feast of fastfood and giant sugary soft drinks and shakes are spread on the coffee table. Are you still wondering what makes these poor children blow up?
We have created this unhealthy, obesity-promoting atmosphere for our young ones. No wonder juvenile obesity is on the rise. Activity at home has been curtailed to watching television, playing video games, or chatting on the Internet or telephone. A couple of strikes on the phone dial their favorite fastfood stores and a banquet fit for a tribe is deployed on the table. Food has become easy to order, available, and inexpensive. Regardless of how harmful, calorie-dense, or fatty it is, parents are content to see their children calmly sitting, munching away on this array of fastfood and its trimmings, making no demands and causing no trouble. Another trend among teenagers is roaming town, hopping from one fastfood store to another, passing the word to their friends about the latest and hottest “food joint.” These are unhealthy habits and environments that invite overindulgence and obesity.
Many of us consider obesity as baby fat, seemingly innocuous. It has, in fact, become a prevalent disease that has crept into almost every home. Yes, I call it a disease, because it is the cause of many health disorders in infants, children, adolescents, and adults alike.
Obesity is a leading health threat, resulting in metabolic syndromes in the very young such as insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels. Other minor symptoms are attention disorders, recurrent infections, bone fractures, and allergies. Youths inflicted with chronic disorders do not promise a rosy health future. Obesity-related diseases are an impediment to a healthy adulthood, productivity, and achievements.
Obesity has reached epidemic levels due to its clustering effect in certain communities, working atmospheres, and families. Mothers, who erroneously believe that weight gain makes their children healthy, show affection by feeding them fat-and-sugar-rich foods at every occasion. Such mothers, obese themselves, tend to overfeed their children; make food available at all times; or prepare empty-nutrient, fatty-calorie-rich dishes and snacks. Such behaviors, though done in good faith, encourage weight gain, obesity, and unhealthy eating habits difficult to dispose of later on. Such parents should restructure their lifestyle habits and their children’s to avoid obesity in order to remain healthy and fit.
Schools add to the dilemma by selling and advertising fatty fast food and sugar-laden drinks and snacks. We all know that children get primarily affected by their schools, teachers, and parents. They are the ones who shape their personalities, behaviours, and eating habits. Since schools have tremendous influence on our children’s behaviors, they too, should improve on the quality of their meal plans; stop selling and advertising harmful foods and drinks on their premises; and start spreading awareness about health care to teachers and student body alike.
A recent survey done on schoolchildren in Riyadh government schools indicated that around 70 percent are overweight. Another study showed that students who consume fast foods are likely to learn less efficiently than their peers who eat balanced meals. Unfortunately, many schools are not complying with Ministry of Health guidelines that restrict unhealthy foods for school meals.
On our parts as parents, we should set good examples to our children and cultivate in them healthy eating habits and lifestyle practices. The first and most important step for us to do is to practice healthy habits in order to embed them in our children. We should make it a rule to have family meals in the dining-room and not in front of the television set or in the bedroom as not to associate entertainment with food.
Food should be nutritionally balanced, low-fat, and tasty, offering different varieties of colourful vegetables and fruits, whole grains, meat, fish, dairy products, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Dishes should be appealing to the senses, colourful to the eyes, satisfying to the taste buds, and fulfilling to the appetite, as well as energy-producing. Snacks should consist of low-fat dairy products, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, or small amounts of nuts and seeds. Sweets, chocolates, and fatty snacks should be removed from our children’s environments; they are too tempting. Moderation is a very important factor in controlling weight. Portions should be controlled. Sweets and desserts should not be part of any reward or punishment to a child. Carbonated soft drinks and highly sweetened juices and beverages should be avoided. Fresh fruit juices should be served unsweetened and diluted in small glasses. Children should be encouraged to be physically active for a minimum of one hour a day; our participation is necessary, too. Television, video games, and computer time should not exceed an hour a day. One more important point for new mothers: please breastfeed your baby for at least a year if possible. Breastfed babies are less likely to overeat than formula-fed babies and have less breathing (wheezing) and allergy problems. Never add sugar to your baby’s food; sugar, nutrient-empty, increases the risk of developing a “sweet tooth” that leads to unnecessary weight gain.
Unhealthy fad diets can be harmful to your child. Any weight loss program should be supervised by your child’s paediatrician. A nutrient-deficient diet can affect the child’s development, disturb hormonal balance, trigger depression, cause hair loss and bone fracture, or even stunt his or her growth.
We have to take into consideration that youth under twenty-five years constitute seventy percent of the current Saudi population. They now appear somewhat healthy, disease-free, and even energetic. However with obesity in progress, we might as well expect, in twenty years time, this very population to become afflicted with a cocktail of chronic ailments, ranging from hypertension and diabetes to heart disease and cancer. To avert such tragic consequences of physical pain, emotional suffering, loss of productivity, exorbitant costs of longterm medical expenses, and of course premature death, we should join efforts to curb the prevalence of child obesity. This can be done by controlling the availability of fatty fast foods and sugar-laden soda drinks and by restraining overconsumption of food and empty calories. Such efforts should come hand in hand with balanced nutrition, regular activity, and other health-promoting lifestyle habits that contribute to the health of young bodies and minds.
From the social aspect, it is important for us parents to become active and vocal about food choices and physical activity in our children’s schools and our communities. We should have schools comply with Ministry of Health food regulations or else we alert health authorities in order to seriously address the issue of obesity. Unless we take positive and effective measures to curb obesity in our families, schools, communities, and everywhere, we shall lose precious God-given good health and joie-de-vivre. Unless we collectively become more active to make the difference, obesity will prevail and result in a definite setback in all our endeavors to contain the spread of chronic diseases, achieve optimum health, and extend life expectancy in future generations. Together we can stop obesity and save our children’s health.
(Mariam Alireza is a holistic science specialist. Send comments to [email protected]. Log on to arabnews.com for previous articles.)
