I was at a conference about a month ago and one of the sessions was on working with obese parents and children.
When looking at statistics, between 1976 and 1980 the number of overweight and obese children between the ages of 12-15 was 5%. Between 2003 and 2006, that number is at 18%. Not Good.
It's estimated that one third of babies born in 2009 will develop diabetes before the age of 18.
An obese child is at a higher risk of having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and it's estimated that 80% of all overweight 10-15 year olds are obese at age 25.
It's not a good sign of things to come for the next couple of generations and there are some thoughts that because of these health problems caused by obesity, that the next couple of generations born in the US may have a shorter life expectancy then current, older generations.
A new study though comes out with a new option that could be useful when it comes to helping lose weight in these young, obese children.
The study found that a high-protein, low-carb diet is a safe and effective way for severely obese teens to lose weight.
There's always been concerns that a low-carb diet could impact growth and increase cholesterol levels due to the higher fat involved in most low-carb diets.
But in this study, they found that not to be the case.
The researchers assigned a group of severely obese teens to either a high-protein, low carb diet or to a low-fat diet. The average age of the child was around 14 years old. The study had these teens on the respective diets for 13 weeks.
The results:
On average, those on the high-protein, low-carb diet lost 29 pounds over 13 weeks, while those on the low-fat diet lost 16 pounds. Both groups kept the weight off nine months after the study.
And for any health issues that they were concerned about with having these teens on the high-protein, low-carb diet:
The high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet also appeared to be safe, with no serious harmful effects on growth, bone mineral density, and various "metabolic" parameters, such as cholesterol levels. Both groups showed declines in levels of harmful LDL cholesterol and increases in levels of heart-healthy HDL cholesterol.
There always tends to be this stigma about low-carb diets and I think it has to do with the initial idea that originally came out when the diet became popular that you could eat bacon, fried food, etc. on it. And quite frankly, I just don't consider those part of a true low-carb diet.
For the most part, high-carb diets have been a more recent integration into the overall human diet.
For the vast history of human evolution, our bodies for the most part have eaten a low-carb diet.
20,000 years ago, we simply ate meats, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and some occasional eggs and oils. When looking at the health of people that lived then, for the most part they were stronger, faster, leaner, and overall healthier than we are today (at least in the western world).
So it doesn't really surprise me that a low-carb diet for obese teens turned out to be more effective for fat loss as well as providing overall health benefits because a true low-carb diet is what children lived on for most of our time here on earth.
I think if we could get kids (and adults as well) to simply eat those foods above, it would take a lot of the complexity away from deciding what is healthy and not healthy among the rest of the food that is in the center of the grocery store.
But, that's easier said then done. So how do we get those kids to eat those foods?
In the end, it HAS to be up to the parents to set this in motion.
I'm just taking a guess here with no scientific evidence in front of me to back this up but, chances are that if a child is overweight or obese, the parents are as well.
In other words, maybe we need to change the term "childhood obesity" to "family obesity" because that's truly where the problem AND the solution are at.
Which means, if you want an overweight child to eat healthier, then you are going to have to as well.
Don't sit there and think that you can leave junk food laying around the house for your consumption but not for your child's. It's just not going to work.
If you want to start off simple instead of making it a complete culture shock for the household, I blogged awhile ago on simple healthy changes you can make now to start on the right track.
The kids will probably complain, pout and say that if it's not junk food they won't eat it but, as the presenter said at the seminar I was at a few weeks ago "A healthy child will never go hungry." At some point, they'll eat what you give them.
Let's not forget about the exercising. Although the eating is the biggest part of the equation, you can't leave out the exercise portion.
The biggest part about getting kids to exercise is that it has to be FUN. Kids bore easily. But if you make it fun, they can get in a fairly vigorous exercise routine without even noticing it.
I wrote about a simple exercise routine for kids to start off with. It works well and don't be afraid to make the routine competitive. Kids tend to be naturally competitive so that should help increase the fun, the intensity, and the chances that they'll want to continue doing them.
Small steps to start with can become big gains in the whole grand scheme of things when it comes to weight loss for obese teens.
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