I recently posted about my concern that we’re not doing enough to ensure that our children get sufficient exercise (not to mention ourselves!). Taking the physical benefits as a given, I focused particularly on the beneficial effects for our psychological well-being – something which can often be overlooked. As we enter the holiday period exercise is often something that goes out the window, only to reappear in a fit of guilt in January! It’s also a time when we traditionally indulge in terms of what we eat, but over the longer term there is also an important link to our psychological well-being to consider.
The relationship between nutrition and our psychological health is, in fact, continually being studied but it is often not particularly visible to most of the population. The importance of eating well is the focus of many TV shows and news items, but usually it is the physical benefits that are emphasised. Most of us know what we should eat and what we should try to avoid, but understand less about the psychological impact of food. But whose responsibility is it to find out about and source the right foods? Is it solely down to the individual or are other parties involved?
Many large organisations provide healthy eating options and initiatives to promote healthy eating – this is great, but is it enough? To what extent should employers be taking an interest in changing what is essentially an individual choice? In my opinion organisations definitely should take an interest – by making sure that nutritious foods are available and starting the education process if they provide food services. After all, they will benefit as well as the employee. The problems with how we eat today (e.g. the obesity epidemic and fast food culture) can only be solved if everyone takes responsibility and the right food education is available.
Individual responsibility is important here, but we are only human and sometimes we need a bit of help. There are organisations out there whose very business it is to influence us to consume things that aren’t so good for our health by spending billions on advertising. In western economies this is inevitable – they are businesses and they need us to buy their products. They do this because it works, but sometimes they cross the line and government and health-related agencies need to resist the onslaught for the benefit of the population at large. A recent example, from my native California, illustrates the way to go and concerns a group of family doctors who resigned their membership from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) after it announced a partnership with Coca-Cola to promote healthy eating.
Advertising is a part of life these days, but sometimes it’s important to stick to the pure health message with no other agenda involved. Health is always more important than money and wealth creation.
For more information on the AAFP story see http://cchealth.org/groups/health_services/aafp_protest.php
The best weight loss tip is get out and walk ,walk,walk 2 to 4 miles a day and keep your calorie intake at 1400 calories a day and you will get healthy and lose the weight.
I couldn’t agree with you more! Great post!
To add to you post and in response to it I have posted something on children eating whole foods and how imperative this is.
Understanding what food is nutritious enough to serve our children and then how we serve it up, to make it attractive, makes all the difference in the world.
The truth of the matter is that children are mini adults therefore they too have motivating factors to inspire them to eat healthy foods. Adults are in some way more stubborn than children, ironically however these five factors are true of all of us.
1) Tasty choices. Many kids love plums, pears, watermelon, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, tangerines, cherries, blueberries, strawberries, and pineapples and it’s far too often kids’ fruit alternatives are restricted to only apples and bananas, and maybe oranges and grapes too. Try corn bran, Spoon-Sized Shredded Wheat, or oatmeal with fresh berries. Instead of crackers or toast made from white flour try bran crispbread as a snack especially whole-grain pancakes, children love these. Children will develop their tastes the sooner they start in this direction. Butter on green beans makes them a lot tastier so during the preschool years, make butter a treat for vegetables. Raw carrot sticks go down very well because of the “crunch,” many kids like all by themselves.
2) The limitation factor. If there are healthy foods readily available, children will pick their favorites from amongst those healthy choices.
3) Presentation needs to be FUN. Multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns compete against us all the time when we are deciding what to feed our children. TV doesn’t always help either because there are many commercials that promote sweetened breakfast cereals which while reaching their right audience, sweetened cereals are not as healthy as the unsweetened variety. Add fruit to cereals which would take place of the ‘sweetners’. Where are the commercials for fresh fruit and veggies? That job is left to us to promote. Children love shapes and things more interesting in color. Preschool children often love food that is shaped like a clown, a face, favorite hero or cartoon character or even a dinosaur etc. Processed macaroni is manufactured this way because it sells. How do we make healthy food as appealing as the empty or harmful alternatives? Try a whole-grain pancake with a strawberry for a nose, kiwi slices for eyes, and banana for the mouth. Stand corn on the cob up right when serving it (pretend it’s a rocket ship), decorate food in ways that children can ‘see something else’ besides a plate full of veggies – think like a preschool child – let your imagination run.
4) If that happens to fail, be a sneak and sneak it in. Make carrot muffins with zucchini bread. Add pieces of fruit or shaved vegetables to virtually any baked dish. While dried fruit is high in sugar, it is also high in fiber so dried cranberries can be a hit. Kids love smoothies! A great way to hide fruit and vegetables is in whole-food smoothies and juices. The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious are two recently published cookbooks that offer more ideas on how to hide the healthy stuff!
5) Multivitamins are essential. In this day and age so many foods are processed so give a daily multivitamin as a safety net. Vitamins are compounds necessary in trace amounts for the normal functioning of children and adults alike.
I have great respect for the longstanding relationship between humans and their natural foods. By eating whole foods (fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains, etc.), your child can get the necessary vitamins in the healthiest way.
In order to see the world around us we need these vitamins to grow as they help bones and connective tissue to grow, stop us from bleeding to death, heal wounds, fight infections and cancer, and keep our teeth from falling out.
As we know most preschoolers and toddlers are often picky eaters. As children’s tastes change as they grow, and they do eventually get to eating a more well-rounded diet. So vitamins (the “safety net”) takes the pressure off feeding issues during the primary years. You can be free to be creative about increasing whole foods in your child’s diet, knowing that vitamins are present to help your child grow strong and healthy without pressure or worry.
Now that we have mass advertising, children’s fun meals, and peer pressure makes the battle all the harder. Never push or force them, entice them, persuade them and most importantly teach them. Battle bad nutrition rather. The battle should never be with your kids.
In the world today, we spend a lot of time blaming our misfortunes, or poor habits on someone else. But In this case I really do believe that the government has Dropped the ball, so to speak. Government has spent so much time worried about corporate that they have completely lost touch with the individual. It is unfortunate