Tuesday, June 1, 2010

HB Magazine Summer Feature: Parents & Teens: Practicing Proper Nutrition by Paul and Carolyn Fetters

In case you haven’t noticed, teenagers and even younger children are becoming obese. No matter what part of the country you live in the problem is epidemic. Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver has started a campaign in what is considered the fattest state/county in America to educate our children on proper nutrition. That’s a great start, but education should begin at home. His campaign is aimed at the schools, which again, is a good start, but it really needs to include the entire family.

The education of proper nutrition is vital to not only our children, but the parents after whom children are modeling their behavior. If parents realize that they can make a huge impact on their child’s life by helping them make better choices with what is available in the home, it’s a great beginning. Parents should not be expected to know about nutrition, but if you’re buying the groceries, I bet you know enough about making good or poor choices available for your child.

If you’ve been reading our editorials, you might recall our most recent article was about proper portions of food when eating meals/snacks. This editorial is about helping your child make better choices by you, the adult, modeling good behavior. Do you skip breakfast? If you do, it’s a sure bet that your child often does as well. Starting the day on an empty stomach leads to zero energy and inability to concentrate in class, or in your case, work. Consider that you haven’t eaten in about 12 - 14 hours and now you are asking your brain to perform. Not a good plan.

The focus of this article isn’t to beat up parents, it’s to let you off the hook. We often speak to middle/high school students in a seminar format and in the past 20 years, we have witnessed students become heavier and heavier, even with all of the fabulous “diet foods” that have become available. Unless you have a background in nutrition, how do you know how to feed yourself, let alone your family? That’s where we come in. For some reason, children/teens always seem to be receptive to outside “expertise,” even if we’re saying the same thing as you are. Since we have four teenagers ourselves, we can say with total authority that this is normal!

During our Spring 2010 TakeDown Challenge, we had a young lady (17 yrs. old), not only participate, but win! This was her third attempt at the TD Challenge, but it seems the third time was a charm for her! The life of a teenager has become one of total self-sufficiency when it comes to food. Skip breakfast at home, run to Starbucks for a Frappaccunio, drive to Del Taco for lunch, hit Roebuck’s for an afternoon smoothie, then eat whatever is available for them at home for dinner. Next day, repeat this pattern. Being a teenager is all about “grab and go.” Asking a teenager to take a few minutes and prepare their food is tantamount to pulling teeth, especially if they don’t have the tools at home to accomplish this task.

What our TD Challenge winner learned was how social food has become for teens. It’s not that much different for us adults, and perhaps that’s the pattern that we set before them. Now when I see this young lady preparing her breakfast BEFORE “zero period,” grabbing a nutrition bar for her mid-morning snack, going home for lunch, the eating a portion-controlled sensible dinner, I get it! She finally gets it! It may have taken her a few attempts to understand how to make better choices and how to live in “her world” as a teenager, but she did and she’s still doing it.

How can you help your child get a handle on this epidemic of poor eating habits? The first step is to ask for help. Your child deserves to live a healthy life and now is the time to teach them. We don’t expect them to be perfect, but we hope that they can learn to make better choices and recognize the importance of how food affects them throughout the day.

Paul and Carolyn Fetters own two Training Spot Gyms and AMS Nutrition both located in Huntington Beach. The Training Spot 16942 Gothard St. and The Training Spot 440 Main St. Paul is certified through the State of CA to speak in Nutrition, Fitness and Wellness. He regularly speaks to several Police and City Agencies throughout OC. For more info, please call (714) 841-9294 or (714) 374-7448 or visit www.tspot.org

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