Today, Tuesday 11th October, is World Obesity Day 2016. World Obesity Day is a global day designed to shine the light on childhood obesity, and call for urgent Government Action to end childhood obesity. As a parent, I can’t tell you how much it saddens me that childhood obesity has become such a problem that we have to have a global day to shine the light on it.
Playing Safe –vs– Saying The Hard Things
I have ummed and ahhed about whether to write this post or not. BUT, as Israel (my hubby) often does, when I am sitting on the fence, playing safe, he says to me:
“Bel, WWJD?” In other words, What Would Jamie (Oliver) Do?
This is usually enough to make me realise that to truly have an impact in this world, I have to be prepared to put myself out there, and say things that are hard to say. Things which need to be said, but often aren’t. So, after much soul searching, I’ve written this post. This post is a long one, but I urge you, no matter where you are at with your health journey, to read it and share it.
I am writing, not to offend, but to unite. The only way this problem will find a solution is if we work together.
I also want to share information with you that makes you stop and think – hard – about your responsibilities as a parent. I want you to think about the important role we all play in the health of our children. For example:
- Did you know 27.4% of our Aussie kids are now overweight or obese, and many are facing a life of chronic illness?
- Did you know that because of this, their life expectancy is likely to be reduced – possibly even shorter than our own?
- Did you know that 63% of us Australian adults are now overweight or obese?
What – as parents – are we role modelling to the children of Australia?
Parents, Are You With Me?
I am supporting World Obesity Day in calling for Government Action to end childhood obesity, but both you and I know the wheels of Government turn slowly, and action isn’t going to happen quickly.
But, Parents of Australia, as individual family units, you are nimble. You can take action at home immediately. You have the power to give your children their best health into adulthood.
I am calling on you to take a stand for your own children’s health.
We can’t sit on our hands and wait for the government to take action. We are ALL responsible for the health of our children.
We all have our one body for life, and now is the time to be taking care of it. Having children is our responsibility, and part of that responsibility is to show them how to take care of the one body they have for their life.
The future of our kids is in our hands.
To better understand why this is such an urgent problem, let’s take a look at what’s happening here in Australia – thanks to the platform and research of World Obesity Day.
The Growing Girth Of The Australian Population
Using today’s health trends as a guide, it is projected that by the year 2025, around 35% of the Australian adult population will be obese – that’s not just overweight, but obese. This will be an increase from 28% currently.
Take a look at this infographic provided by World Obesity Day for the stats about what our children’s future looks like:
Reports now show that overweight is now the new normal. So many children are now overweight, that society is simply accepting that this is the way children are.
Research has also shown that for the first time in recorded history, the average money spent per week on take away food in Australia, now exceeds the average money spent on cooking and eating at home.
Being heavily overweight or obese has a very strong connection to chronic illness such as Cardiovascular Disease, Type 2 Diabetes, Gestational Diabetes and more. These illnesses all have the potential to reduce life expectancy, and are very difficult to reverse.
Not only that, but more than 80% of obese children go on to become obese adults, compared with just 15% of healthy weight children. If we stand back and do nothing, the prevalence of obesity in childhood and adulthood will continue to grow at alarming rates.
“Obesity can negatively impact on a child’s immediate and long-term health, educational attainment and quality of life.” – World Obesity Day report
This Is A Real Problem
Children are 20% of our population, but they are 100% of our future.
We need to think longer-term about the future health of our children, and the future life they will grow into. With this in mind, let me ask you these questions:
- What will the future of our country look like if our children continue to grow in girth and into chronic illness?
- Will our medical system be able to support all of us – the elderly and the young with chronic illness?
- Will these children be able to work full time and keep the economy afloat?
- Will this generation be able to support us in our retirement?
- What will the next generation of children being raised by this current generation look like?
- What about all the rubbish being produced by the highly processed packaged food we’re eating? What will the world our children grow up in look like as this rubbish continues to mount around them?
There are so many more questions to be answered about what happens if we sit back and allow this these trends to continue. But here’s the point:
Our children deserve better. Your kids, and mine, deserve to grow up healthy, and live their life free from chronic illness.
Treating Symptoms –vs– Addressing Root Causes
I wholeheartedly believe we need to raise awareness about childhood obesity. Our big green bus, Kaley, is not only our mobile billboard for our mission to Transform Children’s Health In Australia – she has been designed to raise awareness about what’s happening, and start conversations everywhere we go.
I support World Obesity Day and its objectives.
HOWEVER, I question whether focussing on the symptoms of “obesity and weight” is really the answer.
Instead, I believe we need to be focussing on the underlying causes of obesity in our children. What lifestyle factors do they currently have that cause them to be obese or overweight?
Not only that, but weight is such a sensitive issue anyway, and it’s so often intricately connected to self esteem. The last thing we want is for kids’ self esteem to suffer in any conversation about food or body image. Surely there’s a better way?
In business in my earlier career, I learned that to solve problems (i.e. symptoms) you do a “Root Cause Analysis” to find the underlying causes of the problem.
My training as a Health Coach, and my subsequent education and research, has led me to the conclusion that the root cause of childhood obesity and weight gain is primarily the food kids eat, what they drink, and how much (or how little) they move.
(There are certainly exceptions to this, as with any health-related concept. I’m generalising because my conclusion holds true for the majority of the population.)
I believe, as parents, we are better off focussing on addressing the root causes of what’s happening to our children’s health, instead of focussing on treating symptoms.
As parents, we can focus on improving the choices we make about our lifestyle, and the choices we make about the food we’re feeding our family. Every. Single. Day.
How Did We Get Here?
The weight of our nation, in particular kids, is a very complex issue. There are so many factors at play, some of which include:
- Increased consumption of packaged, processed foods
- Increased consumption of juices, soft drinks, energy drinks
- Declining physical activity
- Increased time in front of screens, in sedentary activities
- A school curriculum so full, that playtime has diminished and homework has increased
- Time-poor, stressed-out parents
- A social shift focussing on having material possessions
- The focus on “fast” and “convenient”
- A flawed food pyramid which, for 30 years, has promoted breads, cereals, and other grains as one of the biggest food groups.
- A variety of “Health Rating” systems (Heart Foundation Tick, Health Star Rating System) on packaged foods, which have dubious value to help determine nutritional value or suitability
Each of these issues are multi-faceted in their own right, but they are also inter-connected. Solving just one of these isn’t going to magically solve the health crisis facing our children’s generation.
What Am I Supposed To Do Now?
Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the enormity of all this. Sometimes I struggle trying to figure out what to feed my own family, let alone educate and inspire other families around Australia to start improving their own family’s health and food choices.
When those moments come, I remind myself of a very important point that I share with parents at our in-person seminars and events. It’s something I think is important to share with you now – especially if you’re feeling a touch overwhelmed, too.
This simple approach helps me put one foot in front of the other, and keep going:
Choose ONE thing and focus on improving it, until it is a way of life. Then, choose another thing, focus on that, and make that a way of life. Then repeat the process.
What’s The Single Biggest Thing You Can Do?
There are many studies which show that the biggest impact you can have on your health, in particular your weight, is to concentrate firstly on what you eat. This can have up to 3-4 times more impact than physical exercise alone, and is still the primary contributor even when you combine it with exercise. (source: http://m.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/exercise-vs-diet-for-weight-loss_n_5207271)
So the single biggest thing you can do is:
Just be responsible for what you’re feeding your family. Really understand what you’re feeding them.
If it’s not fruit and vegetables, read the packet labels – this includes labels of meats, eggs, cheese, yoghurts and the rest of the packets too. Ask yourself: Is this food helping my children’s body, or not helping their body?
I want to share why this is the single biggest thing you can do. Recently my family were hiking around the Devils Marbles in NT and we came across this sign about feeding the wildlife. It said:
“Native animals have adapted to a particular diet. Altering or supplementing their diets with foods that they wouldn’t otherwise eat, or increasing quantities of some foods in their diet may have negative effects on the health of these animals. These negative effects may include obesity, nutrient deficiency, diseases or viral and bacterial infections.”
Just like native wildlife, our bodies are adapted (over thousands of years) to eat certain kinds of foods. These are real foods, whole foods, foods which are as close as possible to their natural state.
The majority of the processed packaged foods on our supermarket shelves have in some way been concocted in a lab, then made in a factory, and they are not real food.
The current health statistics clearly demonstrate that what this sign says for wildlife, also holds true for us humans. If we eat food we’re not designed to eat, it can cause obesity, nutrient deficiency, diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and more.
3 Simple Actions You Can Take Immediately
These are just some simple actions you can take at home, and I have included ways you can get your children involved too.
1. Support Each Other, Don’t Judge
To truly be a stand for our own children’s health, we need to support each other.
What I’ve learnt on our Australian Tour is that every single parent – categorically – is doing the best they can, with the knowledge they have at hand. Everyone is on their own journey, learning how to best take care of their family.
For many people, they really do not know about what’s happened to our food supply until they are told it and shown it. Parents, if your eyes are already wide open about what’s in processed food and you’re already feeding your family real food, don’t judge people who aren’t quite there. They may not even realise. Think about ways you maybe able to help them.
If you’re a parent who thinks another parent is depriving their children of a fun childhood or their kids are missing out on treats out because they have real food, do not judge them. Support them. They are already taking a stand for their children’s health. When your child eats real food, you will be amazed at just how many incredible treats there are that add to their health rather than take away from it. Be bold enough to ask them for guidance.
No matter where you are at on your health journey, I am calling on you to stand together. Support each other, don’t judge.
Importantly, teach your children not to judge too. Educate them about how their food and drink is their fuel. Ask them what they think would happen if you put dirty dish water in a car, rather than the petrol or diesel that it’s designed to have. Let them know their body is designed to have real food, not loads of processed packaged food.
2. Drink Water, Not Juice
Our children need water to keep them hydrated. Water is the only drink you need to send to school to support your children. Drop the juice.
Even if it is 100% juice with no additives and preservatives, it will still be loaded with natural sugars, way more than if they just ate a whole piece of fruit.
Many popular fruit drinks (notice they are called “drinks” not “juice”) sent to school are predominantly water with fruit concentrate added. This can sometimes add up to the amount of sugar from 3-4 pieces of fruit.
Drinking this is like a pure injection of sugar into the body, without any fibre to slow down its absorption. Think “Sugar High”, followed by “Sugar Crash”. Then think of your child trying to concentrate while they’re experiencing that crash, and the teacher trying to teach them.
When I share this with children in The Mad Food Science™ Program, they are legitimately shocked to visibly see how much sugar they are having in a fruit juice.
Aside from the sugar, the rubbish created from these containers is huge, with one of the biggest problems being those little plastic wrappers for the straws. Read more about school lunchbox rubbish here.
In addition, I recently interviewed two Queensland Government Funded Dental Nurses at a school. They explained how important saliva is to dental hygiene. Saliva breaks down the sugars and acids in the foods we eat, and help them from sticking to teeth. Because our children are not drinking enough water, and are drinking and eating sugary foods, their saliva production just can’t keep up. Dental decay in children is increasing.
“In 2010, the proportion of children who visited a school dental service who had decayed, missing or filled baby teeth varied from about 48% for 5 year olds to 62% for 8 year olds.” (source: http://www.aihw.gov.au/dental/healthy-teeth/)
Get your children on board by talking to them about how their body is made up mostly of water. How every time they move, sit or even go to the toilet, they use some of their water, so it’s important to replace it. Talk to them about rubbish (there’s tips on how to do this here). Talk to them about how important their spit is to keeping their teeth clean and how their spit is not strong enough to do this if there is too much sugar in their foods.
3. Eat More Real Food, Reduce Processed Packaged Food
I urge you to commit to reducing the amount of processed packaged food you buy, and to incorporate more real food into your family’s snacks, lunches and dinners.
Just to be totally clear on this, real food is food as close to it’s original source as possible. Real foods are fruits, vegetables, unprocessed meats and fish (not processed deli meats), eggs, legumes and whole grains. You can then make delicious nourishing meals and snacks by adding a variety of real foods together. This can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
My Simple Tips to Reduce Processed Packaged Food:
– When Shopping
Shop around the outside edges of the supermarket. If you do want to buy packet foods, flip the packet over and count the number of ingredients. More than 6? Put it back and find something better. A real food usually only has 1 ingredient, and the more ingredients there are, the further removed it is from a real food. Choose your packet foods wisely. Learn more here.
– When Cooking
You do not need to be a master chef or have a big gleaming kitchen to make nourishing meals and snacks for your family. Keep it simple.
Look at what you’re already doing. Choose your family’s favourite meals, and work out how can you make them more based on real food. If you’re looking for ideas, there is no shortage of recipes on the web.
There are loads of wonderful wellness people sharing simple nourishing recipes for you to follow, including yours truly. Please feel free to browse through all the free recipes on our website. I have also listed below my favourite wellness blogger sites with awesome free recipes too.
- Well Nourished
- Natural New Age Mum
- Low Tox Life with Alexx Stuart
- Lisa Corduff – Keeping Food Real
- Wholefood Simply
- Brenda Janschek – Health & Lifestyle
- Cut Out The Crap
- Mamacino – Nourish & Nuture
- 123 Nourish Me
If you’re ready to take a bigger step, try Reducing Sugar Consumption
Simply put, processed foods often contain a lot of added sugars. The World Health Organisation says we should be limiting our daily intake of added sugar to 6 teaspoons a day for adults, and around 3-4 teaspoons for children, but Aussie kids are eating more than 20 teaspoons of added sugar daily!
To ensure you and your children are as healthy as possible, I strongly recommend you reduce the amount of added, or “free” sugars in your family’s diet. Start by turning over each processed food packet in your home, and looking at the amount of sugar included. Remember that 4g of sugar is 1 teaspoon, and then think about what processed food items you can substitute with better processed options, or replace altogether with real food options.
I highly recommend you check out a new Australian initiative Sugar By Half, to learn more about how you can cut your sugar consumption in half by swapping out sugary foods for better foods.
And, as a That Sugar Film Ambassador, I highly recommend you watch “That Sugar Film” with your family, to learn about the way sugar works in our bodies, and why it’s such a nasty ingredient in our diets.
Again, if you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, remember to STOP, BREATHE, and CHOOSE ONE THING to tackle. Improve on that area, make it a way of life, and then choose another area. Repeat the cycle. You’ve got this.
Parents of Australia, I call on each of you to be a stand for your own children’s health. Commit to making at least ONE change immediately, that can improve your children’s health. Let’s support each other in our efforts, and stand together to Transform Children’s health.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. And for taking action. Your children will thank you.
Remember: Our Mission To Transform Children’s Health is here to help you.
If you would like us to help empower your children to make better food choices for themselves and to work with you, rather than push against you, then contact Israel on 0413708432 to chat about how we can help you.