Take child obesity seriously! It is the first step to end this problem
Currently the childhood obesity It has become a problem that requires everyone's attention. That is why many programs are committed to a healthier lifestyle in which both the teaching of good eating habits and the promotion of a healthier lifestyle where sport is a common element in the day to day of everyone intervene.
One example is the project initiated by the Clinical Management Unit of Internal Medicine of the Regional Hospital of Malaga and the Biomedical Research Institute of Malaga. An initiative where 130 children between 4 and 9 years old participated with a clear objective: to prevent obesity in the new generations.
How to implant healthy habits against obesity
Those responsible for this initiative indicate that the 23% of the Andalusian child population is overweight or obese. A situation that eventually results in the development of cardiometabolic pathologies in adulthood, so it is clear to carry out an intervention at early ages.
"The main objective is to make known, within the family, the necessary tools, both nutritional and physical, to help these children to implement healthy lifestyles for the rest of their lives," she explains. María Rosa Bernal, co-researcher responsible for the group 'diabetes, obesity and other vascular risk factors.
This study, which will last for three years, after a first analysis, determined that the participants did little physical exercise with a high level of sedentary lifestyle due to the consumption of many hours of new technologies and a low consumption of healthy foods. In a first contact, they observed that 949 children suffered from obesity and that, part of them, had a high insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinemia, with a high lipid intake and low vitamin D. In addition, their lipid and glycemic profiles had blood levels above normal values.
"We found that the 30% of our population already had an increase in the thickness of the carotid intima-media at the beginning of the study. We are analyzing if the situation has reversed after the modification of the lifestyle during this first year in our population, "explains María Rosa Bernal.
Good eating habits to stop overweight
How to inculcate these good eating habits? From the American Association of Retired Persons The following tips are offered:
- Be the example. Children learn by imitating their elders. By implementing good habits, parents should serve as a model. It is not recommended to introduce changes that do not follow the biggest ones or that do not involve the whole family equally.
- The table is for sharing. It is recommended to eat only during meals and when shared with the family to avoid snacking, which also improves communication skills, promotes academic performance and reduces risk behaviors in adolescence.
- Eat without hurry. The reasonable time for a child to be at the table is 20 to 30 minutes. It is recommended to eat calmly since in this way the brain can send signals to the stomach that enough food has been received.
Damián Montero
