One out of three children in America are overweight or outright obese As a result, their health and emotional well being now, and their ability to enjoy a productive and long life in the future, are greatly impaired.

What can you do to prevent this epidemic from affecting your children?

Here are some points to consider:

• Take a good look in your refrigerator and your pantry. What do you see? If there is an abundance of foods that are high in fat, sugar and calories, then permanently change, what you buy and what your family eats.
• Insist on the family eating together. Studies have shown that this one act alone improves family communication and reduces the intake of high fat, high calorie foods.
• Take your children grocery shopping with you and teach them how to read the labels and select healthy. Make a game out of it and give rewards (NOT Candy!) for the right selections.
• Exercise together. Take walks together, go to the park often, find safe bikeways, define safe walking paths to school and use the backyard for tag, sack races and dodge ball.
• Encourage neighborhood participation. The more kids engage in activity together, the more they will want to play together.
• For goodness sake, limit TV to no more than one hour on school days.
• Never allow snacks during TV time.
• Be creative with snacks; provide carrot sticks, apples, bananas, grapes, cherries and a whole variety of fruits and fresh vegetables.

There is an old German proverb that says: “a man is what he eats.” So, it is for our children. Don’t feed them fat and they won’t be obese!

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