Child and adolescent health issues are of greater and greater concern in modern society. More children and adolescents are suffering from illnesses that previous generations only experienced in adulthood. Current dietary and exercise trends mean that many children and adolescents could develop heart disease during their teens.

Many child and adolescent health issues are directly related to their eating and exercise habits.

Some examples of these child and adolescent health issues include

• Heart attack
• Coronary disease
• Stroke
• High blood pressure
• Type II diabetes
• High cholesterol
• Malnutrition
• Stress/depression
• Digestive issues
• Some cancers (including rectal)

Did you know that despite more children being overweight or obese, these same children also suffer from malnutrition. Amazing isn’t it? Gone are the days when malnutrition was a tragedy only experienced in third world countries, many children in the West now suffer from malnutrition. The only difference is that visually, the picture is not of a child who is all skin and bones, rather, the children are those being ostracised for being overweight or obese.

Many child and adolescent health issues could easily be avoided if the eating and exercise habits of families were addressed. Of course, only parents can accomplish this under the guidance of family health care providers.

None of us wants to see their child face a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and weight gain. By addressing their nutritional and exercise requirements now you could be saving your children’s lives.

We need to stop reaching for foods that are appealing or convenient for us with our busy lifestyles. It really doesn’t take that much more effort to prepare healthy, low fat, nutritious meals. Too many of us try to cater to our children’s fussy eating habits by giving them only the foods they wanted. Forty years ago, parents never let us get away with that, we ate what was on the plate or went hungry. As a result we learned to eat, and enjoy, most foods.

Here are some tips on how to change some of the things that are currently leading to all those child and adolescent health issues.

Eat more:

1. Fruit: Remember the food pyramid, two serves of fruit per day
2. Vegetables: Frozen vegetables are great, generally more nutrients than fresh vegies because they are frozen within hours of harvest which retains nutrients
3. Lean read meat: Red meat should generally only be served once per week as it tends to be very high in saturated fats
4. Chicken: It is important to remove skin prior to cooking where possible as that is where most of the fat is
5. Fish: Fish is low in fat and high in omega 3 fatty acids which help control blood cholesterol levels
6. Whole grains: Eat wholegrain or multi grain bread, wholegrain pasta etc as they are fiber rich which makes them burn slower keeping your appetite satisfied for longer
7. Legumes and Nuts: These are really high in protein and can be used as a meat substitute.

Eat less:

1. Fried foods: Grill, boil, bake, steam or poach foods instead
2. Processed foods: Foods like frozen battered/crumbed fish fillets and frozen pizza are really high in fat, sugar and calories
3. Sausages: Commercially prepared sausages are high in fat, salt, sugar etc and are really unhealthy.
4. Cookies, cakes, potato crisps, snack bars, candy and sweets.
5. Salty foods: Salt is the major cause of fluid retention.

Exercise more:

1. Walk the children to school instead of driving if possible – Start a ‘walking schoolbus’
2. Schedule a family activity each week: A bicycle ride or picnic and ball game in the park, even a Wii session with a game that requires the family to get up and get active
3. Encourage your child/adolescent to take up a sport or dance classes.

NOTE: A walking schoolbus refers to a group of children walking along a designated route where other children join them along the way. The ‘bus’ is accompanied by at least one adult who picks the first child up. The role of guardian (or driver if you want to think of it that way) is generally rotated between the parents of participating children who are available to perform the duty.

As you can see, it’s relatively simple to make the changes necessary to avoid the child and adolescent health issues that result from unhealthy eating a exercise habits.

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