Topic of the Week: How to Get Your Kids to Eat Healthier Food

Parents’ influence on the diet of their children is enormous. While that may not be surprising news, recent food research shows startling information on this topic, including faulty parental views of childhood obesity, how children perceive food within a family setting, and how children’s involvement with food preparation impacts their dietary choices.


Eating in a Time-Starved World
When they are abundantly exposed to fruits and vegetables, kids are more likely to add these healthy items to their list of favorite foods. However, the same is true if they are often exposed to high fat, high sugar and high caloric items – like fast food. When parents eat poorly, kids mimic their parents’ food preferences.


Even when they have the best of dietary intentions for their children, parents are squeezed by lack of time to prepare nutritious meals and may opt for a quick “drive thru” solution to replace a sit-down, home cooked dinner. Every year, more of North American’s daily calories come from food prepared outside the family home.


The Journal of the American Dietetic Association recently published studies confirming that location and food sources (including fast food and store-prepared food) are significant contributors to the daily calorie intake of children. Families eating fast food three or more times a week were more likely to have unhealthy foods at home, such as pop and chips. As well, frequent visits to fast food restaurants were also associated with higher body mass index (BMI). Currently people in North America spend 50 percent of their food budget in restaurants, and these foods are often high in fat and sodium.


Dietary researchers point out that the primary sources of energy for kids between 2 and 18 years of age are grain desserts, pizza and soda. Almost 40 percent of total calories consumed were from empty calories (foods high in energy but low in nutrition.


Another problem for parents is controlling the food their child eats at school. Although many education institutions are creating healthier food choices in their cafeterias, research carried out by Temple University routinely found that many items in school vending machines were over 200 calories. This revelation provides more incentive for parents to pack healthier alternatives for their kids’ snacks.


Child Weight Problem Underestimated
With the number of obese children nearly topping 20 percent, you may be surprised at how some parents view obesity. Dietary experts are puzzled by the amount of research indicating many parents do not perceive their obese children as being overweight.


Parents who are also obese were more likely to underestimate that their child had a weight problem.


In a study of obese four and five year-old children, about 50 percent of the kids’ mothers and 39 percent of their fathers believed their child was within a normal weight range.


A study conducted in the state of New York also found parents were often unaware how dangerous obesity can be to their child’s health. The results showed 76 percent of parents thought an obesity problem was as minor as getting sunburn.


Steps You Can Take
What can you do to help keep your child’s weight level in an appropriate range? Obviously, you need to limit your child’s intake of fast food and processed food. Here are some additional tips on healthy shopping, saving time and enticing kids to eat healthy:


- Plan Ahead – Write a grocery list and stick to it. This will help reduce impulse buying of nutritionally low food. Read food labels so you know how many calories, fat and sodium are in your food items.


- Prep Ahead – Spend some time on a day off from work to prep meals and lunches for the upcoming week. Cut up vegetables and marinade meat ahead of time so you do not have this chore when you come home after work.


- Eat Together – Studies show that when parents and children sit together for a home cooked meal, both groups generally eat healthier.


- Grow Your Vegetables – Get your kids involved in planting and caring for a vegetable garden. An Asian study revealed that when they were involved in tending a vegetable garden, the children doubled their dietary consumption of vegetables.


- Let kids help – Get your children involved in the meal preparation process. Having some extra help mixing and pouring saves you time and makes it more likely for your kids to eat what they helped prepare.


Disclaimer: Information contained in this Wellness Express™ newsletter is for educational and general purposes only and is designed to assist you in making informed decisions about your health. Any information contained herein is not intended to substitute advice from your physician or other healthcare professional. Copyright © Wellness Express™

Exercise of the Week: Difficulty: Moderate to Advanced

Start: Assume push-up position with hands on ball, fingers pointing toward floor. Hands should be positioned directly under shoulders and body should be in a straight line from ankles to ears.

Exercise: Keeping torso perfectly straight, slowly lower yourself to ball. Pause just before chest touches ball. If your upper body strength allows, push yourself back up to start position. If upper body strength is lacking, let chest come all way down to ball, then come off ball to return to start position. Repeat 5-15 times.

Quote of the Week:

“The body is like a piano, and happiness is like music. It is needful to have the instrument in good order.” - Henry Ward Beecher

Exercise of the Week: Abdominal Bridge on Exercise Ball with Single Leg Lift/Abduction

Difficulty: Moderate

Start: Assume abdominal bridge position on exercise ball. Focus on bringing belly button inward, and hold entire body in a straight line - ankles to ears.

Exercise: Lift one foot a few inches off floor. Stabilize yourself, keeping body still. Abduct leg as far as possible to side, keeping body still. Hold for 5-10 counts. Return to start position, and repeat with other leg. Maintain a tight abdomen throughout. Repeat 5-10 times per leg.

Topic of the Week: How Much Chiropractic Care Do You Need?

You have come for your first chiropractic assessment, and the doctor tells you that you have some misalignments/restrictions in your spine called subluxations. What’s next? How much chiropractic care are you going to need?


Based on information from your medical history, the physical assessment, and your current symptom patterns, your chiropractic physician is going to create a treatment plan based on three key factors:


1. Your personal health goals - short-term symptom resolution or long-term health & wellness?


2. The cause of your symptoms - the diagnosis – including the length of time you have had symptoms.


3. Your willingness to participate - following recommendations for stretches, exercises, etc.


Your Personal Health Goals
Is it your goal to use chiropractic for pain-management or is it your intention to use chiropractic to help you be healthier? If you simply want to have less pain today, often a single chiropractic treatment will do the trick. By correcting vertebral subluxations, pressure is taken off the joints, nerves and other pain sensitive soft tissues. The result – you feel better. This kind of treatment is similar to taking a pill. You feel good only until the effects of the medicine wear off.


In order to be healthier, and to feel good long term, you need to create structural correction that will last. This requires repetitive treatments, aimed at re-establishing your natural spinal curves and alignment.


Just as working out in a gym to change your body’s shape takes time and effort, re-establishing normal spinal curvatures takes time too. After symptoms are under control, long-term correction and maintenance of your spine is a life-long affair. Monthly check-ups are often enough to keep you healthy, but it depends on your activity levels and life-stress.


The Cause of Your Symptoms
Many of us have had the uncomfortable experience of hurting our back from physical trauma – like a fall, a twist, or lifting something too heavy or awkward. These situations can lead to bouts of acute pain caused by vertebral subluxations, plus muscle spasms and inflammation associated with that kind of injury. Fortunately, a few well-placed chiropractic adjustments, scheduled soon after an injury, can often help ease the pain caused by misalignment. This can also help prevent the long-term negative effects of vertebral subluxations by taking the pressure off immediately.


However, what if there was no physical trauma preceding your back pain? What if the pain is more chronic, or comes on without any obvious trauma?


Your chiropractor knows that for these painful symptoms to occur there must have been a musculoskeletal system imbalance beforehand – perhaps several low-grade, minor subluxations that were not bad enough to be painful. And, the longer the imbalance has been there, the more challenging it is to change that physical pattern. Typically, your chiropractor may ask you to come for treatments daily, or every other day, until your adjustments start to hold on their own. The longer you have had symptoms, usually the longer this will take. After this stage, you and your chiropractor work together to determine what works best long term.


Your Participation
Your chiropractic physician is highly skilled at determining what is wrong, and knows precisely where to apply the chiropractic adjustments so you will feel better. However, to stabilize your musculoskeletal system, there are definitely things you can do to help - both in the short term and well into the future. Immediately following an acute injury, your chiropractor may recommend icing the symptomatic areas to reduce inflammation and will probably suggest that you modify your activities for a certain period of time. This allows the proper healing process to occur.


Then, when you are in either the corrective and/or maintenance phase of your treatment plan, you may be asked to do certain exercises and stretches to facilitate long-term stabilization of proper spinal alignment.


If you comply with your chiropractor’s recommendations, you will realize the full benefit of chiropractic care, and prolong the durability and health of your spine. If you do not follow the recommendations, you are more prone to a relapse.


Be sure to share with your chiropractic physician your full medical history and also mention your personal health goals. Your chiropractor will use this information to create a treatment plan that is right for you.


Disclaimer: Information contained in this Wellness Express™ newsletter is for educational and general purposes only and is designed to assist you in making informed decisions about your health. Any information contained herein is not intended to substitute advice from your physician or other healthcare professional. Copyright © Wellness Express™

A Walk in the Forest

If you do not receive our bi-monthly newsletter, here is this week's topic; "A Walk in the Forest".



The world is changing. Global populations continue to migrate to urban areas. These ongoing relocations lead to substantial distortions in human biosystems. In a word and to no one's surprise, living in big cities comes with a big cost. The good news is that by taking simple, doable, healthful actions on our own behalf, we can become healthier and happier members of our great urban communities....
 
Click the link to continue read: http://lifewellnesscenter.net/index.php?newsletters=10223

Quote of the Week

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” - Leo Buscaglia

Exercise of the Week: Abdominal Bridge on Exercise Ball with Single Leg Curl

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Start: Assume abdominal bridge position on exercise ball. Focus on bringing belly button inward and holding entire body in a straight line – ankles to ears.

Exercise: Lift one foot a few inches off floor. Stabilize yourself, keeping body still. Curl leg to 90 degrees and hold for 5-10 counts. Return to start position, and repeat with other leg. Maintain a tight abdomen throughout. Repeat 5-10 times per leg.

Topic of the Week: Is Your Child Anxious at School?

Anxiety disorders affect one in eight children. It has become an increasing problem for kids, parents and teachers. While many children look forward to school, some children dread it. Anxious kids endure painful, uncomfortable episodes of nervousness, irritability and frightening thoughts. They often find it difficult to focus on their school work and may frequently complain of illness, such as headaches or stomachaches. Untreated anxious kids are at higher risk of engaging in substance abuse.
Normal Anxiety vs. Anxiety Disorder


It is typical for even non-anxious children to experience anxious feelings, such as being afraid of the dark or getting separated from their parents. Children attach anxiety to specific situations, but the bad feelings disappear when the situation is over, or the child simply outgrows the fear. However, children with anxiety disorders endure extreme anxiety over long periods of time.


What causes a child to develop an anxiety disorder? The answer is still not clear, but numerous experts agree that genetics, family environment and life experiences all play key roles. Studies indicate girls are more likely to develop anxiety disorders than boys, and younger children are more prone to anxiety problems than older children.


Separation Anxiety


This is a common issue for young kids, especially if they are just starting school or changing to a different school. A child may cry for a few minutes after being dropped off at school. This is a normal response, but for a child with separation anxiety disorder, he or she can feel fearful for hours and cry continually. The child may have concentration difficulties and fail to engage with his or her classmates. The problem can continue at home, with the anxious child having sleep problems, frequent nightmares or refusing to go to school.


Social Anxiety


This anxiety disorder can interfere with a child’s social development. To parents, social anxiety can appear as extreme shyness in their child. Kids with this disorder feel anxious around new people and new situations, may have trouble forming friends and are often reluctant to participate in group activities. At school, a socially anxious child is afraid to make mistakes for fear of embarrassment or attracting unwanted attention.


School Refusal Anxiety


Severe anxiety can lead to a child refusing to go to school or stay in school. With school refusal anxiety disorder, a child often complains of feeling ill – either at school or shortly before going to school. He or she may develop this problem if changing to a new school, fears failing academically, or gets bullied. School refusal can be linked to separation anxiety and social anxiety.


Treatment of Anxiety


The primary treatment method used for dealing with childhood anxiety is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This type of psychotherapy is based on the idea that our thoughts cause our feelings and behaviors, not external things – such as events, situations and people.


The CBT therapist teaches the child to recognize their unsettling thoughts and behaviors and provides strategies to deal and cope with his or her anxious feelings. CBT therapy also includes relaxation training, role-playing and positive reinforcement.


More Tips for Parents of Anxious Kids


If you think your child is struggling with serious anxiety, talk to a pediatrician. You should also bring it to the attention of your child’s teacher and school counselor. In the meantime, here are five tips for helping your anxious child:


1. Be Supportive – Make your child feel comfortable talking about her anxiety and offer reassurance. When a child is able to express fears to her parents, she actually experiences a decrease in anxiety.


2. Be School Positive – Point to the fun aspects of school to your child. This can include playing with classmates and engaging in new activities.


3. Allow for Downtime – Just like adults, children need time to decompress. Do not over schedule your child with too many activities. Make sure they have unstructured playtime, which helps reduce the impact of anxiety.


4. Encourage Exercise – Children should get 60 minutes of physical activity daily. Exercise helps slash levels of the stress hormone cortisol and boost levels of the mood enhancing neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Studies show children involved in team sports report less anxiety, and it is especially helpful for kids with social anxiety disorder.


5. Visit Your Chiropractor – Getting regular chiropractic adjustments help kids just as much as adults. Chiropractic reduces stress-related subluxations that impact nerves and restores a more balanced, natural tone to the nervous system.

Disclaimer: Information contained in this Wellness Express™ newsletter is for educational and general purposes only and is designed to assist you in making informed decisions about your health. Any information contained herein is not intended to substitute advice from your physician or other healthcare professional. Copyright © Wellness Express™