Childhood Obesity, Great Teas, and Our Legacy

 

Holistic Habits by Cheryl A. Mothes, Ph.D. Natural Health Nutrition Counselor

Content is daily radio script from my KHIS radio spot - tune in at 6:15 (CST) every morning to Justin and Meredith’s morning show 89.9 FM.

  Some of us struggle with weight, and some of us have children who struggle with weight. A book you might be interested in is "Helping your Child with Extreme Picky Eating", which puts growth charts in perspective and addresses topics like understanding BMI, being underweight, and childhood obesity.  Speaking of which, over the last three decades, childhood obesity rates have more than doubled and the rate for adolescents has quadrupled. If children are obese at age three, the probability of being overweight or obese in the teen years was almost 90%. Early childhood is a critical age for prevention strategies for parents to have an enormous impact in terms of forming healthy habits, such as family meals and plant-centered diets. It is a meatless Monday and a wonderful time to help our kiddos live healthier!

 Children who are obese have a much higher rate of hypertension and it is a key risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes. This disease has tough complications - eye, kidney, and vascular damage are common. High teen BMI scores triple the rate of adult diabetes and increase the risk of coronary artery disease by five times. Childhood obesity also results in orthopedic problems, gallstones, fatty liver disease, polycystic ovarian disease, sleep apnea, and asthma. Additionally, it is associated with a variety of negative mental consequences - body image issues, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and even depression. Others can be unkind and even bully overweight or obese children. In the book "Your Child's Weight: Helping Without Harming", there are approaches that can support their health and eating patterns. Have a terrific Tuesday everyone!

 We have been talking about the health of our children for several days, and it is sobering to know that 75% of youths ages 17 to 24 would not be able to qualify for being in our military. These reasons are obesity, lack of a high school diploma or GED, being a convicted felon, and taking prescription drugs for anxiety, depression, or other health issues. The Pentagon reports that the quality of those willing to serve has been declining rapidly. If you recall the impact of families who have five meals per week together, their children are physically, mentally, and emotionally healthier, do better in school and are much less likely to take drugs, smoke, or drink. As rapidly as health has declined for our kiddos, we can turn it around through nutrition. Power up those plantified plates to help them develop their full potential on this wonderful Wednesday!

 We know that many of those who live the longest drink green tea. It contains healthy compounds that improve brain function, and fat burning, and protect against cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Pretty powerful stuff! In one area of the Blue Zones, where people live longest and best, they eat Milk Thistle - and you can purchase it in a healthful tea. It protects the liver, bones, brain, and blood sugar levels. Tomorrow we will cover two more - these teas can all be ordered in tea bags from Amazon to help you live longer and live stronger!

 Yesterday we talked about two powerful teas - green tea and milk thistle tea and here are two more. Moringa is so powerful that it is called the tree of life. Moringa tea possesses exceptional nutritional value to boost our energy, regulate blood sugar, support our heart health, protect our liver, boost our moods, and help us heal better - wow! Lastly, astragalus (ah-strag-u-lus) tea slows the effects of aging, reduces the effects of stress, helps our hearts and kidneys, detoxes, protects our livers, and supports healthy cell regeneration. Improve your health on the shelf by ordering green tea, milk thistle tea, moringa tea, and astragalus teas from Amazon and have a fantastic Friday everyone!

 References:  Helping your Child with Extreme Picky Eating by Katja Rowell, MD and Your Child's Weight:  Helping without Harming by Ellen Satter, MS, RD, LCSW, BCD

 From the Archives:

 On this meatless Monday, we are talking again about our genetic makeup, that "legacy" that our parents bestow upon us, but we know from last week that there is great news to empower us - we are not victims of our genes. We have more control than we ever thought because most of what we inherit from our family is simply their habits, and we can certainly change our habits! Also, studies show that over five hundred genes can be favorably changed through diet. For example, hundreds of oncogenes that promote cancer can be switched off in only three months! And of course, it is by going meatless and increasing vegetables, grains, fruits, beans, and seeds. Stay tuned for more and have a marvelous Monday! 

More today about how you can turn up good genes and turn down bad genes - yesterday it was about turning down genes that promote cancer, but our lifestyle habits also affect genes that promote heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and other conditions. Enzymes called sirtuins (sear--tu-ins) wrap your DNA around proteins to stop bad genes - isn't that just miraculous? These sirtuins that we can turn up through lifestyle changes can be called anti-aging proteins and have a key role in many chronic diseases. Our lifestyles can be HEALING. Have a terrific Tuesday everyone and come back tomorrow to learn more to live longer and stronger!

 Yesterday we talked about sirtuins, those anti-aging proteins that reduce chronic diseases. Glycation is a process where the sugar in our bloodstream attaches to proteins and fats, and it forms harmful molecules called Advanced Glycation End-products - the acronym is appropriately AGE's - AGE's makes you age! They suppress those good guys, the sirtuins, and therefore make us age faster. AGEs are in our food, especially high in meat. They cause oxidative stress and inflammation, leading to all sorts of health conditions. So, on this wonderful Wednesday, consider improving your wealth of health by eating more plants and less meat.

 Yesterday we talked about AGE molecules that make us age by stopping good proteins that help our genes, and those AGEs are found to be remarkably high in our standard American diet. It is not just the foods we eat but the ways we cook them that can increase the deadly AGEs. Animal foods that are high in fat and protein are AGE-rich and cooking them only increases those AGE's. We know from the book The Blue Zones, that those in the world who live the longest and best eat predominately plants. So again, we can live longer and live stronger by improving our DNA by eating a diet with more of a plant slant.

 We have talked all week about fixing our genes - yes, we can - increasing good proteins called sirtuins and reducing AGE's, both of which can be accomplished through foods and how we cook or do not cook them. A soy burger cooked in a microwave has only 20 AGE's - those harmful molecules - and if you add one teaspoon of oil to a pan and fry it, that number raises to 131. In huge contrast though, two strips of fried bacon, a piece of steak, and a roasted chicken thigh, all with no oil added, have over 10,000 AGEs to age our cells! And if you barbecue that chicken thigh? It goes to 16.000 AGE's. WOW. Consider overhauling your health on the shelf by choosing low AGE foods - vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruits, beans, and grains, and getting rid of the high AGE meats have a fantastic Friday everyone!

 References:  Undo It! How Lifestyle Changes Can Reverse Most Chronic Diseases by Dean and Anne Ornish and The Blue Zones, Eating and Living Like the World's Healthiest People by Dan Buettner