The problem of childhood-obesity has long been a problem with today’s children. Health experts have worked to encourage parents to promote healthy lifestyle habits, such as eating nutritiously, watching less TV, exercising, and getting an adequate amount of sleep. Individually, all of these behaviors have been shown to have an impact on lowering obesity in children.
However, researchers at Ohio State University wanted to find out if putting all of these habits together would lower the risk of childhood obesity even further. To do this, the researchers, led by epidemiologist Sarah Anderson, analyzed data provided by 8,550 4-year-olds. The data from this study came from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort. The study focused on three behaviors: eating dinner with the family, reducing TV time, and getting an adequate amount of sleep. The findings showed that those children who practiced two healthy habits were slimmer than those who practiced only one. Likewise, children who practiced three healthy habits were slimmer than those who practiced less than three good habits. In fact, children who practiced three or more healthy habits were 40 percent less likely to suffer from obesity.
Overall, families who work to improve in the three areas mentioned above will do wonders to promote a healthy weight in their children.
I blame McDonald’s and cuts in school budgets.