Not too many years ago, fast food restaurants were an occasional family treat. Children in many families now ingest Mcfries and chicken nuggets several times a week. Bags of potato chips were served with barbecue meals of hot dogs and burgers or dumped into bowls for parties. Many of today’s pantries routinely offer open bags of chips or single serving size bags of potato chips for frequent snacks.
It’s easy to place all the blame on childhood obesity on fast food and high calorie snacks but not only the calories damage the health of children. The foods lack nutritional value. Children are eating preservatives and chemical flavors, ingesting far more salt and sugar than nutritionists recommend and are filling their stomachs with food that does not efficiently fuel their body.
Obese children are seldom found eating a fresh vegetable or piece of fruit. Too often, the options are choosing between cupcakes and cookies. This new way of eating was enabled by advances in packaged foods. There is no effort involved in providing high calorie snacks today as all of the foods that used to be treats made at home are now packaged in a way that encourages frequent consumption.
For generations, children in farming communities ate meals that would be considered unhealthy today. Fried meats, creamed vegetables, plenty of carbohydrates and dessert once or twice a week was common fare in farm families. Yet few children were overweight and even fewer suffered from childhood obesity.
Weight gain was not a problem because the caloric intake was quickly burned off by outdoor work and activities. That is the missing element in society today. Even young children are glued to TV watching a constant stream of rented movies. Elementary school children play video games for hours and teens are updating MySpace and Facebook pages as they Twitter every few minutes.
Weight loss camps remove the sedentary activities children have so easily adapted to.
Outdoor activities are not only encouraged but are organized to include all the camp participants and provide physical activity. Swimming, kayaking or canoeing, racing up hills, games of tag, dancing – these are activities that make up a typical day for many attending.
Exercise produces energy. It raises the metabolism, burns fat, and tones muscles. The significant increase in exercise at weight loss camps for kids makes them feel better and also carries significant health benefits.
Children have food choices at camp but all choices are nutritionally sound. Food is not used as a reward for behavior nor used to make a child feel better. Positive reinforcement is never food based and exercise is not viewed as punishment – instead, “exercise” at camp is generally not what kids think of when you say the word “exercise” – it’s fun, exciting, and the kind of thing that kids want to keep doing.
