By Dr. Joseph Mercola
     with Rachael Droege

Most Americans are aware of the obesity epidemic facing the nation, but what you may not know is that obesity is also a major concern for American children. In the last two decades, the prevalence of overweight adolescents has nearly tripled, and now one out of every four American children are seriously overweight or at risk of becoming overweight.

Overweight and obese children are not only faced with increased health problems--heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal and orthopaedic problems, and type 2 diabetes to name a few--but they are also likely to suffer from low self-esteem and depression as a result of their weight. Being overweight or obese can take a huge emotional toll on a young child.

Further, overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese as adults, and that chance moves closer to 80 percent if the child has a parent who is overweight or obese. An adult who was an obese child has an even greater likelihood of developing serious health problems than if the obesity developed in adulthood.

Child obesity has only has a few major causes:

• Inactivity (watching television and playing video games rather than playing outside to get exercise)
• Drinking soda and juice instead of water
• Eating sugar, bread, cereal and other grains

Adding to the problem is that parents of overweight children don’t always recognize that their child is overweight. According to one survey, only three percent of parents of severely obese children considered their child overweight, and eight percent of the parents actually considered them to be underweight.

Fortunately, obesity in children (and adults) can be prevented--and reversed. The future health of our country is clearly related to having our children eat healthy. If we want to save them incredible needless grief and suffering then it would be wise to encourage them to eat properly.

The first step is to have your children drink nothing but water. This will drastically cut down on the amount of sugar your child consumes from soft drinks and fruit juices. For every soft drink or sugar-sweetened beverage a child drinks each day, their obesity risk appears to jump 60 percent.

Next have your child gradually incorporate the nutrition plan into their daily eating habits so they are eating a healthy diet of whole, nutritious foods rather than the processed ones that line most grocery store shelves. This includes cutting out grains and sugar, as these are two of the major culprits behind weight gain.

Exercise is another extremely important factor. Overweight and obese children will need at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, and major studies have shown that 60 minutes a day is actually best. Any activity that gets your child up and away from the television set is a good idea. At first you can try walking with your child, and then gradually increase the intensity to include activities such as jogging and using an elliptical machine.

Emotions also play a major role in child obesity, as many children’s weight loss efforts get sabotaged by emotional eating. Children may also have a hard time giving up their junk food snacks. This is where the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) comes in. EFT can be profoundly helpful in alleviating not only food cravings, but also the underlying emotional challenges, such as low self-esteem, that can lead your child to eat unhealthy food or overeat. For more information on EFT, check out my free 25-page EFT manual.

Your children will learn their eating habits from those around them, so its important that parents are also eating well and exercising. An excellent resource to help you get your family’s diet on track is my new book, The No-Grain Diet. Not only does it provide the answer to the obesity epidemic but it also provides a simple strategy to optimize the health of everyone in your family.

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