{"id":269,"date":"2008-07-21T11:58:53","date_gmt":"2008-07-21T17:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/wordpress\/?p=269"},"modified":"2013-08-26T16:15:29","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T16:15:29","slug":"helping-our-kids-maintain-a-healthy-weight-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/e\/helping-our-kids-maintain-a-healthy-weight-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping Our Kids Maintain a Healthy Weight, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

My previous blog kicked off a three part series\u00a0discussing behaviors likely to\u00a0cause children to consume too many calories and become overweight.*\u00a0\u00a0 Approximately one third of children are overweight or at-risk for overweight, leading many parents to wonder what they can do to help their children maintain a healthy weight.\u00a0 Last month, I focused on reducing the frequency of eating out and gave some practical hints to make that happen in\u00a0your busy family.\u00a0 (Click here to read my June blog.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This month, we’ll take a look at another behavior and offer tips to help parents.<\/p>\n

Behavior #2: Reduce Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\"SodaPop\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

What is a sugar-sweetened beverage?
\nThe term “sugar-sweetened beverage”\u00a0refers to beverages with added sugars and includes soda\/pop, sports drinks, energy drinks, lemonade and other fruit drinks.<\/p>\n

What’s the big deal about these beverages?
\nResearch has found that the risk of being overweight in school age children increased by 60% per serving of sugar-sweetened beverage. \u00a0The research also found that overweight children\/adolescents drank more soft drinks than non-overweight children\/adolescents.\u00a0 Drinks account for approximately 40% of all added sugar in our diet.<\/p>\n

What can parents do?
\nEncourage family members to consume water and milk by creating a supportive environment.\u00a0 This will be easier if you have very young children and are just starting to offer beverages other than breast milk or formula.\u00a0 They are not\u00a0accustomed to having sugar-sweetened beverages so you can establish water and milk as the beverage choices for your family.\u00a0 However, if your kids are used to having soda\/pop, juice drinks or sports drinks every day, the change is likely to be more challenging.\u00a0 Here are some tips to help those families:<\/p>\n

Change one drink at a time.
\nSuddenly switching from sugar-sweetened beverages to only water and milk overnight is bound to produce some unhappy family members.\u00a0 Start small, perhaps offering a glass of milk with lunch\u00a0instead of\u00a0soda\/pop.\u00a0\u00a0Once your family has adjusted to this change (it may take a week or two), make another change.\u00a0 Continuing to make small changes will make a big difference\u00a0over time.<\/p>\n

\"waterbottle\"<\/strong>Make drinking water and milk fun for kids.
\nMany kids enjoy drinking “juice” boxes, many of which contain a small amount of juice and a lot of sugar.\u00a0 Make drinking water just as fun.\u00a0 Give your child a straw to drink their water or milk.\u00a0 Let your child pick out his or her own reusable water bottle.\u00a0 Some kids who won’t drink a glass of water will happily drink bottled water.\u00a0 With milk, many schools have found\u00a0that students\u00a0are drinking more milk since the school has\u00a0switched from cartons to plastic bottles of milk.\u00a0 It’s amazing how the container can make a big difference.<\/p>\n

Consider other flavored drinks with little added sugar.
\nOne of my favorite drinks is ice water with slices of lemons, limes, or oranges.\u00a0 It provides just the right amount of flavor.\u00a0 (For food safety reasons, be sure to rinse lemons, limes,\u00a0and oranges in cold running water before slicing and adding to your water.)\u00a0 If your children are used to drinking a lot of juice, gradually dilute their juice with water.\u00a0 You can also freeze juice in an ice cube tray and use these “juice cubes” in a glass of water.\u00a0 Young kids will enjoy watching the cubes melt and color the water.\u00a0 Just use a couple at a time.<\/p>\n

Be a role model for your kids.
\nIt’s going to be a long battle to get your kids to drink milk or water if they are watching you drink soda.\u00a0 The best way for you to help your kids develop healthy habits is to role model those healthy habits yourself.\u00a0 It will benefit both you and your kids.<\/p>\n

* Source: 2007 Expert Committee Recommendations on Childhood & Adolescent Overweight & Obesity<\/p>\n

We want you to share your suggestions too!\u00a0\u00a0Post a comment below.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My previous blog kicked off a three part series\u00a0discussing behaviors likely to\u00a0cause children to consume too many calories and become overweight.*\u00a0\u00a0 Approximately one third of children are overweight or at-risk for overweight, leading many parents to wonder what they can do to help their children maintain a healthy weight.\u00a0 Last month, I focused on reducing the frequency of eating out Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,780],"tags":[62,49,61,63],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e","category-nutrition-2","tag-beverages","tag-children","tag-overweight","tag-soda","cat-42-id","cat-780-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/images.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8874,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions\/8874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}