With childhood obesity presenting as an epidemic in the United States it is important to talk to your child about obesity, but more important is how you talk to your child about the issue.
More than 30% of children are overweight or obese in the United States, a problem that we desperately need to address for the future health of our children. However, one of the most common chronic illnesses in adolescents is anorexia and approaching children in the wrong manner, no matter how well-intentioned, has the potential to result in unhealthy and disordered eating. So how do we talk to children appropriately about the obesity issue?
According to findings highlighted in the journal JAMA Pediatrics this week, emphasizing healthy eating behaviors instead of focusing on dieting resulted if less instances of disordered eating among adolescents.
The findings examined the differences in dieting and unhealthy eating behaviors between children whose parents discussed their weight and those who instead discussed healthy eating with their children. The results showed that in overweight adolescents there was a 24% decreased prevalence in disordered eating when healthy eating habits were discussed compared to weight.
In order to decrease the risk of children becoming vulnerable to mentions of their weight, even when that mention is supportive, it seems that discussing healthy eating habits is more beneficial than discussing weight.
Healthy food and nutrition choices have significant benefits on overall health and wellness for our children and is much more important than weight. As long as children are healthy and happy, our goals are complete.
