No big surprise here but did you know 38% of Hispanic children are overweight or obese? Let's generalize it more; one in three kids in our nation today are (overweight or) obese. I wonder if this number has increased over the years due to TV and texting. Now that pre-teens are able to use cell phones instead of playing outside, I'm not at all surprised.
Thankfully our wonderful first lady, Michelle Obama, has launched a campaign at ending childhood obesity. The program is simply called “Let’s Move,” an actionable name that speaks volumes about the goals of the first lady and the organization. So what does this program include? Everything from access to healthy food and educational programs. Let's not forget about affordable eating because for some reason to eat healthy, we need to be rich.
"Let's Move" just makes sense. Think about all the arroz con pollo and carne asada you like to eat. I'm not saying stop eating this great food, I'm saying add a little green in there. A salad never hurts anyone. Yes even I'm at fault sometimes, but as you get older you start to realize how your health will be affected.
3 comments:
Damn fatties
and it's not just the type of food, but also how much of it you eat. I mean is it really that hard to slow down while eating and then to stop when you've had enough?
I think we as Latinos tend to over-indulge our children just a bit. Yawning is sometimes interpreted as a hunger signal amongst the older generation. Because we are a much less active population as a whole now, we sometimes need to stop the screen time. Break away from the PC, from the TV, from the cell phones and take our kids for walks after dinner. Play tag with them. Run races with them. As parents we need to re-engage or just engage them with physical activity. AND, the kicker, we need to stop all the fast food. Especially in the lower-income areas, fast food joints are a dime a dozen. Take those 30 minutes and go home and prepare dinner for your children. Make sure they drink water every day. Limit their juice intake. Cut out uncessary calories like soda and sugary snacks. ADD good things to their diets. More fruits. More veggies. More water. MORE good, LESS bad will eventually equal out. And while we can't really have our kids diet, as they are growing and need their nutrition, we need to change the focus in all of our lives to being healthier in general.
Post a Comment