Can TV make your child fat?

tatistics show that the risk of adult obesity increases by 7% for every additional hour of weekend television watched by 5 year olds. It was originally thought that TV led to a more sedentary lifestyle but there is no conclusive evidence to support this so what’s going on?

"Rosie ate 3 more pieces of pizza when watching TV"

Eleven year old Rosie is active but still slightly overweight. We gave Rosie her favourite food, pizza, on two different evenings, one sitting in front of the television and the other sitting at the table. Rosie ate 3 more pieces of pizza when watching TV which, if she ate pizza every day, would be a whole extra 118 pizzas a year or 81900 calories. Why? It could be that when your brain is distracted by television it ignores your internal satiety signals.

How you eat is as important as what you eat so eat at a dinner table with the television switched off.

Does sugar make kids hyperactive?

Do you dread children’s parties because of the effect all those sugary snacks will have on your child? Does sugar turn your little angel into a little monster?

Are you sure it’s the sugar?

We decided to find out. Enter Becky and Niall. Two five year olds whose occasional out-of-control behaviour their parents’ attribute to sugar. Add two parties, one with sugary snacks and the other sugar-free, and mix well.

Day one, the underwater themed storytelling party. To make sure the experiment was impartial we told Becky’s mum Patricia, and Niall’s dad Michael, that we would be feeding their children a sugar-free lunch. Then we swapped the healthy snacks for the sugary ones.

When it was time for Becky and Niall to go home both parent’s were unsurprised at how calm they were since they believed that the children had consumed a healthy sugar-free lunch.

Day two, the crazy, boisterous, food throwing party. This time we told Becky’s and Nialls’ parents that we would be feeding them a lot of sugar and they prepared for the worst.

"they had both eaten the equivalent of 47.5 cubes of sugar"

The dreaded time arrived and we filmed Niall and Becky on the journey home. Both their behaviour was markedly different to what their parents had witnessed the day before and Patricia and Michael were certain the sugar had some influence.

On revealing our double-bluff Patricia and Michael were astounded by the outcome, especially when we told them that on day one, when the children were calmer, they had both eaten the equivalent of 47.5 cubes of sugar.

The theory that too much sugar makes children hyperactive doesn’t stand up to the tests - it may be that the environment your child is in is the defining factor in how boisterous their mood is. This doesn’t mean sugar get’s off lightly though. It may not lead to hyperactivity but it does make your blood sugar drop which could make your children irritable and distracted.

Does portion size affect how much we eat?

n 2005 a study in America revealed that the size of a container can powerfully and unknowingly increase how much food a person consumes.

To illustrate this we reconstructed the study to see if a larger container led to an increase in consumption.

We took 150 movie goers and gave half of them large size buckets of popcorn (120g) and the other half extra large ones twice the size (240g). As an added test we even gave half of the audience stale popcorn. Then we waited until the film was over to see just how much they left behind.

"45% more popcorn was eaten"

The results showed that 45% more popcorn was eaten when it was given in extra large containers.

What does this illustrate? That when we supersize snacks our perception of what is an ‘acceptable’ amount to consume increases. So, if you don’t want to eat more than you need, steer clear of supersizing.

The larger the portion the more you will eat.

Pinpointing health risks for overweight persons

Good way of pinpointing health risks for overweight persons:.

Waist to Hip Ratio determines distribution of body fat. More body fat in the upper body (chest and waist) suggests increased health risk for elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, strokes, longer time to conceive, heart disease or diabetes. More fat in the lower body (hips and thighs) suggests fat loss is difficult.

1. Using a tape measure, measure the hips in inches (or centimeters) at the top of the hip bone on the right front of the body. This spot will be slightly lower than your belly button.
2. Next, measure the waist 1" (2.5 cm) above your belly button in inches (or centimeters).
3. Using these two measurement values, divide the waist reading (2) by the hip reading (1). This tells you where most of your body fat is located.

Apple shape (a ratio of .95 or greater) means your body fat is located above your waist which indicates a higher health risk for diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and some cancers.

Pear shape (a ratio of less than .95) means your body fat is located below your waist which indicates a lower health risk, but fat located in the lower half of the body may be harder to lose during weight loss.

1. Change your eating habits (i.e. start eating smaller portions of food) before if you ate a full plate of food try eating 2/3 of a plate instead.

2.

o Substitute aspartame for sugar

o Try eating 3 or 4 smaller meals during the day rather than 2 large ones

o Eat your main large meal at midday with the other meals much smaller in content

o Don't eat heavy meals late in the evening as the body wont have time to digest it so it ends up stored as fat in your body.

o Balance your meals out during the day so in one day you have a mix of protein, carbohydrate and vitamins

o Drink lots of water during the day and before, during and after exercise, you should drink at least 8 big glasses of water per 24 hours

o Drink alcohol in moderation

o Stop smoking if you smoke or cut down

o Eat more fibre i.e. pulses grains nuts, pasta, brown rice, cereals, fresh fruit

o Eat more vegetables as part of your diet

o Eat less dairy products or choose those with less fat content i.e. cottage cheese

o Try steaming or poaching food instead of frying it, frying adds calories by the bucketful

o Cut down on Red meat and eat more lean or better still chicken and fish instead

o Use low fat oils in cooking i.e. sunflower, corn or Mazola

o Cut down on your salt intake, there are hidden salts even in tinned foods

o Try substituting carrots or fresh fruit instead of biscuits and sweetmeat when you have a craving for something in between meals.

o Drink semi or skimmed milk as opposed to full cream

Simply choose a diet which is low in fat and cholesterol, moderate in sugar and salt and high in fibre but at the same time has a variety of everything thus making it a balanced diet.

3. Start taking up regular aerobic (cardiovascular) exercise if you don't already (i.e. at least 3-4 times a week) This is aimed at those who want to burn fat and convert it into lean muscle, if your intention is to build muscle then you need a different routine based on heavier weights and less repetitions.

If you are in a gym and are starting off at unfit level and want to convert fat into lean muscle:

o Stretch your body in order to prepare it for activity (5 minutes stretches)i.e. side stretches, hamstrings, touch your toes etc etc.

o Do 10 minutes at easy pace on Cycle then 1 minutes rest then 10 minutes on rowing and 1 min rest and so on for each exercise machine you want to do.

o If you have weights then do 10 repetitions at a very light manageable weight, rest for 30 seconds and repeat this twice. So you do 3 sets of 10 repetitions at a light weight on each weight machine.

o Do the same for other weight machines taking only 1 minute rest in between each different weight exercise remember to use light weights

o Concentrate on cycling, rowing, stairmaster, stepper type machines, I don't recommend the treadmill simply because it puts a lot of strain on the joints, i.e. heels, ankle, knee. Jogging effectively can put 10 times the bodyweight force on the joints and should only be done on soft surfaces such as grass and with adequate cushioned footwear. That's why the treadmill is not to be recommended. The other aerobic machines put less stress on the joints.

o At the end of your program which should be about 40 minutes on average you need to cool down, try easy cycling for 3 minutes and then stretches after that.

It is very important to warm up before an exercise routine and to cool down after wards, this is so that you don't suffer from muscle soreness and tenderness after wards and besides it keeps the muscles and ligaments supple and with less chance of muscle tear and injury during a workout.

Remember muscles work better when they are warm.If you follow this program after a few weeks you will notice considerable improvement and will want to either increase the intensity, duration or weight in your program as it gets easier. Increase the reps to 20 for each exercise if you want to carry on getting leaner.

Remember to burn fat and get lean defined muscle do more repetitions at a less weight, to build heavy muscle and gain strength do less reps at a heavier weight.