I was asked this specific question a lot in the last two weeks from clients, friends, and a physician group I work with.   We’ve all heard that our children are the first generation that will not outlive their parents.   Fifteen percent of children in the United States are considered overweight and another fifteen percent are at risk of being overweight.   There’s a lot of scary statistics out there and it's starting to cause some panic. Here are my thoughts.   I feel strongly that it’s important to catch irregular eating, unhealthy habits, or weight gain in kids earlier than later.   When I say early I mean as early as two believe it or not. There’s a reason that pediatricians and dietitians recommend changing from whole milk to skim after the age of two, as brains no longer require the extra fat intake for development.   If your child is in the toddler years or beyond and eats multiple servings of food, is ‘addicted’ to junk food, or there is co...

I was reading the ‘cliff notes’ of a study by Susan Terwilliger, clinical associate professor at Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University just the other day.   The study reviewed 3 rd and 4 th graders in four different schools and came to the conclusion that 70% of children drank two to five sweetened drinks a day, 85% watched two to five hours of TV a day, and 42% ate two or more fast food meals a day.   The observation from Terwilliger is that the results of this study prove to be consequences of decisions made and her thought is that parents and schools are to blame.   My experience with school lunch programs dates back to the 1990’s where I consulted and analyzed the nutrient contents of school breakfasts and lunches for a particular state.   The schools in the entire state failed miserably. Fat percentages were above 40% of the total meal, the choices were processed and refined with little nutritional value, and often there were little choices ...