impact of today's lifestyle on our health
TRANSCRIPT
IMPACT OF TODAY’S LIFESTYLE ON OUR HEALTH.
-ByFalguni Kothari.
1. Obesity & Overeating in Children.
• Eating has never and never will be simply about satisfying physical hunger. We eat not only to quell a rumbling stomach, but also to satisfy the appetite and deal with emotions.
• From the moment a parent first offers a biscuit or sweet to comfort and quiet a child, food becomes a way of nourishing the soul as well as the body.
• From the earliest age food is used to celebrate, calm, relieve boredom or depression and to comfort in times of sadness and emotional distress.
• The problem comes when emotionally driven food habits take over from healthy eating and result in uncontrolled weight gains.
• Scientists using a new way to look at data concluded that the main reason that obesity has risen sharply in recent decades is predominantly because of over-eating rather than lack of physical activity.
• Being concerned with the causes of childhood obesity is a good idea for any parent; only when you address the actual causes of this condition,can you really and truly aim to fix it.
• Ignoring the problem will not make it go away, and when a child grows up overweight or obese it’s that much more difficult to keep the weight under control as an adult.
• Children just don’t go outside and play anymore; usually they spend their free time playing video games or computer games or watching television.
• Physical inactivity is one of those causes of childhood obesity; the body must burn the calories it ingests from eating, as any extra calories not burned off are stored as fat.
• Today people also typically drive everywhere rather than walk. Children take the bus to school and are often driven to the bus stop itself. They’re driven to their friend’s house and to the corner store.
• And when it’s time to do chores around the house we have many labor-saving devices that limit physical activity as well.
• All of this inactivity and lack of physical exertion is part of those causes of childhood obesity.
• The diet that most people follow is also part of those causes of childhood obesity.
• Most food that people eat is very unhealthy; it’s typically prepared with added oil, butter, and sugar to enhance the flavor. Unfortunately this also enhances the calorie count! Fast food and junk food are two prime culprits.
• Hamburgers, fries, potato chips, and items like these are very calorie-dense meaning they have a lot of calories for the amount of food you get.
• Fast food restaurants are definitely some common causes of childhood obesity! Included in this are the many vending machines that are just about everywhere, including the schools, that contain sugary foods and sodas as well. It’s not unusual for children to eat literally thousands and thousands of excess calories every week, even if it doesn’t seem as if anyone is overeating.
Causes of Childhood Obesity Can Be Unhealthy Food.
• Overeating leads to weight gain, and can most times be blamed on parents.
• From infancy, many parents, force children to eat more than they need, even when they indicate they are full.
• A child will never starve themselves if they are healthy, so parents should listen to their children. Mothers also need to know that the child’s stomach will stretch, if they are forced to overeat.
• This is the reason why children of the same age will eat different quantities, because what may fill one child’s stomach may well be too much for another.
• As the saying goes “we must eat to live, not live to eat” and this is no different for children. We should never eat, or force them to eat to the point where they are uncomfortable.
• Television (TV) has its good side. It can be entertaining and educational, and can open up new worlds for kids, giving them a chance to travel the globe, learn about different cultures, and gain exposure to ideas they may never encounter in their own community. Shows with a prosocial message can have a positive effect on kids' behavior; programs with positive role models can influence viewers to make positive lifestyle changes.
• However, the reverse can also be true: Kids are likely to learn things from TV that
parents don't want them to learn. TV can affect kids' health, behavior and family life in negative ways.
Television viewing and childhood obesity.
• A recent study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that the more hours spent watching television, the more likely children were to be both fatter and less physically active.
• Children spend a substantial portion of their lives watching T.V. Investigators have hypothesized that T.V. viewing causes obesity by one or more of three mechanisms:
Decrease in physical activity, increased calorie consumption while
watching or caused by the effects of advertising, and
reduced resting metabolism.
• The relationship between television viewing and obesity has been examined in a relatively large number of studies.
• The studies suggest that reducing television viewing may help to reduce the risk for obesity or help promote weight loss in obese children.
• One school-based, experimental study was designed specifically to test directly the causal relationship between television viewing behaviors and body fat. The results of this randomized, controlled trial provide evidence that television viewing is a cause of increased body fatness and that reducing television viewing is a promising strategy for preventing childhood obesity.
• This isn’t the first time that someone has suggested that you not eat in front of the television. Generally the reasoning is that you will pay more attention to how much you are eating when you are not focused on your favorite show.
• The BBC is reporting recent research that suggests that the background noise of the television actually diminishes how much you taste the foods you are eating.
• When you eat in front of the television, you may be less aware of how much you are eating, you may not experience the full flavor of the food, and you will likely get less enjoyment out of what you are eating.
• All of these can tempt you to eat more than planned or go for the extra sweetness of dessert. Silly or not, convenient or not, sitting at the table and focusing on what you are eating is probably a very effective technique to control how much you ingest.
Overeating blamed on TV Background noise.
• These common causes of childhood obesity can be addressed by any responsible parent.
• There’s no need to go to extremes and expect your child to become a star athlete or to never have a Burger again, but being balanced and moderate can go a long way in this regard.
• It is never easy to give up foods we love.
• Mealtime should be a time for family growth and development.
• In this culture we're living in, it's so important that kids get clear messages about food and healthy eating.
Causes of Childhood Obesity Can Be Fixed.
1. Change parent’s lifestyle.
• As parents we have to be a good example in the application of lifestyle and eating healthy.
• Parents should educate themselves on the preparation of healthy, nutritious, but low-calorie meals, and in turn teach their children how to be more selective in the food they eat.
• The best approach is to eat in small portions, and find healthier ways to prepare meals, such as broiling rather than frying.
• This is a life style, and life time, change to reduce obesity.
• Discover our children preferred activities and interesting that can burn calories.
• For example: running, swimming, walking (jogging), cycling. Do this on a regular basis.
2. Spare time to exercise.
• Give food to children only if they are hungry and not because just want to eat something.
• If the children just ate and want to eat again try to divert their activities or provide something else, because we know they are not really hungry.
• Never eat or snack for watching TV.
3. Change family bad eating habits.
• Do not keep junk food, soft drinks which are rich in sugar, high fat foods (potato chips, etc.) at home.
• Prepare a diet low in fat and healthy for the whole family.
• Follow the exercise activity.
4. Give our support.
• Rewards and praise can motivate children to stay on a diet.
• For example if our children is in a 1-week initiative to drink water instead of soft drinks then praise them, give the gift fun toy or activity, but DO NOT give food as gifts.
5. Give notice or praise if children are doing something good.
• Consult our child to the Dietician to control diet and also weight checked every 2-4 weeks.
• Avoid weighing children at any time at home because it may cause stress on our child.
6. Consult a Dietician.
2. Facebook Tied to Poor Mental Health in Teens, Kids?
• If you’re a teenager you’re most likely on a social networking site like “Facebook.” For most it’s a fun, easy way to keep in touch and find out what’s going on with friends.
• But new research shows a growing number of youngsters who obsess over the on-line sites may be headed down a troubled path.
• Social media sites present a false reality to youngsters through friends, contacts, status updates and happy pictures of popular contacts. To emotionally vulnerable youngsters who are yearning for popularity, this may make them more depressed.
• Texting, emails and spending time on social networking sites can increase mood swings and make them obsessive about online issues instead of getting back to the real world.
• There is little proof that using Facebook and other social networking websites like it cause significant or meaningful health or mental health problems in the vast majority of teens or kids who use them.
• Psychological studies have showed that heavy Facebook use among children and teenagers may cause a variety of worrisome mental health problems.
• Children, pre-teens and teenagers who used technology, like the Internet and video games, on a regular basis have more:
stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression. They also miss school more often (I’m sick I don’t want to go to school… low energy… fatigue… trouble sleeping.)
Lower School Performance.
• Studies have shown that extensive use of social networking sites lowers attention spans, resulting in lower grades.
• Addiction to anything is bad; Facebook is addicting.
• Teenagers and young adults who are persistently logged on to Facebook are more often to show psychological disorders, like
mania, paranoia, aggressive tendencies,
antisocial behavior and increased alcohol use.
• These teens also more often displayed narcissistic tendencies, which are fed by their ability to constantly broadcast information about themselves through Facebook.
• Facebook can be very addictive for its members. Once you stay connected with friends, you will realize how often you login for another chat and discover what other members are doing.It can result in the neglect of real-life social situations (more than 3.5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day - worldwide).
• Many hours may also pass and you could have done something more important than using Facebook. Several members of social networking sites actually use them throughout the day and night without any sense at all.
• A study has shown that 22% of teens check in into their Facebook account more than 10 times per day.
• The average user has 120+ friends, but not all of them are necessarily “real” friends.
Waste of life!
Job Termination. How can he get me Fired???
• I know,you miss your relatives and want to keep in touch, but facebook at work should be avoided.
• 72% of companies’ employees spend 1 – 1.5 hours on social networking sites (including facebook) per day.
• Not Productive
Self - Induced Insomnia.
• People spend countless hours on this site looking to “add” people they sort of know so they can be friends.
• Many use this as an alternative to real social interaction.
• You might be one of those millions of people who are unemployed and use Facebook to post offensive images of you and your friends. Though it is fun and provides humour for all your friends to see, it can be a major drawback when you apply for a job.
• Employers will want to know more about you and by searching on these social networking sites which contain your offensive content, employers may get distressed and could result in losing the job role that you applied for.
• There might have been a high chance of getting the job, but because of your social network page, your chances were ruined. The first site they would search would be on Facebook because it’s the most popular. More people are leaving other social networking sites for Facebook itself.
Ruining your professional life!
• An influential group of doctors has warned that teenagers can suffer from "Facebook depression" after becoming obsessed with the social networking website. The term Facebook depression came from a AAP of a Clinical Report called The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families, authored by Gwenn Schurgin O’Keeffe, pediatrician and journalist, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson
• "Facebook depression," in which a teen becomes anxious and moody after spending a lot of time on the popular social networking site.
• Causes are nothing specific as it is really difficult to check what a particular kid is doing in his Facebook account. Although many parents keep an eye on kid’s accounts but kids are smart and clever enough these days. They uses all possible steps and things to hide their activities from their parents.
• According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, social media had the power to "interfere with homework, sleep and physical activity" among the young.
Facebook 'cancer risk'
• According to the Daily Mail, using Facebook “could raise your risk of cancer”. The newspaper reported that social networking sites “could raise your risk of serious health problems by reducing levels of face-to-face contact”.
• Increased isolation could alter the way genes work and upset immune responses, hormone levels and the function of arteries. It could also impair mental performance.
• This could increase the risk of problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease and dementia
• Looking at all these drawbacks, your life will become a waste of time and avoid you from doing more enjoyable activities than having to sit on your seat and type away for many hours.
• Facebook is good for staying in contact with friends, but you need to understand that these sites can be used to some extent, but not over the limit.
• The AAP has set guidelines recommending that parents educate themselves and their children to the dangers of social networking.
• Some of these guidelines reported how parents should become better educated about the numerous technologies their children are using and to talk to their children about online use and the issues that children face using social networks.
• “Parents do need to be educated so that they know what is going on in their children’s life,”
• “The primary issue with parents is building self-esteem at home so that children will have a strong sense of self-confidence in who they are and won’t have to look to others for validation from their peers.”
• “The only way to avoid Facebook depression, is to not use the Internet as a primary need of networking,”
• "As kids have increasingly open lines of communication with their peers online, it is extremely important that parents keep the lines of communication with their kids just as open so they can have a sense of what is going on in their social lives ... both online and offline,"
• One way to potentially prevent children from entering this type of depression is to make sure they engage in a variety of activities, And kids who have a balanced life, who do schoolwork, who do after-school activities, who are in teams, who are in clubs, who do community service have a much lesser chance of becoming depressed.
• "Like anything else in life, too much time on Facebook — or the Internet in general, for that matter — can be a bad thing."
Balanced life
• Healthy eating and regular physical activity habits are keys to maintaining a healthy weight. Help your child on his or her path toward wellness and better health by preventing overeating.
• Because, It’s Ultimately:
“Your lifestyle - how you live, eat, emote, and think –determines your health. To prevent disease, you may have to change how you live.”
References:
• http://www.medindia.net/news/healthwatch/Television-Viewing-A-Major-Cause-of-Obesity-Among-US-Children-82903-1.htm
• http://www.myoptumhealth.com/portal/Information/item/Kids+and+Overeating?archiveChannel=Home%2FArticle&clicked=true
• http://www.obesityfactssite.com/causes-of-childhood-obesity/• http://
kidsparenting.net/health/tips-to-prevent-and-treat-child-obesity-problems.html• http
://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/facebook-depression-rare-but-serious-side-effect-of-social-networking--1318/
• http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/02February/Pages/Facebookhealthstudy.aspx• http://
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1149207/How-using-Facebook-raise-risk-cancer.html
• http://www.theinfiniteinfo.com/2011/08/facebook-may-cause-serious-mental-health-problems-in-kids-studies-show/
