By: Lisa Poisso Date Posted: 5/21/2008 Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend

American kids are fat. With nearly one in five school-age children in the United States considered overweight, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it’s clear we’ve got a big problem on our hands. Parents don’t always see the gravity of their children’s weight problems, but Dr. Arthur Agatston is out to change people’s perceptions and change the state of children’s health in our country.

The South Beach Diet Doctor Weighs In
Dr. Arthur Agatston, a Miami cardiologist widely known as the author of the bestselling South Beach Diet, spoke recently in Dallas with his first major address on childhood obesity. He points out obesity’s two-fold drain on the American health care system: a shorter life expectancy for today’s kids, plus the immense burden of treating the chronic diseases that stem from the obesity epidemic.

Obesity starts at an early age in Texas. In a Texas-specific study conducted in 2004-2005, researchers found that 42 percent of fourth graders were overweight or at risk of being overweight. They were joined by 39 percent of eighth graders and 36 percent of eleventh graders.

Building the Pyramid We all know we’re supposed to be feeding our families according to the food pyramid – but good intentions can slip through our fingers if kids don’t get started eating what they need first thing in the morning with a healthy breakfast. Elizabeth Ward, author of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to the New Food Pyramids, has some easy tips for parents struggling to make healthy eating a habit for their families. • Ace fruit and veggie intake early in the day: Simply drinking one glass of 100 percent orange juice at breakfast provides almost 25 percent of the daily USDA recommended servings of fruits and vegetables. Make sure it is 100 percent juice — there are many juice imposters out there. • Cram more whole grains into each meal. When shopping, check labels for whole grains like whole wheat or whole oats. Just because it’s brown doesn’t mean it’s nutritious whole grain. To ensure your family is getting enough, swap sugar-laden cereals with whole-grain cereal at breakfast, white bread with whole-grain bread and pitas at lunch, and prepare whole-grain couscous or brown rice at dinner. • Study the facts of fats. Not all fat is bad; some are necessary for good health. Serve foods naturally rich in unsaturated fats including nuts, nut butters and olive oil, but limit foods such as full-fat cheese, fatty meats and packaged foods like cookies, crackers and candy, which tend to have higher levels of saturated or trans fats. • Learn ways to add calcium-rich foods. Meeting the recommended 2- to 3-cup daily serving of calcium-rich foods is easy when incorporated into favorite foods. Substitute water with skim milk when preparing instant oatmeal, blend low-fat yogurt into fruit smoothies and give your kids reduced-fat cheese at snack time.

The problem isn’t just the pounds; it’s the food kids are eating. According to the World Cancer Research Fund, the average child eats only two of the recommended five portions of fruits and vegetables each day, and 92 percent of children eat too much saturated fat. “Children today are not only overweight and underfed, they are undernourished and unhealthy because of all the junk food they eat,” Agatston says. “We need to bring back the good foods – the fruits, the vegetables, the healthy fats. The weight will take care of itself.”

What’s “good food”? Agatston claims our bodies are designed to eat a varied diet, including a small proportion of lean meat high in healthy Omega-3, along with plenty of fruits and vegetables, fish and nuts.

In an exclusive interview with DallasChild, Agatston explained why healthy nutrition isn’t only a matter of weight. “When the general public thinks of obesity, they think of all the reasons too much weight is not good for you – everybody knows that,” he countered. “But what we’re learning is that while we’re overfed, we’re undernourished.” The problem isn’t something that can be fixed with a magic pill – or vitamin.

“We’re finding out m ore and more about how micronutrients are vital to health,” he explained. “Why not take vitamins? There are so many studies showing vitamins are not effective. We need food, real food.”

“It CAN be done!”
To test out his theories, Agatston worked with a handful of Florida elementary schools to implement a program designed to acclimate kids to healthy, whole foods. What would it take to build a healthier diet for children? The secret, he revealed to DallasChild: “It’s getting them to like healthy food. One of the things we know from the school study (is that) the kids will accept the healthy foods and get excited about it. It can be done!”

Agatston continues to tweak and analyze what he’s learned from his young subjects, stressing that the school program is not a diet for overweight kids but rather a plan to get kids eating healthy foods.

“The kids can’t perceive that they are on a diet,” he cautioned. “They have to come to accept and get excited about a variety of foods.”

Trial and error show how far the kids would go – the children balked at All-Bran cereal, he reported, but easily accepted Raisin Bran. And while most students ini

Bridge Into Unfamiliar Territory If you’re the parent of a balky eater, how do you make the transition from macaroni and cheese to cauliflower? Bridge the gap with bridge foods, a fancy term for foods that fall somewhere in between the familiar foods your child already likes and the veggies she may not yet be willing to try. Say your child already gobbles truckloads of macaroni and cheese. You introduce the unthreateningly similar cheesy rice as a bridge food. Once your tyke is cozy with cheesy rice, add in some cauliflower. You don’t necessarily have to include one food inside another; the incremental steps help balky kids ease into unfamiliar territory. Check out some bridging "recipes" here. “Don’t try to introduce more than one new food per week,” cautions Amy Goodson, a local dietician, “and remember that you might have to introduce a vegetable 10 times before your child will try it. Just because your child refuses a vegetable one time does not mean he/she will always refuse it. Keep offering it!” For completely new foods (especially vegetables), she advises a topping of cheese or light sauce or mixing the vegetable with a starch like rice or potatoes. For more advice on picky eaters and healthy choices, see Picking Apart The Picky Eater Problem.

tially turned up their noses at sweet potatoes, whole wheat bread and vegetables, he says, they eventually not only accepted the healthy choices but came to prefer them – something parents can bank on at home, as well.

So will your efforts toward healthier family nutrition take root? Dr. John Menchaca, a local pediatrician, notes that any diet or exercise plan will fail until the whole family buys in. “If they don’t, children will go the easier route – the tasty route,” he cautions. And while Agatston calls the principles of his South Beach diet “absolutely appropriate” for children (outside of the introductory induction phase), he concurs that diets and special exercise programs are the wrong approach for most children – even obese ones. “I can tell you, none of the initiatives will work,” he says of most political initiatives and diet or exercise programs.

The other piece of the puzzle, Agatston noted, is physical activity. Kids need to stay active to stay healthy, but it needn’t be through structured sports or exercise programs. He wryly noted a recent study reporting that dog owners live longer than cat owners.

“I hate to get in the middle of dog and cat people,” he smiled, “but just walking the dog every day has an impact.”