Food and Children

What’s fattening? Most of us know what we shouldn’t eat, but we do it anyway because we like the taste, not because we need the calories.

When we buy, we buy the low fat, the sugarless, the low cal this or that, but do you know what you are buying and how these foods affect a child?

Sometimes we translate our diet menu onto our family diet, and that’s a mistake because adults have different needs than children.

The two components we are missing in the adult-to-child transfer are the need for calories because: A child is growing, and a child is moving.

If the average adult moved as much as a child, there wouldn’t be a need for diets. When athletes followed toddlers all day, they dropped by sundown.

So why are so many children obese today? Probably because they eat too many low fat foods. Ever ask yourself what they replace the fat with? Sugar. Could low fat foods be encouraging type two diabetes?

Children can handle fat; it’s a brain food, but too much sugar can cause the body to be unable to use it all because kids are rarely outside running. This results in obesity.

When you study a child’s diet, you have to take into consideration their body type. According to William Sheldon, a psychologist that gave his life to the study of body types, there are three body types and most of us are a combination of all three.

One body type is the endomorph. This child is heavy by nature, fairly proportioned in limb and in hands, feet and head. The child is outgoing, gregarious and makes his world a party – especially with food.

The second body type is the ectomorph. This child is lean as a bean pole, has tremendously long legs, and regular sized head and hands. This child is quiet, smart, and could pass by the spaghetti pot once a week, take a huge inhale, and fill up.

The last child is the mezomorph. This child is square, stocky, short legged, robust, and fuels when he eats. He’s aggressive, open, loud and eats twice what the others eat so that he can go, go, go.

So who is your child and what is he eating?

The parent of the obese child, the endomorph, will swear the child is not eating much. But when you look at the child eat, you see the method of ingesting food lacks thought, direction, and good sense. Certain endomorphs will pull food from the garbage can or scrape unmentionables off the floor like candy and gum even when they’ve been stepped on.

The endomorph will take huge bites like the mezomorph, but will not stop when full. The endomorph will continue to eat throughout the day.

Endomorphs will eat nearly anything, and top it off with a sweet drink, a pretty paper plate and a stack of invitations to invite friends. Strangely, it’s the sweet drink that’s the culprit here. Juice and nearly juice for an endomorph are empty calories. Better for this child to eat fruit whole. Anything but milk and water is probably not a good idea. By limiting sweets – not removing them - and by serving full fat foods, a parent can arrest the obesity.

Getting an ectomorph to eat is nearly as difficult as getting an endomorph to stop. Ecotmorphs are smart enough to eat when they finally have to do it, but the very idea of stopping play to eat is about as icky to an ectomorph as telling an endomorph to stop eating and go play.

Picky eaters all come from the ecotmorph group. Putting a little plate of food in front of an ectomorph is all a parent has to do to get most of them to eat because they think. They are never fat because food is an add on not a focus.

I’ve heard ectomorph adults tell me that if they never had to eat again, it would be a good thing.

The mezomorph is a trip to feed. They are the food contest people, and it doesn’t even have to taste good. A mezomorph will eat anything and all of it without thinking. They won’t know they are full until the plate is empty. Then it’s a matter of debate. My mezo son ate 35 tacos once. He ate a sea slug. When I asked him if he liked it, he said no. I asked him why he ate it, and it was more or less because it was available.

You won’t find a fat mezomorph child because they always work off the food they eat. The mezomorph child fuels. He fills up his machine, revs his motor and proceeds. He is good natured to eat anytime, any place, anything, and it’s gone in three seconds like a dog, and then he’s looking for more. But he won’t eat between meals if he’s not hungry. Why fill up before empty?

For the endomorph parent, the things to cut from a child’s diet when obesity strikes:

All sweet drinks including soft drinks that are calorie free. It encourages a penchant for sweet, and a constant flood of sweets is not good. For a while, try drinking water or milk, and limit milk to four glasses a day. Obese children will drink all day to keep their stomach full.

Low fat foods because of the added sugar. Low fat is for high cholesterol people. Children need the fat but not added sugar.

Second helpings and seconds on treats. It speaks for itself.

Children need treats, so limit them to foods a child can handle. One child’s ice cream, one child size piece of pie or cake.