About equally healthy?

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Full cheeks, sturdy legs, round tummy: chubby children are seen by many adults as "cute" and "all around healthy". But round is not always healthy - as with adults, too many kilos also pose serious health risks for the offspring. And the young generation has to face this problem more and more frequently: In Germany, around 15 percent of all children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 17 weigh too much. Every second to third of them are even obese (obese).

Childhood obesity

Obesity is particularly problematic in childhood because the body of adolescents is still developing. Unnecessary pounds put pressure on the child's not yet fully resilient musculoskeletal system: permanent damage to the spine, joints, feet and tendons is the result. A lack of exercise - and it seems to be becoming increasingly chronic in our society - supports these negative effects.

But the internal organs such as the heart and liver are also affected. Overweight and obesity create the predispositions for cardiovascular diseases and metabolic disorders (such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, blood sugar and uric acid levels) at an early stage. In addition, the risk of injury increases with being overweight: fat children have limited ability to move and react and are therefore more likely to injure themselves than children of normal weight.

Last but not least, being overweight often causes enormous emotional and social problems for the offspring, for example through teasing other children. So being overweight has not only physical but also psycho-social consequences: a fat child withdraws. Computers and television are replacing flesh and blood friends. This isolation even more prevents the child from regaining their normal weight through outdoor exercise and play - a fateful cycle that you can interrupt.

Role model effect

Excess pounds are no accident. Often there is an excess of sweets and high-fat nibbles behind it. If you want to educate children to use chocolate, biscuits, chips & Co. in moderation, you should rely on the role model effect: If you as a parent like to snack a lot - maybe even instead of a normal meal - your child will hardly understand why constant snacking is not good for your health. When it comes to snacking, what is important when it comes to eating generally applies: if you practice a conscious and sensible eating style yourself, it will be easier for your child to adopt it as well.

Chocolate from grandma

Even the "dear relatives" who constantly give the offspring sweets have to help out: Talk to your grandma or uncle, make your position clear and don't be afraid to be self-confident. Under no circumstances should you clarify the matter in front of the child! Suggest healthier alternatives to well-meaning relatives that they can use to please the child - such as dried fruit, a small toy, a book, or a trip together.

Prohibitions arouse cravings

The upbringing of your child to a healthy eating behavior should not degenerate into constant nudging, scolding or even prohibition. In doing so, you can achieve the opposite - the forbidden is particularly tempting.

From a nutritional point of view, too, it makes little sense to generally prohibit children from sugar and sweets. For one, there is an innate preference for sweets. On the other hand, a moderate intake of sugary foods does not harm your child (for example a spoonful of jam on breakfast bread or a small ice cream for dessert).

You should definitely keep in mind that a child is not very receptive to the health arguments of adults. Rather, rules of the game that it has to adhere to help. So you can agree together that they only get something sweet once a day and always after a meal. Treats before or between meals can quickly spoil your appetite. You should never forget to brush your teeth afterwards!

Another tip: do not get your child used to extra sweet things. If you are preparing a "sweet" meal for your baby or toddler, the natural fruit sweetness - such as carrots and fruit - is completely sufficient.

"Wean" those with a sweet tooth

If your child has already developed a real sweet tooth, you should gradually reduce the amount of sweets. Never use sweeteners or foods that contain sugar substitutes. These "artificial sugars" do not belong in baby food! You should also avoid lemonades or juices with sweeteners. The World Health Organization (WHO) has defined so-called tolerable quantities for artificial sweeteners, the ADI values. They indicate the amount per kilogram of body weight that a person can consume daily without taking any health risks. The tolerable amount is quickly reached in children with a few strips of chewing gum.

A look at the list of ingredients helps to distinguish the synthetic from the natural sugars. In addition to normal household sugar (sucrose), the latter include fruit sugar (fructose), malt sugar (maltose) and maltodextrin. By the way: Even if some commercials like to lead you to believe - fructose and Co. have no nutritional advantages over table sugar!

If you want to use honey for sweetening, you should pay attention to the following:

• Honey, like table sugar, can cause tooth decay. About 75 percent of honey consists of a sugar mixture - a feast for all caries bacteria. In addition, the sticky bee product easily sticks to the teeth.
• Honey cannot replace fruits and vegetables. Apart from the main proportion of sugar, honey also contains some vitamins, minerals such as potassium, magnesium and calcium as well as trace elements such as iron and copper. 100 grams of honey also contain around 100 milligrams of free amino acids, 50 to 85 percent of which is proline. Enzymes, flavorings and acids are also contained in honey. However, the total amount of these substances, which have a beneficial effect on the organism, is very small and only makes up a tiny fraction of a person's daily requirement - honey is by no means a fruit and vegetable substitute!
• Honey does not belong in baby food! Experts warn against feeding babies honey or honey-prepared foods. The reason is infant botulism, caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be found in honey. The germs can settle in the child's intestines and produce a dangerous poison there. Unrecognized and untreated, infant botulism can lead to child death.By the way: In addition to honey, foods such as spinach, asparagus, cooked sausages and fish can also be carriers of botulism bacteria.

outlook

Even if you follow all of the preceding advice, heed all of the tips: Don't torment yourself with guilt if your offspring should eat differently than you want them to. In our affluent society, it is not only the feeling of hunger that determines food intake, but also the psychological benefit of a food: Certain dishes are assigned to a typical, experience-oriented lifestyle and thus mutate into a kind of psycho-edible product.

The arguments of health-related nutrition theory, on the other hand, look rather modest and unattractive. When they enter kindergarten at the latest, parents get to know the power of the advertising industry and the resulting, sometimes incomprehensible influence of children eating differently on their own offspring. Then opposing views of the value of the food or the composition of the food clash unchecked. Even a friend's fruit gnome can ruin all of your efforts. If, at school age, your child crams McDonald fries and hamburgers into themselves and rinses them with Coke, they are by no means suffering from a "salad trauma" or a "whole-food psychosis". It may just be going through an adolescent phase of development. And that, that should comfort you, will come to an end at some point.

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