Recently I spoke to two Moms who were very concerned about their overweight girls. The first girl, who we will call Marcy*, was 14 and weighed 223 pounds and the second girl, Tanya*, was 12 and weighed 160 pounds. (Both parents had been referred to That-a-Weigh Kids® by their doctors). We talked about what the girls ate and drank on an average each day. Marcy was drinking at least two 20 oz. cups of orange juice with dinner every night, plus sodas throughout the day. Tanya was drinking at least 32 oz. of sweetened tea, sprite and juice every day. Both girls were drinking more than 500 calories a day. That means they are drinking at least 3500 calories a week. That’s equal to one pound of weight loss a week if they would eliminate it from their diet. Tanya’s mom felt that drinking juice was healthy for Tanya. Yes, drinking one 4 oz. glass of juice a day could be part of a healthy diet –but no more than that!, It is far healthier, however, to eat fruit as a snack or as dessert. If your child is thirsty, drinking as much as 6-8 glasses of water each day is a much better alternative than sweet juices. Don’t let your kids drink themselves into becoming overweight adults.

According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. This increases to 80 percent if one or more parent is overweight or obese.”

And

Overweight kids become kids with medical problems. According to the Center for Disease Control overweight kids have a far greater chance of developing:

• Early onset Type II diabetes
• Early onset High Blood Pressure
• High Cholesterol
• Menstrual Disorders
• Sleep Apnea
• Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
• Increase in Psychiatric Diseases
• Increased risk of some adult cancers

The bottom line is if you want healthy kids, teach them to make healthy food and lifestyle choices. Click here for help doing that.

* Not their actual names