A child born after the year 2000 will have a 50% chance of getting Cancer in adulthood!*1

If a child is unhealthy the likelihood that they will lead a healthy lifestyle when older and free of health issues is vastly reduced. It is essential to ‘get them when they are young’ in order to make sure kids are healthy in adulthood.

Leading a healthy lifestyle as a child is not just a cosmetic issue as much of the media would have us believe. The most worrying aspect is that the average adult who is relatively inactive has a one in three chance of getting cancer. However, if they are an athlete (or at least active on a regular basis) statistically that person will benefit from the possibility of only one case of cancer in seven, vastly improving the chance of not getting the disease. This is largely down to building a strong immune system through the quality of diet and regular exercise. Poor quality of diet is associated with increased risks of many types of cancer *2.

These facts maybe shocking to some however they are unlikely to be enough to leverage a child into eating well and exercising when they have already formed the behaviours and Psychological associations with a poor diet.

The truth is overweight kids hate exercise, they are often no good at it, they are teased at school, they feel embarrassed getting involved in conventional sports and fear failure. Often they are too large to be good at a sport this means if they are forced into it we are setting them up for failure and making them unhappy. This can lead to mental health issues. An overweight Child is vastly more likely to become depressed than a healthy Child *3.

These are just a few of the reasons why we need to ‘trick’ kids into adopting a healthy lifestyle whilst having fun - without them being aware of it!
Find an activity they enjoy and it won’t seem like a chore or a grueling way to lose weight. We are all aware of how ‘time flies when you are having fun’ a similar dictum could be said of losing weight. ‘Losing weight is painless when you’re having fun’.

Athletes don’t choose a sport because they necessarily enjoy it in itself, they choose a sport that makes them feel good because they are good at it. Athletes don’t carry on with a sport they are poor at, they find one they excel at!

With the escalating trend of Child Obesity, we need to find a solution to get Children to eat more healthily and increase their level of activity. We all know how difficult it is to change a Childs diet. You can’t always stop them eating food that is fattening, or bad for them. You may not have too much say in the food they eat at school, or the exercise they partake in during the day and it’s often difficult to regulate the sweets they eat when you are not around.

Several generations ago we didn’t have this problem. Children played outside, running around burning calories and maintaining a healthy physique. Today activities favoured by children include sedentary games such as X-boxes, TV, the Internet and increasingly Mobile Phone applications.

The solution then is to find fun activities that burn calories and build muscle so their hearts remain strong and they not only lose weight but stop gaining even more excess fat. Essentially preventing them from dying young from heart disease, cancer or diabetes.

If your child does not want to lose weight, or more to the point, resists cutting out their favourite high calorie snack then ‘Tricking’ them into enjoying exercising without realising it and replacing their poor diets (particularly snacks) with healthier choices is the best option.

It is worth noting that studies have shown that if the parents of a fat child are also overweight themselves it becomes almost impossible for your child to lose weight. So if you are overweight yourself you are going to have to lead by example and start increasing your activity and lose weight. That’s the reality of the situation.

*1 - National Cancer Institute. Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Stat Fact Sheets: All Sites. http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/all.html.
*2 – Physical Activity and Cancer Risk - The Cancer.Net Editorial Board, 6/2011.http://www.cancer.net/patient/All+About+Cancer/Risk+Factors+and+Prevention/Physical+Activity/Physical+Activity+and+Cancer+Risk
*3 - Dietary Fat Intake and the Risk of Depression: The SUN Project." - Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, Lisa Verberne, Jokin De Irala, Miguel Ruíz-Canela, Estefanía Toledo, Lluis Serra-Majem, Miguel Angel Martínez-González. PLoS ONE, 6(1): e16268; published online 26 Jan 2011. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0016268