Face the fat

Is it right to put your child on a diet? Psychologists, nutritionists and doctors alike say that the first mistake parents can make is to call controlling their child’s intake of food a diet.

They should rather refer to it as a replacement of food, says Dr Srebrina Apostolova, Paediatrician and General Practitioner, General Medical Centre, Jebel Ali. “We replace high-density foods (which contain many calories that can make a child put on weight) with low-density foods that contain more water and less calories.”

Counselling Psychologist Norma Cairns says the word diet is “very much in the past” and that healthy eating should be a way of life. “Telling anybody not to eat this and not to eat that because it is bad for them simply doesn’t work. Everything can be eaten — in moderation.”

Incorrect association

Both children and parents need to develop sensible eating habits, says Cairns — rewarding a child with a bar of chocolate is simply not right. “The scariest aspect concerning overweight children is the high insulin levels that can result. The risk of poor health conditions such as diabetes should deter parents from dishing out unhealthy food.”

Feed body, not mind

Health practitioners approve of replacing a snack such as a slice of highly calorific pizza with slices of cucumbers and cheese. But is a cucumber going to taste as good as a pizza?

“You have to feed the body and not the mind,” says Dr Apostolova. “The body wants a lot less than what the mind thinks it wants. In obesity everything goes wrong — a big abdomen pushes up and makes the heart twist and leave less room for the lungs.”

“It is startling to see children as young as two suffering from problems such as high cholesterol. The added weight takes a toll on the heart and circulatory system and makes mobility and breathing more difficult,” says Ghani. Children diagnosed with obesity are 20 per cent or more above the ideal body weight.

Dietitian Lina Doumani Khalil at Cooper Health Clinic in Dubai suggests snacks such as popcorn, low-fat ice-creams, fruits and low-fat cheese sticks.

“The single most powerful thing we can do to encourage our children to eat healthily is to eat healthily ourselves,” says Ghani. If a parent has a preference for quick fix foods, then the child will follow their example. While it is acceptable to have an occasional slice of cake, for example, this should be a small part of an eating plan that includes fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, dairy and good sources of protein and fat.

Schools could help address obesity issues by adopting healthy food policies in their cafeterias and vending machines. In the US, getting children to grow their own food in community gardens has been an effective way of changing children’s perceptions about eating healthily, Ghani adds.

“But like any change, the person making it has to be in the right place mentally in order to be successful. The first step for anyone is simply acknowledging that there is a problem.

“One of the most common perceptions that I hear from women here is that it is considered beautiful to be more curvy — as is the idea in most cultures that children should be chubby. I believe there was a survey conducted recently where many of the people who were overweight biometrically didn’t think that they were,” Ghani concludes.