We live in an All-Or-Nothing atmosphere, and the discussion about healthy weight and weight-related choices is just as divisive. On the one hand, we have people who see the sky-rocketing rates of obesity and want everyone to lose weight; on the other, we have people who see the sky-rocketing rates of eating disorders and (non-clinical) disordered eating behaviors and want everyone to embrace their bodies unconditionally. Both sides are right, of course, and therefore both are also wrong. The small amount of research on integrated messages, ones that combine both eating disorder prevention and obesity prevention, shows serious promise. Integrated messages also are healthy for everyone, and by bridging the two doctrines, provide a united healthy message in place of extremes. Integrated messages include three main parts:
- Unplug: Watch less, and question more of what is watched
- Get moving: Find activities you love and do them
- Get cooking: eating real food in reasonable portions
Americans watch far more TV and related media than in previous generations, for more hours per week, and it has an impact. First, media consumption (TV and magazines are among the worst for this, but it is everywhere) is related to body-type dysphoria (hating your shape). The actors and models all represent an impossible "ideal." In fact in one small study in England, comparing body attitudes and healthy behaviors among women who could see, had lost their sight, or had never been able to see, the women who had never been able to see were the healthiest. The authors of the study attributed this to their never having seen this "ideal" and therefore never questioning whether their healthy bodies were anything less than adequate. Children's media is particularly challenging for this, as the out-sized child is disproportionately the meany or dolt (as with the dark-skinned or unattractive child). Really.
Second, TV, especially children's, is full of ads for junk food and passive activities. Studies have shown what any parent watching has noticed: kid's TV ads are almost never for healthy foods and all about sugar-bomb cereals (a la Calvin and Hobbes), convenience food-like items, sugar drinks... and on and on. They have also shown that kids that watch these ads ask for these things more, and kids that ask for them more get them more. (This is not a critique of parenting here; we all make compromises to respect our kids' integrity and decrease family strife. This is just looking at the impact of those ads: they work.)
The same process happens with the activities. The ads are not for playing kick-the-can or tag; they are for junk-food of the mind and body: more TV shows and movies, video and computer games, and indoor (branded-character-based) games. Watching TV itself decreases activity-levels, sucks away hours and hours each week that could be spent doing anything else. Then, it convinces you to watch more and play (sitting down) games that tie back into the shows.
SO, what can we do???
1. To start, turn it off. Many households just leave it on between shows, drawing you (and especially kids) back into its clutches. Just turn it on for the shows you intentionally want to watch; make an intentional choice about which those are. This can also help you find out how much you watch. (It is probably more than you realize.)
2. You can try literally unplugging the TV. Just plug it in for the one or two things you really want to watch, then unplug it again without changing channels to see what else is on. The extra act of plugging it in makes it a conscious act, instead of an unconscious habit. When TVs first came out, one reviewer's comment was that they were nice, but "Americans don't have enough time" for them. However they have become a habit that can be hard to break.
3. Be ready for the withdrawal. If you are going to decrease how much you and/or your family watches, you should know that there is withdrawal. While we are watching TV, our brains are putting out hormones that keep us feeling mellow and content. When the TV first turns off, we get agitated and uncomfortable. (This is part of why watching TV before bedtime is problematic for people who suffer from sleep problems.) It goes away. The physical withdrawal goes away within a half hour. The psychological withdrawal, having to think of something to do instead, can last a little longer, but is worth overcoming for its own sake!
4. Watch what they are watching. Talk about it. A major point in the integrated messages is media literacy. It is also a huge learning area that is both critical in this age of media overload, and that is under addressed in the schools (already focused on raising test scores.) Media literacy starts with questions. Question the assumptions that the show makes; talk about stereotypes; ask if there are other solutions to the story's drama; talk about who makes the show and why; ask how the story makes your child feel... the dialogue can be endless, even over Bay Watch.
Getting Moving
We are a country of sitters. We sit at work (more office jobs, less active jobs, in an information age.) We sit at school (lunch recess and gym class being cut beyond recognition). We sit at home (in front of the TV or computer). We sit when we go from place to place (passive commuting for both kids and adults)... We are expert sitters, but not much else!
Getting moving starts with the fun and practical, and should stay there. Joggers jogging to jog is not the idea here. Kids running to play tag or for the joy of feeling the wind in their faces is more what we're talking about.
1. Do it together! Girls and boys whose parents engage in physical activity with them stay active. Whether you are swimming, biking, throwing a ball around, playing tag, or being the "monster" at the playground, YOU doing it makes a world of difference.
2. Commute actively. Getting a ride to school is not so helpful. Walking and biking to school encourage independence and activity over passivity. If walking together, spend the time listening to your child or notice the weather and seasons passing together. Take public transit and walk instead of using your car. If the car is required, try parking at the far end and walking farther to the door.
3. Get outside. Our bodies and minds respond to the cleaner air of the great outdoors (yes, even in the city the outside air is healthier than the air inside our homes), to the wider spaces and freedom from the electronic devices (back to unplugging). People who spend time outside, enjoying being outside, are healthier and more content than those who only scurry from home to car to place to car to home. You can explore your yard, neighborhood, local flora and fauna, or go farther away for new vistas. Camp in your backyard, take a walk around and about, splash in the puddles, climb trees, make mudpies... the options are endless!
4. Keep it fun! This is for parent-child bonding. This is for encouraging your child to enjoy being active. This is not for you to win, and your child does not need to learn how to be a great ball player before you are done. If kids enjoy playing a sport, they will get better at it just by doing it. The occasional tidbit of information or frustration maintenance is fine; but don't push it. An over-eager parent can just as easily squash a budding interest as one who is completely unengaged.
Getting Cooking
In this country, our portions have become mammoth, and our convenience food-like consumables have become standard. From every direction, nearly every year, it seems there is some new truism about food, most of which contradict each other. In thinking about healthy food, I like Michael Pollan's advice in In Defense of Food, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." To this I would only add, "Many colors," as the diversity of our foods expands the nutrients we get from them. Restaurant, take-out and prepackaged foods contain insane additives and come in unrealistic portion sizes. Just as one example, a bagel should be about 3 inches in diameter and only contain flour, yeast, salt and water (a touch of sugar and oil optional). Store bought bagels have grown in the last few decades to 6 inches in diameter or more, and include preservatives and other (inexplicable) chemicals.
(If the commercial world's portion sizes have come home, simply eating off of smaller plates quietly retrains the eye to expect less and the body to eat slower. Just the conscious act of refilling the plate slows us down and helps to prevent eating until we feel sick.)
Now the question becomes, how to get kids eating home-cooked food? Your toddler wants to live off of one food for what appears to be the rest of her life? Your teenager considers anything not prepackaged as poisonous? Research suggests that the more involved kids are in a meal the more likely they are to eat it. Get them cooking with you, or even instead of you.
1. Choices, real honest choices. Stock the home with healthy options: fresh produce and whole grains. Then, let your toddler pick her snacks, or your teenager plan a dish or even a whole meal for the family. Kids are on a road to independence, and this is one way to encourage it that you can feel good about.
2. Offer new options, and keep offering them. Diversity of foods is great and important, but so is patience. Research shows that kids need multiple exposures to the same foods before they really feel comfortable with them. In the wild, where food plants frequently have poisonous look-alikes, the proper way to test a new food is remarkably similar to the toddler's process: put it in your mouth (don't chew or swallow) and spit it out; if nothing bad happens, put it in and chew on it (but don't swallow) and spit it out; if nothing bad happens, try a tiny portion; if nothing bad happens... So, your picky child is supposed to go through this process; it is what has kept us alive for the countless millennia before supermarkets and drive-through windows.
3. Don't micromanage the process. Cook what you as a family enjoy; model enjoying your green salad or beet soup, and then trust. Kids that are exposed to tasty vegetables, to adults enjoying those vegetables, are going to eat vegetables when they are adults. (When you aren't looking, most likely.) Let them find their favorites.
4. Have fun cooking together! It is a chance to bond and share family traditions and comfort foods, values and happy memories. Just by cooking together, you are making a difference. For example, a chocolate cake cooked at home will still be a cake, but won't have some of the unpronounceable and undesirable additives of a store-bought cake. If you child only wants to spend time cooking the sweets, that is ok. In time he may expand his repertoire into sweet breads, then into soups... (at least that is what happened with my little non-domestic.) There are tons of kid-friendly cookbooks out there. (My kids like Spatulatta.) But, your family's favorites will be more effective than anyone else's cookbook.
So, in the end, the advice is all about making time. Time to spend together, to play together, to cook together. I can hear the whisper (roar?) in reply, "But I don't have time!" I know. I get it. Life is crazy, busy, hectic. Much of this happens instead of (not in addition to) other stuff. Turn off the TV, and instead go play tag outside. Instead of waiting 30-45 minutes for the pizza delivery person, boil whole wheat past and chop up a tasty salad. Or, make your own home-made pizza in only 15-20 minutes extra. Yes, it can slow life down, walking to school or sitting down to a meal... but isn't that a good thing?
PS (There is a lot of research not linked here; if anything interests you, please email me at kdbergman@yahoo.com, and I can send you more information.)
