Archive for the ‘Children’s Health’ Category
Some 85 percent of consumers considered important to watch your diet but only 38 percent say they have made more changes to follow a healthy diet, according to Dr. Pilar Riobó, Head of Service of Endocrinology, Fundación Jiménez Díaz and coordinator of the I Training Day and Discussion “Obesity and the media”, organized by the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (SEED), reported today in a statement.
The meeting, held this February under the Continuing Education Plan for journalists on obesity in collaboration with the National Association of Health Report (ANIS) and funded by the company Abbott, Dr. Riobó discussed “the importance of the media are the main source of consumer information “in relation to food safety.
According to the expert, consumers are “constantly bombarded” with nutrition information from various sources and many of them, given the volume of data, are “difficult” to distinguish valid recommendations of misleading advice.
“The nutrition information is sometimes contradictory, even from sources equally valid, which causes consumers are confused about whom to believe and what to believe about nutrition,” said the doctor, for whom reality is that the public “pay attention to health news in the media” because the press is “well positioned to educate the public.”
Another participant of this meeting was Dr. Xavier Formiguera, head of the unit Eating Disorders Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, president of the Seed, who noted that at present there is “more than 1,000 million adults in the world who are overweight and at least 300 million are clinically obese. ”
“Of these, about 500,000 people in Europe and North America die each year from diseases related to obesity, according to data provided by The World Health Report 2002,” he said.
For the doctor, these figures show that obesity is a risk to our health because it increases the risk of premature death, decreased quality of life and is a major risk factor for many diseases; including diabetes mellitus type 2 diseases cardiovascular and cancer, among others.
In his view, a sedentary lifestyle is “key” in the development of this disease. “The physically active is a fossil of computerization, and the daily energy expenditure in the modern lifestyle has been reduced from 250 to 500 kilocalories per day compared to the traditional lifestyle,” concluded
“Obesity is increasing concern, especially among boys,” said the president of the Society of Community Nutrition and advisor of Perseus, Javier Aranceta. One of the difficulties to overcome, points out, is that the lack of time there are “serious problems” at the time of plan physical activities for school, not to mention poor diet and increased anxiety. “Ultimately, the chubby teenager has, in turn, more problems for sports and turns in sedentary activities,” he adds.
In this sense, a psychologist at the Hospital Santa Cristina de Madrid Rosa Calvo, also advises the Perseus, believes that “we must provide alternative answers” that the food is not an escape from boredom or stress.
Some figures
16% of obese schoolchildren: the percentage of Spanish primary school children who are obese is 16%, according to the Perseus program. If you consider being overweight as a whole, the percentage rises to 35% of schoolchildren aged 6 to 10 years. Among adults, obesity affects just over 15% of citizens.
8% of obese adolescents, this figure refers to the percentage of obese male adolescents, shows that the problem is not unique to Spain. Among European teenage girls the prevalence of this condition is somewhat less and not more than 5%, according to the findings of the HELENA study.
53% of adolescents is high-fat diets: more than half of European adolescents of both sexes kept diets with more than 35% fat, while 22% suffer from iron deficiency.
21.9% of girls who do not exercise, nearly 22% of girls and 17.6% of Spanish children do not perform any physical activity, as reflected in the National Health Survey 2006, Ministry of Health.
Feeding problems are not uncommon in infants with Down Syndrome, possibly due to hypotonic orofacial muscles and the small structure of the mouth. However, this is no reason to prevent this process does not follow the appropriate evolutionary path.
The first difficulty that we are in the power of small, adaptation is the process of food to mashed or semi solid foods. These steps have to be very gradual, but we must carry out if the baby is reluctant because it is the best way to combat that hypotonia and orofacial muscles get used to work. The steps are:
- Food passed through the mixer.
- After the food mill.
- Food squashed with a fork.
- Small pieces of solid food.
In addition, when solid foods begin to use a small spoon, flat and well rounded. You should have a small amount of food on the tip of the spoon to get easier for the baby. The spoon should be placed at the tip of the tongue guiding it into her mouth.
It is important that this process run its course of evolution because of the tremendous implications that will have later for language. A mouth that has worked, which has improved both its hypotony, a language with good tone is the best preparation for a proper joint.