We all know that our kids should be avoiding fast food heavy diets - in fact, we could probably stand to avoid the stuff too. Fast food is one of the largest contributors to the ongoing problem with childhood obesity, and we need to make sure that we are finding healthy dietary alternatives so that we are not relying the drive-through for all of our kids' meals.
On top of having a hand in childhood obesity, fast food is also being linked to other complications that reach far beyond a child's weight.
A recent study concludes that there is a strong connection between eating fast food more than three times per week and a child's risk of suffering various allergy-related illnesses: asthma, eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis (runny nose/eyes). This research surveyed nearly half a million children around the world, and delivered some very interesting results. Additionally, this study indicates that we are likely to continue discovering new ways that fast food can negatively affect our health.
Here's an article from ThePediatrician.info that summarizes the study and also comments on some staggering statistics about childhood obesity. Remarking on what the study means for parenting, the article is a reminder that the behavior that we model for our children is going to be a major influence on their habits - dietary and otherwise. Hopefully this article will encourage us to be proactive in reversing the escalating trends of childhood obesity.
No comments:
Post a Comment