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Informative Articles

Achieving a Safe, Healthy Tan with Sunless Tanning Products
The danger of skin cancer has heightened tanning awareness and the interest in sunless tanning products. The Skin Cancer Foundation suggests, “as sun safety grows, so do the benefits of sunless tanning”. More and more people are turning to the...

Eating Healthy Myths Destroyed
All Refined Carbohydrates are Hazardous to Your Health. The average American eats over 300 pounds of sugars each year. Most of this is because of all the sugar that is added to the everyday foods most people eat. Sugars are refined carbohydrates...

Nutrition for a Healthy Lifestyle
Proper nutrition is an area of confusion for most people. With all of the conflicting information in the media and all of the fad diets out there, it is hard to know how to eat right. Eating right comes down to eating the proper balance of the three...

The Isometric Diet and Balanced Health
The concept isometric has been a part of the health care vocabulary for decades. The most common application of the term, until now, has been with respect to physical exercise. Taken from the Greek root word Iso, meaning equal, the familiar term...

Tips for Choosing the Right Health Care Plan
Health care in America is changing rapidly. Twenty years ago, most people in the United States had idemnity coverage, which meant the insured person could go to any doctor, hospital or health care provider (which would bill for each service given),...

 
Monitoring BMI In Children Today Could Lead To Better Health

In a new study published by the American Heart Association, it is suggested that infants who gain weight rapidly during their first week may be more likely to have weight problems later in life. This study has led to a recommendation to monitor Body Mass Index (BMI) readings in children in an effort to fight obesity through heightened awareness.

According to the American Heart Association, about 15% of children are overweight and obese. This measure is up from 5% in the 1980s. Children measuring in the top 5th percentile of BMI should be considered overweight, however this measure is not necessarily an automatic recommendation for severe diet changes, which may be especially harmful for children. As a child develops further, these measures can change without changes to diet.

Children falling between 80% and 95% are considered "at-risk" and should be monitored further.

As obesity rates continue to rise in the US, studies like these continue to gain in importance. As the child


develops, potential health risks may be prevented through early awareness and lifestyle management. How this may impact cardiovascular disease and Type II Diabetes rates will likely require many years to measure.

Of course, all of these recommendations should be factored in with education and support for improved lifestyle and diet. Given the pressures of youth, it is important to not stigmatize a child and foster eating problems and poor self-image where the body mass problems may have been associated more simply with poor, and uneducated, dietary choices and insufficient physical activity.

About the Author

Dave Saunders is a certified nutritional educator, wellness coach,
member of the American International Association of Nutritional Education (AIANE) and author. He is also the host of a weekly, nation-wide telephone lecture on health and nutrition.
For additional information, please visit www.glycoboy.com or www.glycowellness.com or email Dave at dave@glycoboy.com