Troubling Trends

Please read the article below and answer the questions at the end.

Obesity cuts U.S. children's life expectancy short January 13, 2011

For the first time in history, the next generation will not live longer than their parents.                                                          
“Diseases such as Type II diabetes, high blood pressure, heart conditions and joint deterioration - what were once considered ‘adult’ diseases - are regularly being diagnosed in children, due to the prevalence of obesity,” said Jessica Bartfield, MD, internal medicine and medical weight-loss specialist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, part of the Loyola University Health System.“What is particularly tragic is that studies have suggested that obesity in children today may contribute to a two- to five-year decline in their life expectancy, shorter than that of their parents, due to obesity-related diseases that are largely preventable,” said Dr. Bartfield, who is part of Gottlieb’s medically supervised weight-loss program involving physicians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists and behavioralists. She said obesity has many causes, including environment and culture. Genetics and parental weight status also plays a role.“If one parent is obese, a child has a 50 percent likelihood of being obese, and if both parents are obese, that skyrockets to 80 percent likelihood,” she said. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 80 percent of obese children between the ages of 10-15 continue to be obese at age 25. Furthermore, the earlier obesity develops in children, the more severe it tends to be as an adult. Besides health implications, there are psychological and social effects as well.“In addition to decreasing years of life, obesity decreases the quality of life through social ostracism, bullying, social isolation, and poor self-esteem, which can lead to poor performance in school, in jobs and in life,” she said.

Top Five Ways We Can Reverse the Obesity trend.

Trend 1 – Parents take charge. “Focus on getting the family healthy, not putting someone on a diet,” she said. “Monitor and take accountability for what the family is eating. Plan meals, set limits and take the team approach.”

2 – Involve the Kids. “As a family, create a weekly meal plan, look up calorie counts, make a grocery list, read product labels, choose fresh rather than packaged and get everyone’s participation,” Dr. Bartfield said. “Everyone has to get on board to be successful.” google_protectAndRun

3 – Add fresh fruits and vegetables. “Replace apple sauce for oil in baked goods, add carrots, broccoli and kale to soups and omelettes, cut up fresh fruit as a side dish,” Dr. Bartfield said. “Even if it is dipped in a little low-calorie whipped topping or low-calorie salad dressing to make the fruit or vegetable more appealing to kids.”

4 – Cut liquid calories. “Soda, flavored milk, fruit punches and fruit -flavored beverages are loaded in sugar and empty calories,” Dr. Bartfield said.

5 – Prioritize breakfast and keep meals consistent. “Eating within the first hour of waking up powers the brain and jump-starts the metabolism for the rest of the day,” Dr. Bartfield said. “Choose protein and fiber in breakfast foods to boost endurance.” Establish set meal times, and calories per meal, and stick to them, with defined healthy options for snacking.

Keeping It Real“In overweight children with medical complications or obese children, strive for a one-pound individual weight loss per month,” said Dr. Bartfield, who uses guidelines by the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Focus on weight maintenance for overweight kids without medical complications. As kids continue to grow in height, their percentage Body Mass Index (BMI) on the growth chart will decrease.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2011-01-obesity-children-life-short.html#jCp

For this weeks blog I want you to answer the following questions.

1. How could you incorporate the "5 ways" into your life?

2. It has been said that people who are obese are lucky, in the sense that they have an outward sign of a problem.  Does that statement make sense to you?  Explain.

Blog #7 Macronutrients

The purpose of the last blog was to just get you thinking about what you eat.  In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives we often become disconnected with our food and that was evident in many of your posts.  Several people said they do not eat breakfast because they do not have time or eat whatever is around for an after school snack.  This lack of attention paid to what we are putting in our bodies has had a dramatic affect on our overall health as a society.  We will get into the scary statistics in a future post but just just know that the quality of the food you put into your body has a direct influence on your overall health.  The problem is we do not always see those affects immediately, it is a gradual process over time.

Food is made up of calories and calories are energy.  We need energy to support our efforts throughout the day so we need food.  Every food that you eat can be classified as one of three macro nutrients.  You have probably heard of them before they are Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins.


Carbohydrates provide energy for the body's cells including the brain.

Proteins are required for tissue maintenance, replacement, function, and growth, but in the absence of carbohydrates and Fats can also be used to provide energy.

Fats are required for tissue growth and hormone production, as well as regulating body temperature.  They are also a source of energy for the body.

Common sources of carbohydrates - starchy foods (like grain, bread, cereals and potatoes), fruits, milk, and yogurt. Other foods like vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds and cottage cheese contain carbohydrates, but in lesser amounts.

Common Sources of proteins meats, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, nuts, legumes, and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables.

Common Sources of fat meat, poultry, nuts, milk products, butters and margarines, oils, lard, olive oil, avocados, nuts, and coconut oil.

Your body needs all three macro nutrients in order to function optimally.  Recommendations for how much of each macro nutrients individuals need vary based on several factors and are the topic of much debate and we will discuss this more.

For this weeks blog, I want you take a look at the day of eating you posted last week and use the information about macro nutrients above to break your day of eating down into its macro nutrients. 

Your post should be in percentages, based on you meals throughout the day.  For example, my daily macro nutrient profile usually looks something like this.

Carbohydrates: 35%
Proteins: 35%
Fats 30%

Fueling Your Work

We are starting to get the hang of many of the lifts we are doing in class and will continue to put them to work, both as strength moves and in our interval training/metcon days.  What we have not looked at yet is how you fuel your body to perform the hard work you are doing in class and more importantly your overall health.  Your body is like a machine, think of it as a race car.  If you put cheap fuel in a race car it will still go but will not perform up to it's capabilities.  However, if you load that car up with high octane fuel, it will perform.  Your body is the same way.  You can live off of pop tarts and hot pockets, but they will not allow your body to perform up to it's full potential.

Over the course of the semester we are going to define what "high octane" foods are and try to help you shift your current eating habits to help support what you are doing in the weight room and ultimately make you more healthy.

For this weeks blog I want you to be honest and write out for me what you eat in a normal day.  You can just write down what you had yesterday or if yesterday was not a normal day let me know what you normally eat.  I want to know what and how much of everything you eat in a day.  Break it down into breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks.  If you normally skip a meal let me know that as well.

Deadlift Form Check

This week we are going to take a look at the deadlift.  This blog will be a summative assessment worth 10 points.  You have been working hard to get your form right because done incorrectly the deadlift can cause issues with your back.  Take a look at the video below and let me know if you think his form is perfect or needs some work.  If you think the form needs work, what does he need to fix and how would you help him fix it?