Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Children Process Food Differently

When speaking of health issues, people often overlook the importance of children's health.  Usually it's because we adults already have developed some sort of illness, and little children have not.  There is one very important reason why you must monitor your child's fat intake.  And it may or may not be something you are aware of.

Generally speaking, humans are born with a fixed number of fat cells.  What this means is that when a person gains weight (fat), the fat cells are getting bigger and bigger.  I'm sure you've seen a very obese peson before, so you know that this means that there really is no limit as to how big fat cells can actually get.  If you keep adding excessive calories to your body, your body will keep shoving them into its fat cells.

Children are a little bit different.

It has been recently verified that childrens' bodies may be able to actually create additional fat cells, and that's not a good thing.  Research has shown that as kids consume exorbitant amounts of calories, their bodies can actually make more fat cells in order to take on the added energy.  Remember, fat is just stored energy or stored calories.

Why is this bad?

Because once a fat cell is created, it remains in the body........for life.  So, as a child, if you're body had created additional fat cells because your parents let you eat whatever the hell you wanted, this would increase your risk for obesity (by a lot) as an adult.  Even though it does not take a lot of energy to keep a fat cell alive, it is still additional body mass.  This additional body mass will do 2 things:
  1. It will chronically increase the appetite of the person for life because that added body mass will require more calories to stay alive.
  2. It will make the person's body more efficient at storing fat, which is something you DON'T want to happen.  Think about it.  Take 2 people.  The first has a certain number of fat cells and the second person has more fat cells than the first.  If they both eat fatty meals everyday for a week, the first person's body will store some fat of course, but it also may be able to pass some of that fat right out through going to the bathroom if their fat cells can't take on that fat.  The second person, however, may store even more fat than the first one simply because they have more fat cells to take on the extra fat than the first person. 
Does any of that make sense?  It seems a little tongue-twisterish but I hope you get it.

The major point is to really teach your children the importance of being healthy and eating healthy so that they develop those habits for the rest of their lives and so that they will not grow up with any added risk for obesity.

With all of the growth hormones and stem cells in a child's body, it is no wonder that they can actually make fat cells while adults cannot.

Sometimes it makes me so angry when I see an obese child!  Parents need to step up to the plate.  Kids do not have a brain developed enough to make healthy choices all the time when it comes to eating.  I'm sure that most children would eat cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day if someone let them.

Guide your children and help them live a more satisfactory life!

1 comment:

Laura_G said...

Awesome post Kris. I have really been hounding my kids to make healthier choices. I have quit buying snack cakes and crap and just make sure I have a ton of fresh fruits on hand when they are craving something sweet. I noticed that one of the boys skipped over the meat portion of the meal the other night and only ate fruits and veggies. I didn't complain that he had wasted the meat that was on his plate because I was happy he had made good choices. My older son has actually lost 1.5 pounds and grown 2" in the last couple of months and is no longer as self-conscious about how he looks as he was.

As a parent, it is hard to find the right balance between giving the kids a complex about what they eat and making sure they don't get obese and that they learn to make healthy choices.

Once again, great post! Keep 'em coming!

Laura