Healthy Idaho | September '13

Page 12

Getting Fat for Kids Is Different

New research from the National Institutes of Health compares how both adults and children gain weight, and the data shows that, compared to adults, children may be eating many more calories for each extra pound gained. Children under the age of ten, for example, have to eat two times the amount of calories to gain a pound of extra weight compared to an adult.

Modern Childhood / in the news

Snack On This

In the late 1970s, American children consumed an average of only one snack a day. Today, they are consuming nearly three snacks per day. As a result, daily calories from children's snacks have increased by almost 200 calories over the period. Source: USDA

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HEALTHY IDAHO SEPTEMBER 2013

Sleep Matters

The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania recently published research showing that for people age 14 to 18, fewer hours of sleep at night is associated with an increased body mass index (BMI). Getting enough sleep at night could reduce the prevalence of obesity. Source: Pediatrics

“The average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.”

teen appetite

healthychildren.org

BMI

High Anxiety

Source: National Institutes of Health

A surge in appetite around the age of ten in girls and twelve in boys foreshadows the growth spurt of puberty. How much of a surge? Let’s just say that Mom and Dad might want to oil the hinges on the refrigerator door and start stockpiling a small cache of their own favorite snacks underneath the bed. “Adolescents seem like they’re hungry all the time,” says dietitian Mary Story, “especially boys.” Kids who are big and tall or who participate in physical activity will still need increased amounts of energy into late adolescence.

= Lower

Source: Prof. Robert Leahy, American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in New York City

MORNING MATTERS

research go to

Eating a healthy breakfast is associated with improved cognitive function (especially memory), reduced absenteeism, and improved mood.

healthy-idaho.com

Source: National Institutes of Health

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