Dr Oz: Child Obesity & Food Industry Traps To Avoid

Dr Oz: Child Obesity Grocery Shopping

Dr Oz did a show today on Childhood Obesity, and said that parents face a powerful conspiracy when it comes to feeding their children.  Doctor Oz introduced us to a lady named Toni who has four kids, and everyone in her family is overweight.  She said that she always eats junk food and she passed the habit on to her kids.  Emily is 14-years-old and likes to eat chicken cutlet sandwiches with cheddar cheese and bacon.  Macy is 13-years-old and loves mac-and-cheese, candies, cookies, and soda.  She said that she often sneaks food into her room at night, but she hates when kids call her fat or other names like “whale.”

Doctor Oz showed a typical grocery shopping trip with Toni and her two girls to King Kullen.  Toni said that they go everyday to the grocery and stock up on all kinds of junk food.  She can eat a whole bag of candy in a day, and they buy lots of sugary cereal since they go through a few boxes a week.  They also eat 6-8 bags of chips and salsa every week and two liters of soda per day.  Plus, one of her daughters likes to drink energy drinks, flavored water, juice boxes and red fruit punch.  Dr Oz asked her why she is making all of these unhealthy choices, and she said it is what they like and it is cheaper to buy “bad” food.  But I have to say that if money is an issue, they should really cut-back on all of the sugary drinks and junk food, and use that same money to buy higher quality food.  Instead, they can drink water in their house, which is exactly what we do in our home.  By not purchasing junk food and soda, you can easily buy organic vegetables and fruit even to eat as snacks.

Dr Alan Greene said that research shows that what a mother eats when she is pregnant can change what the child’s cravings will be later on and how easily the child will burn calories.  The cheapest foods do tend to be the lowest in nutritional value and are engineered to hit the survival centers of your brain so that you get addicted to them.  Here are three ways that Dr Oz said that the food industry hooks our kids:

Dr Oz: Cheese Snack Chips

Dr Oz said that cheesy snack chips are full of fats and carbs.  The high carbs raise our Seratonin levels so that we feel good, and the empty calories without fiber hit you right in the addiction center of your brain.

Dr Oz: Food Packaging With Cartoons

Doctor Oz said that the next big problem are foods with popular cartoon characters on the packages.  $10 billion are spent every year on promoting foods to kids, and it works!  It was shown that kids will choose broccoli over a chocolate bar, if the package of broccoli has a picture of Elmo on it.

Dr Oz: Whole Grains

The final trick that the food industry plays on us is by writing “made with whole grains” on the package, when the food still contains mostly white flour.  You want to look for a label that says 100% whole grains and 16g or more per serving.

Dr Oz said that the most valuable thing that we can give to our kids is fiber.  If you child is under 10, they should be getting 20 grams of fiber per day.  After that, they should get the same amount as an adult, which is 25 grams of fiber per day.  Adding fiber to your child’s diet will help fight off obesity by keeping your child full with nutritious foods so that they do not eat the junk food.