Q & A: how to help an overweight 11 year-old
This original post appeared on a blog of cnn.com. “Every weekday, a CNNHealth expert doctor answers a viewer question. On Friday, it’s Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician nutrition specialist.” While this exact scenario may not match your child’s, there are good references in here on diet make-up, daily activity vs. sedentary and body mass. The original link appears below and at the bottom.How do I put my 11-year-old on a diet?
Question:
How do I put my 11-year-old daughter on a diet? She is 50 pounds overweight, though she only looks about 20 pounds over. She has a lot of muscle. She plays sports year-round.
She is a picky, picky eater. She has asked to go on a diet, but I don’t think that an 11-year-old should, even though it’s unhealthy to be so overweight. I have told her she will need to give up sweetened drinks, sweet snacks and white bread products.
Any other ideas that will not be too drastic but will show results?
Expert answer
Hi Lisa. I answered your question a couple of months ago but I received some excellent feedback from pediatric endocrinologist Craig Rudlin MD, FAAP, so I wanted to expand on my answer and make a slight correction based on the information that Dr. Rudlin provided.
A 2005 paper from the Pediatric Endocrine Society about childhood obesity suggested a more aggressive approach based on the associated health complications of overweight children, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure and pre-diabetes.
Specifically, for children with a BMI (body mass index– here’s a calculator) of 85-95 percent, rather than focusing on weight maintenance, as I previously stated, the paper recommends “a modified diet with decreased sedentary activities.”
All-cause mortality rates - high vs. low animal protein diets
A major study was just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine from Harvard. In approximately 85,000 women who were followed for 26 years and 45,000 men who were followed for 20 years, researchers found that all-cause mortality rates were increased in both men and women who were eating a low-carbohydrate “Atkins” diet based on animal protein. However, all-cause mortality rates as well as cardiovascular mortality rates were decreased in those eating a plant-based diet low in animal protein and low in refined carbohydrates.
It is important to look at many actual measures of disease, including mortality, not just risk factors such as HDL cholesterol when considering a lifestyle change to a popular diet such as an Atkins diet. This is the first study that has examined mortality rates in those consuming an Atkins diet, and it confirms what many people have been mentioning, “a diet high in animal protein and fat, such as an Atkins diet, is not healthful and may shorten your lifespan.”
