Reduce childhood obesity with home cooking

If you’re a parent or planning to be, you can’t help but worry about the childhood obesity crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, childhood obesity has doubled in the past three decades; for adolescents it has quadrupled. In real terms, this means that more than a third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. These are terrifying statistics.

If you want to prevent your children from becoming obese or overweight, an effective way is to cook more meals at home.

Cooking to lose weight:

It may seem counterproductive to suggest that cooking more of the food your children eat can help them lose weight. After all, most weight loss plans are all about restricting food, right? Well, that’s not always the case.

To combat childhood obesity, it helps to understand that it is often caused by children eating too much processed “fast” food (high in calories and low in nutrition) and not enough healthy food. Replacing most of the highly processed fast food we feed our kids with nutritious, home-cooked meals and snacks can go a long way toward helping kids lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. After all, it is often called ‘junk’ food.

The Healthy Food Movement:

In 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama launched the “Let’s Move” campaign to help kids get fit. The program includes exercise, but also focuses on healthier foods at home, as well as at schools. Her show is still going strong today. In fact, she recently spoke at a health summit, educating people on all the benefits of home cooking.

The immediate benefits of home cooking

The immediate benefits of home cooking for your children may seem obvious when you think about them. The most important is that you can control what your children eat: you can choose fresh, nutrient-dense ingredients and limit the amount of unhealthy additives. Heavily processed foods that are prepared outside the home are often full of sugar, salt, unpronounceable additives, synthetic flavorings, and unhealthy carbohydrates and fats.

As a parent, you’ll also notice another immediate benefit of fighting childhood obesity with home-cooked food: you can save a lot of money! Meals at restaurants and prepackaged meals you buy at the store can be very expensive. And think about this: if a packaged meal can feed a family of four for just a few dollars, what will the quality of the ingredients be like? To keep prices down, the quality of the ingredients used has probably been compromised.

The long-term benefits of home cooking:

There are also long-term benefits of cooking at home for both you and your children. By cooking at home, especially if you involve children, you will be teaching them healthy cooking and baking habits that are likely to continue throughout their childhood and into adulthood.

In fact, the University of Alberta conducted a study that found that children who helped cook at home were 10% more likely to choose to eat vegetables than children who did not. And everything helps when it comes to getting kids to eat their vegetables.

Finding the time to cook for the kids can be a challenge. With some solid knowledge, a little practice, and the right tools, you can quickly establish a healthy eating environment at home. And do not forget that it will not only be the children who will benefit, but also their diet will improve.