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Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children Pittsfield, Massachusetts (MA) - Berkshire Health Systems
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  5. Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children

Health Take-Away

Health Take-Away

  • Alcohol's Impact on Breast Cancer Risk
  • Acupuncture Can Help with Relief in Breast Cancer Care
  • Breast Reconstruction Surgery Journey is Personal
  • Building Your Immunity during COVID-19
  • Emotional Toll of COVID-19
  • COVID-19 Anti-Body Testing: What It Tells You What It Won't
  • Treating Varicose Veins
  • Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine: What is OMM
  • Know Your Audiology Options
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  • Don't Struggle with Resolutions
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  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
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  • Team Approach for Breast Cancer
  • Surviving Breast Cancer: A Journey
  • Hunger in the Berkshires
  • Vaccinations Help Avoid Needless Risks
  • Embrace Mindfulness
  • Low Carb High Fat Diet has Benefits
  • Probiotics Uses the Good Bugs to Fight the Bad Ones
  • Use the Power of Nature for Better Health
  • Unplug from Online for Better Health
  • Weight Loss Through Narrowing Your Eating Window
  • Mammography and Dense Breast Tissue
  • Medication-Assisted Treatment for Addiction Disorder
  • Smoker or Former Smoker? Lung Cancer Screening is Recommended for You
  • Be Safe When Using Over the Counter Medications
  • Screenings for Colon Cancer
  • Thyroid Health Essential to Metabolism
  • Go for Nutrition that is Heart Healthy
  • High Blood Pressure and Ways to Lower It
  • Hospitalists: Your Around the Clock Caregiver
  • Weight Loss Surgery Has Lasting Impact
  • Can you Find Joy in the Holidays When Sick?
  • Coping with Holiday Depression
  • When Quitting Smoking You May Need to Try and Try Again
  • Vaginal Birth after C-Section
  • New Tool to Assess Breast Cancer Risk
  • Migraines: How to Treat Them
  • Vestibular Care: It's All in Your Ears
  • Prepare for a Healthy Trip Abroad
  • New Moms Encouraged to Breast Feed
  • Language Diversity Important to Healthcare
  • Latest Advances in Joint Replacement
  • Vaping and Nicotine Addiction
  • Urgent Care or Emergency Department
  • Free Medicare Wellness Visit
  • Rehabilitation from Stroke Onset
  • Life Threatening Stroke Can be Prevented
  • Mammography and MRI for Women with High Risk of Breast Cancer
  • Breaking the Silence on Kidney Disease
  • Stop Mindless Eating
  • Hospitals Working to Improve Heart Health
  • Your Healthy Gut Bacteria
  • Give Up Smoking in 2018
  • Healthy Resolutions for 2018
  • Healthy Giving for 2017
  • Concussions: Myths and Truths
  • Celebrate a Thankful & Healthy Holiday
  • Don't Die of Embarrassment: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
  • Don't Let the Flu Get You This Season
  • Advanced Cardiac Imaging
  • Chronic Wound Care
  • What is a Hospitalist?
  • Healthy Heart Rhythms
  • Wellness Coaching
  • Men's Health In Crisis
  • Prevent Stroke or Respond FAST
  • Walking to Good Health
  • Healing Through Acupuncture
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  • Family Wellness - Play Together Stay Healthy Together
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  • Pre-Diabetes: A Wake-Up Call for Better Health
  • Overcoming Crisis With Resiliency
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  • Where's the Joy?
  • New Year's Resolutions to Live By
  • Preventing Falls: A Leading Health Risk for the Older Population
  • Staying Healthy in the Office
  • Exercising at Home and Staying Fit in the Winter
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation: Regaining a Healthier and Better Life
  • Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children
  • A Screening That Has Saved More than a Million Lives
  • How Walking Can Change Your Life
  • Injury-Free Sports & Activities
  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays
  • Alcohol's Impact on Breast Cancer Risk
  • Acupuncture Can Help with Relief in Breast Cancer Care
  • Breast Reconstruction Surgery Journey is Personal
  • Building Your Immunity during COVID-19
  • Emotional Toll of COVID-19
  • COVID-19 Anti-Body Testing: What It Tells You What It Won't
  • Treating Varicose Veins
  • Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine: What is OMM
  • Know Your Audiology Options
  • Pets as Therapists
  • Reducing the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder
  • Be Kind to Your Heart
  • Headache Care
  • Managing Presenteeism
  • Don't Struggle with Resolutions
  • Enjoy the Holidays Through the Gift of Giving
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
  • Save a Life, Lift Your Soul, Give Blood
  • Team Approach for Breast Cancer
  • Surviving Breast Cancer: A Journey
  • Hunger in the Berkshires
  • Vaccinations Help Avoid Needless Risks
  • Embrace Mindfulness
  • Low Carb High Fat Diet has Benefits
  • Probiotics Uses the Good Bugs to Fight the Bad Ones
  • Use the Power of Nature for Better Health
  • Unplug from Online for Better Health
  • Weight Loss Through Narrowing Your Eating Window
  • Mammography and Dense Breast Tissue
  • Medication-Assisted Treatment for Addiction Disorder
  • Smoker or Former Smoker? Lung Cancer Screening is Recommended for You
  • Be Safe When Using Over the Counter Medications
  • Screenings for Colon Cancer
  • Thyroid Health Essential to Metabolism
  • Go for Nutrition that is Heart Healthy
  • High Blood Pressure and Ways to Lower It
  • Hospitalists: Your Around the Clock Caregiver
  • Weight Loss Surgery Has Lasting Impact
  • Can you Find Joy in the Holidays When Sick?
  • Coping with Holiday Depression
  • When Quitting Smoking You May Need to Try and Try Again
  • Vaginal Birth after C-Section
  • New Tool to Assess Breast Cancer Risk
  • Migraines: How to Treat Them
  • Vestibular Care: It's All in Your Ears
  • Prepare for a Healthy Trip Abroad
  • New Moms Encouraged to Breast Feed
  • Language Diversity Important to Healthcare
  • Latest Advances in Joint Replacement
  • Vaping and Nicotine Addiction
  • Urgent Care or Emergency Department
  • Free Medicare Wellness Visit
  • Rehabilitation from Stroke Onset
  • Life Threatening Stroke Can be Prevented
  • Mammography and MRI for Women with High Risk of Breast Cancer
  • Breaking the Silence on Kidney Disease
  • Stop Mindless Eating
  • Hospitals Working to Improve Heart Health
  • Your Healthy Gut Bacteria
  • Give Up Smoking in 2018
  • Healthy Resolutions for 2018
  • Healthy Giving for 2017
  • Concussions: Myths and Truths
  • Celebrate a Thankful & Healthy Holiday
  • Don't Die of Embarrassment: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
  • Don't Let the Flu Get You This Season
  • Advanced Cardiac Imaging
  • Chronic Wound Care
  • What is a Hospitalist?
  • Healthy Heart Rhythms
  • Wellness Coaching
  • Men's Health In Crisis
  • Prevent Stroke or Respond FAST
  • Walking to Good Health
  • Healing Through Acupuncture
  • Self Care is Our Future
  • Family Wellness - Play Together Stay Healthy Together
  • Rewriting Your Book of Life
  • Pre-Diabetes: A Wake-Up Call for Better Health
  • Overcoming Crisis With Resiliency
  • Stepping Off the Slippery Slope
  • Sleep & Wellness: Learning to Cherish Your Sleep
  • Kicking the Habit and Ending the Fear
  • High Blood Pressure: One of the Few Things in Life We Can Control
  • Friendship is Powerful Medicine
  • It's Flu Season: Get the Vaccine!
  • The Healing Power of Gratitude
  • Where's the Joy?
  • New Year's Resolutions to Live By
  • Preventing Falls: A Leading Health Risk for the Older Population
  • Staying Healthy in the Office
  • Exercising at Home and Staying Fit in the Winter
  • Cardiac Rehabilitation: Regaining a Healthier and Better Life
  • Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children
  • A Screening That Has Saved More than a Million Lives
  • How Walking Can Change Your Life
  • Injury-Free Sports & Activities
  • Have a Healthy Summer
  • Head to a Farmers' Market
  • Just Breathe
  • Lyme Disease Facts
  • Mindful Eating
  • Empathy in Healthcare
  • Preparing Your Family for an Emergency
  • Helping Someone to Cope with Opioid Addiction
  • Breast Cancer Awareness: Mammograms Save Lives
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Lung Cancer Screening
  • Giving Thanks
  • Healthy Holidays

Nutrition & Exercise: Two Great Gifts for Children

GAZZILLO.jpg

Good Nutrition and Exercise: Two of the greatest gifts that parents can give their children

By Peter Gazzillo, MBA, RD, LDN, CPT

Children and teenagers are making multiple decisions several times a day that have the potential to define the quality of their health for the rest of their lives. I’m not referring to risky behaviors that scare the daylights out of parents - which most kids grow out of. The choices that will have the most lasting impact on our kids in terms of their overall health and wellbeing is what they eat, and how often they move their bodies.

Good nutrition and daily exercise sound like a simple recipe for health – we instinctively know this. Yet, it is so often ignored or misunderstood that our country is now in the midst of an alarming epidemic of overweight children and adolescents who are already showing signs of diseases that were once confined to the middle-aged and older.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Today, more than one third of children and teens are overweight or obese, and 70% of them have risk factors for cardiovascular disease and pre-diabetes. Just as alarming, the statistics indicate that overweight children and adolescents are destined to be overweight adults.

None of us want this for our children and their futures. Yet, helping them get back on track when it comes to good nutrition and exercise can be complicated. When a primary care physician refers an overweight child to a healthcare professional like me, we often find that the entire family is in need of help. We start with the basics on nutrition with lots of education about reading labels, buying food as close to its natural state as possible, and even how to prepare it so that meals are both nutritious and tasty. We discuss the value of eating as a family, and strategies such as using fresh fruit rather than cookies as an incentive or reward for good behavior.

In the process, we gradually improve what’s happening with the whole family and not just the individual child. The outcome has a much greater and lasting impact on nutrition and other lifestyle choices. In essence, the health of the child became the “carrot” that encouraged parents to make real changes in the health and future of their family.

I understand that preparing vegetables and fruit is more time-consuming than fast food or processed dessert items. But in years of practice, I’ve found that it’s the rare child who will turn down a bowl of fresh fruit with a dollop of cream, or a platter of fresh veggies with a tasty dip. Just as important is developing a routine in your home of sitting together at the table and enjoying a meal as a family. Even better, encourage your children to help in the preparation so that they learn how to make good food. It is the small things that you do in a habitual way that will have the greatest benefits over time. 

Activity goes hand-in-hand with good nutrition and health, and in some ways, bad habits around exercise may be harder to change than improving nutrition. Too many of our children lead sedentary lives, tied to computers and other devices that have robbed them of the extraordinary opportunity to just go outside and play. And with working parents and less supervision at home, kids don’t have the outside activities that my generation enjoyed. Some families literally have to schedule time for their youngsters to have physical activity. Whatever your strategy, it is absolutely critical that children stay in motion. In fact, we all need to move every day, regardless of age.

We all want the best for our kids and it doesn’t include high blood pressure or pre-diabetes at age 15, or ever. Life-long good health is rarely just good luck. It’s a gift that comes from parents who focus on nutrition and exercise.

Peter Gazzillo, MBA, RD, LDN, CPT, is a Registered and Licensed Dietitian who holds an MBA with a concentration in healthcare, a degree in Dietetics, and is an IFPA Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Sports Nutritionist. He is the Program Director of Berkshire Medical Center’s Operation Better Start, Western Mass Growth and Nutrition Program and Berkshire North WIC.

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