Parents should talk about health to talk to teenagers about obesity, teaches study

Focus on the weight of young and fat produced less incentive to adopt healthier habits 

Talk about weight is never an easy subject, especially with teenagers, already suffering too much pressure on his relentless quest for acceptance.

But how to solve the problem of obesity in young people without talking? For researchers from the School of Medicine, University of Minnesota (United States), the right way is the way the subject is approached. This was proven in their study, published on 24 in the online version of the Journal of the American Medical Association, JAMA Pediatric edition.
The researchers interviewed 2,793 adolescents with an average age of 14 and 3,709 parents, asking about how they talked about being overweight, unhealthy habits, control food and binge eating. After crossing the questionnaires, experts realized that the bad behaviors are more common in young people whose parents approach the subject by focusing on how much weight they need to lose and no. To compensate for the problem, they tend to adopt more extreme and unhealthy weight-loss strategies.
Teens who have had conversations about the importance of a healthy diet were more likely to engage in healthy alternative to eating better. In addition, they noted that boards work best when parents also follow.

Changes for the whole family 

Since the example is most important for influencing teens, parents and children can adopt healthy habits to prevent or reverse obesity. Do not know where to start? Check out what the biggest mistakes made in combating this evil:

Disregard the total calories 

"A poor diet is a major factor related to obesity," says physical education teacher and a doctoral student in nutrition Ana Damasus, coordinator of the Group of Study of Obesity (GEO) UNIFESP. According to her, when this factor is associated with excess weight, light is needed dietary reeducation. It begins by establishing a maximum limit of calories that can be consumed daily. "An overweight person probably eats more calories than your metabolism can burn," said the expert. To do this, find a good nutritionist who can prepare an individual menu.