Fight Fat Television commercials can affect your diet, and in turn, your learning. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, more than one in five children in the country are overweight. The problem is worse and worse for younger children, threatening even preschoolers. At the same time, diseases brought on by being overweight, once mostly a problem for old people, are affecting children as young as 4, while attention disorder is also on the rise. Are the problems linked David Ludwig, director of the Good Health for Life program at Children's Hospital of Boston, thinks they may be. He lays the blame squarely on diets heavy in processed and fast foods-a situation made worse by the constant attack of TV commercials that make bad foods look so good to all of us. Young children are particularly influenced by media messages, as this is the age when they learn eating habits that will stay with them for a lifetime. The key, Dr. Ludwig says, is to start making good decisions about eating at an early age. Parents are important, as they send their own messages about smart eating by modeling healthy choices and habits. How much influence do TV commercials really have on young children's diets While it's true that parents control what young children eat, children are still absorbing messages from TV. After seeing TV commercials, children bother parents until parents finally give in and buy stuff that's bad for their children. Unhealthy foods are presented to kids as being cool, appealing, and desirable. And, once they do go to school, they'll be trading foods they brought from home, and seeing the "cool" stuff other kids have. So what can parents and teachers do to help If parents start early and use this time to teach good eating habits, they can help prevent problems. By the time a child becomes overweight and parents become alarmed, food habits are already well established, and parent-child power struggles can arise. Young children need to learn about a healthy diet and lifestyle from the people who love them and who have their best interests at heart. Children imitate adult behavior. Parents, in particular, should not only be supportive, they should also live a healthy lifestyle that includes eating healthy foods and participating in regular exercise. What contributes to poor eating habits and unhealthy lifestyles Families are busy, often working long hours and eating out or getting take-out more often. Children have less opportunity to see their parents preparing and eating healthy meals. Research shows that when meals are not eaten at home, the quality of the food goes down, and the number of calories (卡路里) consumed goes up. Also, kids are eating more unhealthy food than they used to. Things that used to be rare treats are now daily meals. During any given week, three out of four children eat a fast-food meal one or more times a day. Rates of fast-food consumption may be lower for younger kids, but again, the youngest kids are laying down habits that will take hold later. Soda is another example: In the last two decades, soft drink consumption has gone up threefold. Kids used to drink three servings of milk for every serving of soda. Now those numbers are reversed. What role does physical activity play You can partly blame a lack of exercise, but I think that continuous TV commercials are a bigger offender. The average child watches 10,000 TV commercials a year, the majority of which are for poor-quality, unhealthy foods. Even if a child is getting decent physical activity, that's not enough to make up for the ill effects of eating too much fast food. For example, just one super-size fast-food meal contains a day's worth of calories for a child. Gym class or soccer practice can't reverse that. The child would have to run in the Olympics! Are school meals a potential problem, too Many meals served at schools are not very healthy. Parents can play an important role by becoming active in parent-teacher groups and writing to the school board to request improvement in the quality of food served. Parents should also write their Congressional representatives. It's shortsighted of our government to save money on school spending; we end up paying a lot more in the long run with health problems related to kids becoming very fat. How have recent diet trends among adults affected children's eating habits The single clearest trend in childhood diets has been the relative decline in fat as a percentage of total calories. It's the same thing that's happened with adult diets: We have gotten the message that all fat is bad. But it should be noted that some fats are very healthy, such as the fat in nuts, some oils, and acids found in fish. When you cut all fat out of your diet, you miss out on healthy fats, too. We've replaced fat with carbohydrates (碳水化合物)—and not the good kind. Instead of vegetables, fruits, beans, and nuts, all of which are healthy carbohydrates, we're eating more processed foods and refined starches (淀粉)—white bread, potatoes, white rice and breakfast cereals. These foods all have what is called a high glycemic index (糖血指数). That means they cause a rise in blood sugar. You get a quick burst of energy, but then the blood sugar level drops quickly, stimulating more hunger and, in turn, overeating and weight gain. By contrast, foods with a low glycemic index, such as vegetables, grains, nuts, and other complex carbohydrates, are gentler on blood sugar levels. What is the connection between bad diets and attention disorders It's not that foods with a high glycemic index cause attention disorders, but we have observed that the percentage of refined starch and sugar in children's diets has increased along with the existence of attention disorders. Here's what happens: A child eats a breakfast that has no fat, no protein, and a high glycemic index-let's say a piece of bread with fat-free cream cheese. His blood sugar goes up, but pretty soon it crashes, which sets off the release of stress chemicals in the body. What you're left with, at around 10 ., is a kid who is full of energy, nervous, and not paying attention. That's going to look an awful lot like an attention disorder to his teacher. The possibility exists that in children at risk for attention disorders, quality of diet may have additional impact. So what would constitute a healthy diet for kids, one that would help prevent fatness as well as behavioral problems Rather than focus on the amounts of fat and carbohydrates in the diet, it's much more sensible to recognize that both carbohydrates and fat differ in quality. Parents should be sure their kids eat a diet heavy in good carbohydrates-whole grains, vegetables, most fruits, and beans. And they should not lump all fats together as "bad". While you should certainly cut way down on certain fats, like those in fast-food meals, don't completely cut out the beneficial fats mentioned earlier. That's good advice for all of us. | 
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