Managing Weight

Managing Your Family's Weight

By Dr. Douglas Markham

The American public is 32% fatter than we were twenty years ago. About one out of three adults and one out of eight children suffer from obesity. Obesity contributes to an estimated 300,000 deaths per year, second only to smoking as a preventable cause of death. With diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol on the rise, both in children and adults, more than $100 billion is spent on obesity-related expenses in the United States each year. Dr. Douglas Markham, author of the new book Total Health Beyond the Zone, presents ten tips for managing your family's weight and health.

According to Dr. Markham, the real culprits to increased weight gain in children and adults are lack of exercise and the high carbohydrate content of the American diet. Any farmer will tell you that you don't use fat to plump up the herd. You use low-fat grain, the same foods the nutritional establishment has been telling us to eat over the past 20 years. This knowledge will help you form good habits to achieve your family's long and short term goals.

1. Worried about diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol? Want to lose weight? Lose weight by eating a diet high in fiber-rich fruits and vegetables and a variety of quality low - fat proteins such as chicken or fish supplemented with an exercise program to lose weight.

2. If you are unsure about how much protein or carbohydrates to eat, use the “ballpark” technique. Keep your protein choice to a portion a little larger than the size of the palm of your hand-roughly 4-6 oz. and your carbohydrate choice to about twice that amount.

3. Don't skip meals. It is very important to eat every 3 1/2 -4 hours. This keeps your blood sugars under control to reduce potential food cravings and keeps your body burning fat. This also helps to reduce your child's symptoms of hyperactivity related to sugar-handling problems.

4. Try to choose your carbohydrates in the form of fiber-rich fruits and vegetables. Stay away from carbohydrates like bread, pasta,rice and potatoes. These forms of carbohydrates have a high-glycemic index which means they convert into sugar too rapidly.

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