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While I agree that the soccer scenario is overboard and no one needs a snack every 40 minutes, it's actually healthier for our bodies to replenish with food throughout the day (I often hear of the "five mini meals" a day) than to eat three large meals.
The pediatricians and books make that point all the time. It's the all day snack fest that people morph that advice into that's the problem.
My friend is a Mom of 3 boys and was talking about soccer recently. She said the parents were stressing that the snacks provided at practice and games should always be healthy. And she said "why can't they play soccer for an hour WITHOUT snacks?". People tend to feed their children 24 hours a day and it starts with a constant bowl of cheerios or goldfish as soon as they can eat. It already drives me crazy that people can't get through a 40 minute class or short playdate without pulling out some kind of snack or milk cup.
It's a fast paced world out there and for some of the kids on the soccer field, that snack may very well be their dinner. They have to hurry up and eat it , too, because they have to be somewhere else right after the game - where a snack will also be served.
The kids and their parents end up grazing throughout the day, a snack here and a snack there. Instead of having 3 meals, they have lots of snacks.
Some of the experts say that this way of eating is actually healthy, as long as the mini meals being served are healthy.
Arguing that the snack table should have pretzels in instead of twinkies is not the same thing as parents feeding their children healthy meals on the go. Which brings us to the "we're so busy" excuse people use for eating like crap.
Arguing that the snack table should have pretzels in instead of twinkies is not the same thing as parents feeding their children healthy meals on the go. Which brings us to the "we're so busy" excuse people use for eating like crap.
A lot depends on how often kids are getting snacks from the table. Twice a month? Once a week? 3 times a week? 5+ times a week?
It's a fast paced world out there and for some of the kids on the soccer field, that snack may very well be their dinner. They have to hurry up and eat it , too, because they have to be somewhere else right after the game - where a snack will also be served.
The kids and their parents end up grazing throughout the day, a snack here and a snack there. Instead of having 3 meals, they have lots of snacks.
Some of the experts say that this way of eating is actually healthy, as long as the mini meals being served are healthy.
I doubt any of those overweight kids are either on or even have personal knowledge of a soccer field :-P. The issue is not just the grazing as you say but the sedentary lifestyle most people live today. Eating snacks is one thing if you are active to the max, but if you spend most of the time in front of an xbox or the computer its much worse.
It's a fast paced world out there and for some of the kids on the soccer field, that snack may very well be their dinner. They have to hurry up and eat it , too, because they have to be somewhere else right after the game - where a snack will also be served.
The kids and their parents end up grazing throughout the day, a snack here and a snack there. Instead of having 3 meals, they have lots of snacks.
Some of the experts say that this way of eating is actually healthy, as long as the mini meals being served are healthy.
"Healthy" snacks are usually something like pretzels and 100% juice boxes. Better would be an apple, string cheese, and water, but I don't see that much. Pretzels and apple juice, even in multiple quantities, is not a good dinner to feed a kid.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British researchers who tried to show why overweight mothers tend to have overweight children said on Monday they had filled in one small piece of the puzzle.
Are fat moms to blame for fat kids? Answer unclear - Yahoo! News (broken link)
It depends. Some moms choose to feed their kids junk and stick them in front of the TV for hours (when they could provide healthier food and exercise opportunities), therefore they ARE to blame.
Other moms are poor and tend to stock up on cheap carbs with lots of calories and little nutrition b/c they're filling and cheap. Often they are less educated than more affluent parents so they might not know much about nutritious either. While this contributes to obesity, it doesn't mean they're bad parents.
And then there are parents who have genetic predispositions to be heavy and pass this on to their kids. Can't see parents being blamed for this.
I doubt any of those overweight kids are either on or even have personal knowledge of a soccer field :-P. The issue is not just the grazing as you say but the sedentary lifestyle most people live today. Eating snacks is one thing if you are active to the max, but if you spend most of the time in front of an xbox or the computer its much worse.
This isn't actually true. At the same time that our child obesity/overweight rate has skyrocketed, the number of children playing team sports is at an all time high. The difference in my opinion is loads of crappy engineered food and perhaps most important - no more playing outside every day. You burn a lot of calories spending hours building forts and playing capture the flag...way more than a 45 min soccer practice.
This isn't actually true. At the same time that our child obesity/overweight rate has skyrocketed, the number of children playing team sports is at an all time high. The difference in my opinion is loads of crappy engineered food and perhaps most important - no more playing outside every day. You burn a lot of calories spending hours building forts and playing capture the flag...way more than a 45 min soccer practice.
I doubt very much if the same kids are obese as the ones playing team sports.
Soccer, btw, is an extremely active game and definitely runs off more calories than building forts. Capture the flag may come close, but you don't spend *hours* doing that any more than you spend hours playing a sport.
There are dangers to overdoing sports, btw. I know that from personal experience as my son LOVED sports and played every day in something. He had osgood schlatter's disease at 8 and had to stay out of sports entirely for almost 6 months. Difficult to do.
In regard to weight loss, btw, soccer is probably the best sport kids can do.
Soccer might be the best cardio-vascular intensive sport there is. Soccer raises the heart rate to a significant level for an extended period of time, thereby causing an enormous expenditure of energy and burning lots of calories.
Soccer combines episodes of jogging and sprinting, interspersed with jumping and lots of kicking. Of course, soccer does little to promote upper body strength or hand-eye coordination. Still, in regards to weight loss, soccer may very well be the best sport for kids. Interestingly, soccer is the most popular youth sport in America, outpacing even Little League baseball.
Moderator cut: Please only quote a few sentences, not several paragraphs. Thanks.
Last edited by JustJulia; 03-09-2012 at 11:20 AM..
I doubt very much if the same kids are obese as the ones playing team sports.
I had one kid who played on the teach I coached. He was fat. he never ran when everyone else did because of his "asthma". His asthma was not so bad that he ever had his inhaler with him. It was just a stupid excuse his parents allowed him to use so he did not have to exercise with the rest of the kids. Mom was as big as a house. Go figure.
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