Bellamy’s Organic. Mindful Eating is a way to tackle the growing obesity problem

Blond mother and child cooking in kitchen

A recent report in Sydney’s Sun Herald, contained some alarming figures on childhood obesity: 22% of Australian school children are overweight or obese, 44% of kindergarten students are not doing enough physical activity. The Children’s Hospital at Westmead is now regularly seeing primary school children over 100kg. How does it get like this? It’s not right to make parents feel bad unnecessarily, but you’d have to admit that children under 10 are not responsible for what they eat. Mindful Eating could help.

Bad eating habits start very young, which is why, as an organic baby food company, we believe it’s good to start your child off with good eating habits. Mindful Eating is one way to do that. Get your child into the habit of reaching for fruit, not biscuits, by thinking about what they eat.

Here are some ideas for staying on the right track:

• It’s tempting to offer a chocolate or lolly as a reward for good behaviour – why not try giving them a trip to the park or swimming pool instead?  Even easier – give them a big hug for being amazing!
• Nothing beats a platter as a snack, when kids get together, or even as a light meal for the family to share. Try mixes of carrots, celery, cherry tomato, and rice cakes, served with some hommus. Serve it on a big white plate decorated with some grapes and strawberries – anything that is fresh and in season.  This is an absolute winner as it usually has something for everyone and only takes 5 minutes to put together.
• The odd sweet and treat is not a crime but learn to savour the treat. Make a game of seeing how long one chocolate square can last in the mouth. After two or three you’ll have had enough.
• Get your children involved in the kitchen, weighing ingredients or peeling vegetables is a good start, it helps you and its fun for them.  You can even buy child safe knives like these: http://www.littlekitchen.com.au/shop3/lkshop/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=3&Itemid=53!

• Avoid buying “low fat” everything. Those products have the fat replaced by other things, usually artificial. Enjoy the “full flavour” versions, but not so often;
• Water, Water, Water.  Only ever offer water in their drink bottle and avoid having juice and or cordials in the house;
• Read the label. With so much of our diet coming from packaged foods, it’s good to know what you are about to offer your child to eat.  Avoid foods that list added sugars, contain artificial additives (often listed as numbers) or preservatives.  Remember that certified organic foods do not contain any ingredients that are not natural;
• To provide sustained energy for little ones, always serve breakfast and serve low GI foods to provide a slow, sustained release of sugars to the blood;

• If you’re slipping to “the dark side”, don’t worry, It’s never too late to make some changes;

• Make exercise, part of your Mindfulness routine. It improves cardiac health and metabolic rate and makes you feel good.

The best way to work out if your child is a healthy weight is by calculating their BMI. This is not the same ratio as it is for adults because children’s body fat changes as they grow, and it does depend on their exact age and gender. Try going to http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcsite.nsf/pages/bmi4child to calculate.

If you’d like to know more about Bellamy’s Organic baby and toddler products, cereals, rusks and fruit snacks click on this link. It will take you straight to our on-line store http://www.bellamysorganic.com.au/catalogue