Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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As more and more people find themselves financially strapped, more of them will tend to make the wrong choices when choosing foods for their families.
In part 1 of our series "The Child First and Always," we take a look at efforts by Primary Children's Medical Center to help families facing obesity issues in their own homes.
A 13-year-old boy who is good at playing the French horn wasn't so good at getting enough exercise and eating the right things a year ago.
"I didn't feel very good about myself. I was teased a lot," he said.
"My mom keeps telling me that she doesn't want me to eat any more cheese," he added. "I knew it was unhealthy, so I quit eating very much of it."
His mother explained, "We went to the pediatrician. She said, ‘You've gone from being overweight to being obese, so you really need to do something about this.'"
She enrolled her family in the Live Healthy for Kids classes offered by Primary Children's Medical Center.
"It's a class for families, therefore everyone in the family can learn what they need to learn," she said.
Pauline Williams, clinical nutrition manager at Primary Children's, said, "Whenever you are thinking about eating healthy, make it a family affair, not just singling out one child. The entire family should eat healthy."
"The thing that parents maybe have the hardest time with is just ideas; ideas for what can I feed my family that's healthy," Williams said.
The mother said, "In our family, my husband and I both did the grocery shopping, and so maybe I would buy healthy foods and he would buy foods that taste good."
Williams says the economy can have an impact. "Some things people do when the economy goes down is they try to cut down on food and maybe they're not making the wisest choices in the food they're picking," she said.
Williams tells families to choose foods with a lot of nutrients for the amount of calories they are getting from them.
"First thing when you go to the grocery store, you want to shop the perimeter of the store because on the perimeter you have the produce aisle, you've got the dairy aisle, and you've got the meat aisle. These are the foods that have a lot of nutrients for little calories and you can find some good prices on them," Williams explained.
Families who take the class also learn which foods to avoid and how to read labels.
The teenager's mother said, "Just reading the label and making the choice when we are purchasing in the store; that, and then increasing exercise. Not only has it helped our son, but my husband has lost 30 pounds too, which he wanted to lose. So it's been great."
Her son said, "The last time I went to the doctor she said, ‘Is this right? Did he really lose this much?' It made me feel happy."
Part 2 of our series will look at how families can make the right food choices and stay on budget. Also, listen to the KSL Primary Children's Radiothon Wednesday and Thursday on KSL Newsradio 102.7FM/1160 AM.
