Motivation | Therapy of overweight in children and adolescents

Motivation

Between the knowledge of what to do to prevent or eliminate obesity and the will and strength to carry out these measures, there are often worlds apart. In order to reach the goal, the support of the parents is the best motivation! Instead of nagging or complaining it is better to look for solutions together.

Setbacks and failures cannot be avoided completely and the more self-confident the child is and the more support and consolation it receives, the easier it will be to overcome such phases. A certain amount of control of the measures and changes that have been introduced makes sense, but must not be too strict. Otherwise the joint observation of the weight can become a great burden for parents and children.

Here are some examples of strict and adapted measures:

  • Strict measures
  • You must never eat chocolate again!
  • From now on you are not allowed to watch TV for more than half an hour per day!
  • Adapted measures
  • You are allowed to eat one bar of chocolate a week, but you should divide it up yourself!
  • You are allowed to watch TV for two hours a week. You can choose the time yourself!

This form of nutrition corresponds to the current scientific knowledge about the correct nutrition of children and adolescents. This diet is “optimized” because it contains all the nutrients that children and adolescents need for growth, development and health.

The criteria of the optimized mixed diet are as follows: This results in three basic rules for food selection:

  • The nutrient supply must be correct. Protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water must comply with the recommendations of the German Society for Nutrition and be adapted to the respective age of the child.
  • The food selection should contain the usual, also inexpensive food, few finished products and no diet products
  • Certain favorite dishes and foods (for example sweets) should not be completely banned but rather restricted.
  • The meals should be taken regularly. There are three main meals (2 bread meals, 1 warm meal) and two small snacks.
  • The optimized mixed diet is intended to protect against later, diet-dependent diseases.These are primarily overweight, diabetes, lipometabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases, gout and some types of cancer.
  • Abundant (green area): vegetable food and cereals
  • Moderate (yellow area): animal food
  • Economical (red area): high-fat food and confectionery

The traffic light colors help to arrange the meals and to evaluate and classify them.

Even small children can easily understand this guidance system. Stopp should call it in the head with all “red food”. These foods cannot be painted completely, but you should use them only rarely and then consciously and sparingly.

It is the primarily: Moderate amounts of “yellow foods” are allowed: Green light, even when very hungry, the “green foods” are allowed: This results in a balanced supply of nutrients. Most of the food energy comes from carbohydrates (cereals, potatoes and fruit). Fat should be predominantly of vegetable origin and provides 30% of the daily food energy.

The remaining 15% comes from protein and is half animal (milk, meat, fish, eggs) and half vegetable (cereals, potatoes).

  • Highly sugared drinks like cola, lemonade or iced tea
  • Fruit juice drinks and nectars, malt beer.
  • Nuts of all kinds because they contain a lot of fat. Nuts are recommended in small quantities or, for example, mixed with oat flakes and muesli
  • Fat spreads (nut nougat cream etc. )
  • Croissants and similar baked goods
  • Sweetened breakfast cereals
  • Potatoes fried in fat
  • Dairy products with high fat content
  • Most types of meat and sausages
  • Cakes and pastries, sweets, chips, cookies
  • Most fast food products
  • Pure fruit juices, calorie-reduced lemonades
  • Dried fruit
  • Honey and jam
  • Bread and rolls with lots of white flour
  • Unsweetened mueslis and cereals
  • Baked potatoes of any kind, mashed potatoes
  • Lean milk and dairy products
  • Poultry meat and poultry sausage
  • Low fat fish (unbreaded)
  • Yeast and sponge cakes
  • Noodles with low-fat sauce
  • Pizza with vegetable topping
  • Fresh fruit, vegetables in any form (prepared without fat)
  • Salads with lean dressing
  • Whole grain bread and rolls, whole grain flakes, whole grain rice wafers
  • Boiled potatoes without fat
  • Water, mineral water, juice spritzer, herbal and fruit tea without sugar

All articles in this series:

  1. Therapy of overweight in children and adolescents
  2. Motivation