Nowadays with all the TV, radio and news paper advertising we are constantly being bombarded with eateries telling us to eat here, eat there and then there are the places doing specials and 2 meals for the price of 1. When you leave your home and head out to the local shopping centre you cannot help but notice the aroma of cooking from around the four corners of the world.

As kids we were taken out to a restaurant for our birthday or a special occasion, and every month we would have a treat, something from the local chip shop or if we were really lucky a Chinese, it gave us as family something to look forward to. Now that was going back a few years ago I have to admit.

Like I said you cannot go down the local shopping centre without passing at least five restaurants all selling burgers, pizzas, kebabs and noodles, most filled with families all enjoying their lunch/dinner. As we pass the shops we can see families munching into large portions of fish and chips, burgers and some enjoying foods from other exotic countries.

Everyone loves going out for their dinner but as parents we have a legal responsibility to look after our children’s health. In a recent survey it was estimated that one in six children under the age of 18, eat a ready meal or a take away every day. This could lead to serious health problems for our children in later life, problems such as:

• High salt levels and lack of exercise this will increase their risk of stroke.
• Obesity will affect many of our children causing them to suffer from heart problems, diabetes and joint problems.
• Suffer from many different types of cancer, including liver, kidney and stomach.

Think about what you are doing to your kid’s health the next time you decide to take them out for a three course meal, look for the healthier options on the menu and your kids will thank you for it in years to come.

Fed up being told that you are putting on some weight, TV and radio commercials constantly spouting out about fat this and fat that, and that how in ten years time we and our kids are all going to be suffering from heart and liver disease.Well eventually it starts to sink in and we do think about our kids future, how can we help them and maybe even help ourselves to get a bit fitter and maybe even lose an extra pound or so.

One of the best ways to lose weight is to stay active and do a little exercise,  as we all know  actually getting off the chair and walking down the park may be a bit extreme so one of the best ways is to actually enjoy what you are doing and there is no better way than the use of a gaming console.

The gaming console is the Nintendo Wii, it is simply brilliant whether you are downhill skiing or playing tennis you will love it, challenge your family and friends to a game of bowling after 10 games of moving around you will soon feel the benefits of this exercise. Nintendo Wii have also got programs which will target problem areas such as your tummy, thighs and arms so there is no need to even leave your home to do a complete workout. Pretty soon you will be an expert at lawn tennis, bowling and skiing as well as being more healthy and looking great.

Everyone that has ever tried to lose any weight will know just hard it really is, watching every piece of food that enters your mouth, wondering if that will add on an extra pound or have you got it just right and amaze yourself in time for the next weigh in? People that are trying to lose weight must really hate this time of year as shop windows are often filled with cakes shaped like bats and biscuits covered in chocolate and made to look like spiders that’s not to mention the pungent sweet smell of toffee covered apples. So what can we do to stop the temptation of dipping into our kid’s sweetie jar?  One thing worth remembering is that processed sugar will slow down your metabolism; this in turn will have an effect on your digestive system making it harder to burn off excess fat. Eating fruit and drinking water will often give you that full feeling so there is no need to dip into the cookie jar.

What else can be done to protect our waistline?

As we all know, as long as there are sweets in your house you will be tempted to sneak just the 1 which will lead to 2 and so on, do you really want to have all those calories sitting in your cupboards? Try to think of the consequences of eating too much chocolate, the headaches, feeling sick and the expanding waistline. One of the hardest things to do is to try and give the sweets away, take them to work give them to friends, try and get them out of your house. At the end of the day we are only human and we will be tempted to eat our way through bags and bags of sweets.

As we are all aware there is a epidemic spreading across this land of ours, I am not talking about the common cold or swine flu I am talking about obesity. In the last few years the number of obese people has spiralled out of control, this is now costing the national health service billions of pounds every year. This condition is not subject to any age group, race or gender it doesn’t care who it affects, obesity is a condition that does not happen over night in-fact obesity takes shape over a long period of time.
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In a recent study children’s waist sizes and obesity are being linked to sleeping disorders, this can include simple things like snoring to more serious conditions like obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, which can lead to your child having behaviour problems including, day time sleeping, attention seeking, being aggressive and hyperactivity, all of these can have an effect your child’s schooling.
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