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Preventing Pre-Diabetes in Your Child
Before people develop type 2 diabetes, they almost always have "pre-diabetes." In adults it may take ten years to progress from pre-diabetes to diabetes but by that time much damage could have occurred. Pre-diabetes is when blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Research has shown that if you take action to control your blood glucose when you have pre-diabetes, you can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes from occurring. People with pre-diabetes can expect to benefit from much of the same advice for good nutrition and physical activity.
Factors That Contribute to a Child Being Overweight
There are many factors that contribute to children becoming overweight, such as the following:
- Less physical activity
- Frequent consumption of high sugar, high fat foods
- Meals consumed away from home, including fast food
- Genetics
- Limited access to parks and recreation sites
- Unsafe neighborhoods limiting outdoor play
- Increased portion sizes
- Parenting practices and behavior
- Driving short distances instead of walking or bicycling
- Overuse of TV, computers and video games
- Advertisement of high sugar, high fat foods to children
- High cost of fruits and vegetables vs. low cost of junk foods
- Unhealthy school environments
- Limited access to fruits and vegetables
Current research shows that breastfed infants have a decreased risk of being overweight. There is also some research that suggests that diet during pregnancy may be linked to childhood obesity. Be sure to visit our pregnancy and breast feeding section to get great tips on how to give your child the best nutritional start in life.
Lucille Beseler, MS, RD, LD/N, CDE is a Registered Licensed Dietitian and a Certified Diabetes Educator with a Masters of Science Degree in Nutrition. She is the founder of the Family Nutrition Center of South Florida where her practice strongly believes that better health can be achieved through good nutrition. To purchase her book, "Nurturing with Nutrition", an essential guide for feeding infants and toddlers, visit www.nutritionandfamily.com.
