Body Healthy. Soul Happy.

Even 2-3 years ago, if your child snored or had trouble breathing while sleeping, the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor automatically urged you to have your child’s tonsils removed. For decades, it was assumed that enlarged tonsils were the leading cause of sleep dyspnea. 

But that thinking is being strongly challenged.  Researchers at Penn State recently published the results of a study involving 700 randomly chosen children, none of whom were previously treated for sleeping difficulty, in the medical journal Sleep.

Findings show that about a quarter of the children had mild or moderate sleep-disordered breathing. Tonsil size was not associated with disordered breathing, and nasal abnormalities were a factor only in mild cases.

But waist circumference and body mass index were strong independent risk factors for snoring and other breathing problems during sleep. “This is another red flag related to obesity, another reason to be concerned,” said Edward O. Bixler, a professor of psychiatry at Penn State who led the research. “The metabolic issues in adults associated with obesity are now beginning to be found in younger children.”

 Several additional studies have recently shown that obesity in expectant moms also increases the risk of asthma in infants and children.

Coupled together, weight is quickly becoming one of the greatest threats to our children’s ability to live a long, happy and healthy life. Unlike which genes we pass along, how our children’s cells organize during gestation or even what germs our kids are exposed to, we can control what we eat and what they eat. 

I often wonder how many studies will have to be published and how many children and their parents will have to suffer before our culture changes and begins to make healthy nutrition a real priority. When will we finally begin to see that the food we eat and the lifestyles we lead are actually reducing life expectancy instead of increasing it?

Below are three easy tips you can use today to make a change for yourself and your family. Pass them along and take a stand for your health and the health of those you love!

1. Replace white potatoes in your meals with cauliflower (which can be whipped up and tastes just like mashed potatoes) or use sweet potatoes which have many more nutrients (like beta carotene) than Idaho potatoes.

2. Play active games with your kids especially games like Wii sports or Dance Dance Revolution. These are games that many kids love and you’re likely to love too and studies have shown that playing these games for 40 minutes provides the same benefit as “traditional” exercise.

3. Consider supplementing your meals and your child’s meals with a high quality nutritional shake like Herbalife’s Formula One. These delicious shakes (which can be made with real fruit) offer perfectly balanced nutrition, are quick to make and are great for families who are always on-the-go. There are even kid tested and approved, great tasting, healthy snacks designed especially for your child’s growing body!

If you’d like more tips about how you and your family can live body healthy and soul happy, email me at kvkr2 at aol dot com.