Male Speaker: What can be done to reduce childhood and adolescent weight problems?
Dr. William McCarthy: First of all, we need to start educating physicians, parents and children. We need to start educating nutritionally about food value. We need to start steering away our diets from fast foods, snack foods from large volumes. We need to start limiting soft drinks, which are just empty calories and snacks foods. Even fruit juices these days are primarily consisting of sugar and it is recommended that we serve children no more to 4-6 ounces of fruit juice a day.
We need to encourage more fruits and vegetables at least five serving a day of fruits and vegetables. We also need to start encouraging more physical activity. A child should be getting at least an hour of vigorous physical activity everyday. We need to reduce in front of screen time that counts for television, video games, computer games. Children need to start getting away from that, not spending more than an hour or two everyday, more family time, also less attention as far as using food as a reward. So, there are many aspects that can be treated, we can start in the school systems by eliminating some of the snack foods and high calorie foods and start teaching both parents and children the importance of a healthy meal and the consequences of what will be happen if they don't get their weight under control.