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By Aftimios Fontandel
Brittany is alone on the playground. All the other kids are playing Red Rover, but she’s sitting on a long, low bench, doodling in her notebook and trying not to feel sad.
Brittany used to play Red Rover, too, but ever since Fourth Grade started, the other kids treat her differently. No one wants to play with her, they say, because she’s fat.
Brittany may be alone on the playground, but she’s not alone in America. She’s one of more than nine million American children over the age of six who are considered obese. According to a recent study by the Institute of Medicine in Washington D.C., the obesity rate for kids aged six to eleven has more than tripled in the past ten years. So has the number of sick kids, because obese children exhibit signs of cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, menstrual abnormalities, orthopedic problems, impaired balance, and type 2 diabetes. They may also suffer from psychological problems stemming from what child psychologist Ethan Borne, MD calls “impaired social functioning”—by which he means being ostracized by peers, as little Brittany has been.
 “Brittany’s parents are the culprits,” Borne says. “Many moms and dads today spend more time researching which laptop to buy than they do which foods their kids should be eating. The result is a nation of overweight, under-exercised kids.”
It’s up to parents to train kids to be health-minded, according to Dr. Terry Simpson, obesity and weight loss surgery specialist at the Arizona Bariatric Center. “It all boils down to making good choices for your kids,” Simpson says, “so they’ll have parameters for healthy living. Preventing obesity in youth is so much easier than trying to fix it later.”
Teaching kids to eat right tops the list of healthy life lessons, Simpson insists. “Fast food is the biggest culprit in childhood obesity,” he says. “Cutting out junk food and getting close to the source of your food is a good way to move away from bad eating habits.” That means eating fewer processed foods, Simpson says, but not necessarily preparing every meal from scratch—a time-consuming and often daunting hurdle for people who want to eat right.
“These days, any grocery store sells vegetables or fish in steamer bags,” Simpson says. “And there are healthy canned chilies that one can heat up in minutes that will give your kids a balanced diet.”
 Simpson knows that parents are often busy and have limited time; he recommends planning ahead for nutritional meals for growing kids. “You’ll save time—and money—by having healthy options in the freezer at home instead of going for fast food,” says Simpson, who also advocates reading nutritional labels in search of added sugars and fat grams in prepackaged foods. Keeping an eye on portion size is equally important, Simpson says. Your son may be a growing boy, but if he’s overweight, he doesn’t need that second helping of potatoes.
These are the sort of life lessons that kids can use to create a healthy structure for themselves, Borne says. “If they see you stopping at Starbucks for a sweetened coffee drink every morning, they’ll think that’s a way of waking up.” To ensure their healthy adulthood, Borne says, set examples they’ll absorb without realizing it: Brew coffee at home; eat whole grain cereal or toast for breakfast, rather than grabbing a donut on the run; for a quick dinner, heat up a plate of pasta with veggies from the freezer instead of a greasy taco on the go.
Perhaps more important than what we eat is what we do to burn it off.
“These days, children are more inactive than ever,” says Mark Fenton, champion racewalker, member of the Partnership for a Walkable America, and host of PBS’s America’s Walking. “Obesity is related to that physical inactivity, and the seeds of the problem are sown in youth.”
 While most kids don’t need to be told to go out and play, overweight children who are shy about being seen—or whose extra weight slows them down from keeping up with their friends—may be parking themselves in front of the TV instead of getting enough exercise. There are easy, fun, stay-at-home exercises (see sidebar) that kids can do with their parents, Simpson says, that will ease them into daily exercise as a pleasant necessity.
“It’s a lot less complicated than it sounds to get kids headed toward a healthy adult life,” Borne insists. “By planning ahead for healthy meals, and making exercise fun, you’re setting them up for an easier life—now and in the future.”
For more health tips for kids, visit Dr. Simpson’s blog, yourdoctorsorders.com and look for his upcoming book, Salads are the Enemy, available for purchase at amazon.com this spring. Additional reporting by Aline Lindemann.
Expert Advice
 Kids can sense something good for them—like exercise—a mile away. When that happens, they tend to run in the other direction. The key, according to Dr. Terry Simpson, is to work exercise into daily life. Here are some kid-friendly, calorie-burning activities for kids who don’t like to leave the couch:
Take the dog for a 15-minute walk—kids will burn 50 calories, get a dose of fresh air, and the pooch will thank them for it. Even playing with Bowser in the back yard burns 115 calories per hour.
Have the kids help with the yard work for 30 minutes. It’ll burn about 300 calories per hour, and your lawn will look better, besides. (Mowing the lawn with a push mower burns 295 calories per hour; washing the car, 200.)
Turn up the music and dance in the living room for 20 minutes—you’ll burn 130 calories and have a good laugh, besides.
Take a leisurely stroll with your kids to the corner market for the newspaper—the quality time spent together will also burn about 250 calories per hour. Maybe Junior would rather ride along on a skateboard? At 275 calories burned per hour, it’s not a bad way to go.
Once back home from your walk, consider jumping rope, which burns 900 calories. Afterward, watch a little TV. It burns a measly 40 calories per hour, but hey—it’s something.
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