Uphill Cardiac Wellness Centre

FAMILY HEALTH

Eating together

Studies show that families who sit down to regular meals together tend to eat better. Like most Canadians, you’re probably juggling work and family life, leaving little time to cook and eat together. Here are some simple ways to plan ahead to make your meals heart-healthy.

Obstacle: I don’t have time to cook!

We all have days when we just can’t get home in time to make meals. Here are some tips to overcome time crunches.

Tip #1
Prepare foods ahead of time. While making one meal, slice extra onions, dice extra peppers, cook extra brown rice or whole-wheat noodles and marinate meat so that they’re ready to use for the next night’s meal.

Tip #2
Take short cuts. Use pre-cut vegetables, bagged salads, pre-sliced meat and pre-grated cheese.

Tip #3
Make double batches of your favourite recipes on weekends and freeze them. Simply defrost, heat and serve for an instant supper during the busy week.

Tip #4
While roasting one meal in the oven, throw in some sweet potatoes, beets and squash in another roasting pan. When cooked, cool and store the roasted vegetables in the fridge for next night’s meal.

Tip #5
Cook stews, soups and casseroles in a crock pot. The food will stay heated and be ready to eat when family members arrive home.

Quick and healthy meal ideas

Mix a jar of pasta sauce (some come with six vegetables) with fresh, ready-made whole-wheat, meat-filled ravioli.
- Cooking time for ravioli: 5 minutes
Stir-fry onions, celery, broccoli with fresh, store-bought BBQ chicken, diced. Serve on whole-wheat couscous.
- Cooking time for the stir-fry: 15 minutes.
- Cooking time for couscous: 5 minutes.
Heat ready-made, cooked pork roast in microwave and serve with fresh salad of red-leaf lettuce and tomato.
- Cooking time for pork roast: 10 minutes in microwave.

Obstacle: We don’t eat meals together!

Children these days have hectic schedules from soccer practice and dance classes to ice skating and guitar lessons. Here are some ways to work around a busy schedule so that you can eat meals together more often.

Tip #1
Plan dinner around the day’s schedule. On activity nights, cook a casserole in the crock pot (started in the morning), which will be ready when everyone gets home. Take healthy snacks such as single-serve yogurts, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, homemade oatmeal cookies, pre-cut vegetables and fruit to calm the munchies before dinner.

Tip #2
Set menu themes to encourage everyone to be home for the meal. Spaghetti and meatball Tuesdays, home-made pizza Fridays, Sunday pancake brunches are just some ideas.

Tip #3
Let each member of your family take turns choosing their favourite recipe for dinner. Get children involved in the cooking. If they make it, they’re bound to eat it!

Tip #4
Plan family picnics and outings so that you can all sit down and eat together. Take this opportunity to catch up on the day’s events and news with the whole family.

Tip #5
Reassess your family’s schedule. If you’re out most nights of the week, maybe cutting back on one or two activities will allow you to spend more time eating and being together.

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Healthy weight in children and youth

As a parent, you want your children to be the healthiest they can be. Helping your children be physically active and eat nutritious food are foremost in your mind. But in recent years, you may have become concerned about reports of children being overweight and obese.

In Canada, rates of obesity among children and youth ages 2 to 17 are increasing. In 1979, 3% of children and youth were obese. By 2004, 8% or an estimated 500,000 were obese. An additional 18% of Canadian children and youth are overweight. These statistics taken together result in one more than one quarter – or 26% – of Canadian children and youth being either overweight or obese.

Even though overweight children may seem well-fed, they could be undernourished. One Canadian study found that even though obese children were eating a high-calorie diet, they weren’t getting enough calcium, magnesium, vitamins D and E.

Studies show that children who are obese over a period of time, or who become obese in later childhood or adolescence, are more likely to remain obese as adults. Obesity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

If your child is eating too many unhealthy foods, which are low in nutrients and high in calories such as doughnuts, potato chips, French fries, pop and candy, and getting too little physical activity, and you are concerned about his or her weight, you may want to speak to your healthcare provider for medical advice.

Inactivity also adds to weight problems. Children and youth need to be physically active 60 to 90 minutes a day, most days of the week, to stay healthy.

What you can do

Healthy habits, including regular physical activity and healthy eating that begin at home at a young age and continue throughout life, are important to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Between the ages of 6 and 12, children learn to make decisions and begin to make more choices of their own. They are developing eating habits and attitudes they may carry with them for the rest of their lives. Peer pressure influences children and youth of all ages and is particularly strong in the early teen years.

In the meantime, you, as a parent, play an important role in helping your children stay healthy. You may want to:

Encourage your children to eat three well-balanced meals a day at regular times. Choose one food from each of the four food groups: 1)vegetables and fruit; 2)grains; 3)meat and alternatives; 4)milk products – according to Health Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating.

Provide them with at least five servings of vegetables and fruit a day. Five servings might look like this: a small apple, half of a banana, a handful of baby carrots, a small bowl of peas and a stalk of broccoli.

Offer them water, lower-fat milk (1% or 2%) and 100% fruit juices instead of pop and other sugary drinks

Serve fresh fruit, veggie sticks and low-fat yogurt after school and on the weekends instead of high-fat, high-calorie snack foods such as potato chips and doughnuts

Encourage free outdoor play (A pick-up game of baseball? Tobogganing?) while limiting their screen time in front of computers, video games and TV

Help children get pleasure out of being active by encouraging them to choose activities they love – is it dancing, basketball, hockey, soccer, swimming, rollerblading, biking, or jumping rope? Read about children’s physical activity needs.

Schedule family outings that are active such as hiking a provincial park trail or swimming at the local community centre pool

Get your kids cooking – they usually like to eat what they have fun making

Set a good example yourself by eating healthfully and being physically active on a regular basis.

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Physical activity needs of children and youth

Children are naturally energetic, but without encouragement they may become sedentary. These days, many children spend more and more time sitting – in class, on a school bus, or at home reading, doing homework, using the computer, playing video games, talking on the phone or watching TV. These can all be educational and pleasurable, but the reality is more than half of Canadian children aged 5 to 17 aren’t active enough for optimal health and development.

Be a good role model

It’s up to you as a parent to keep your kids moving. One way is by being a good role model. If your children see you make physical activity a priority, they will take note. Research shows that more active parents have more active children.

Keep them moving

Physical activity strengthens their hearts and helps kids and teens maintain a healthy weight and healthy blood pressure, which may lower their risk of developing heart disease and stroke as they age. It’s beneficial to start early, as active kids are more likely to become fit adults.

Children and teens need to be active 60 to 90 minutes a day, most days of the week. It’s not a matter of trying to fit something else into their busy day. Instead, you simply need to encourage your children to trade an hour of inactivity for an hour of activity. About 45 minutes could be spent on moderate activity, such as brisk walking, skating, cycling or playing outdoors. Another 15 minutes should be for vigorous activity, such as running or soccer.

Unstructured activities are beneficial

Organized sports can be valuable, but they’re not the only solution. Not all children like competition. As well, unorganized sport and unstructured activity have been shown to be especially beneficial in preventing children from becoming overweight, perhaps because the emphasis is not on winning but on fun, which may encourage participation.

Here are some ideas for unstructured activities:

Playing tag
Pick-up games of ice or ball hockey
Skipping rope
Tobogganing
Shovelling snow

Family activities may include:

Hiking in your local park or conservation area
Swimming in your local pool
Playing frisbee, baseball or soccer in the backyard
Activities at the local community centre

One day at a time

Your kids don’t have to make the change all at once. They may start with stints of 5 to 10 minutes, increasing the time each week until daily activity becomes part of their healthy lifestyle.

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Your kids and tobacco

As a parent, you want your children to live long, healthy lives and avoid dangerous habits – especially smoking. The good news is that government policies for smoke-free workplaces and public areas and health information are helping to keep children from starting smoking in the first place. In a recent survey by Health Canada, only 2% of youth reported smoking. The number of Canadian youth trying tobacco products has also continued to fall. Only 21% of youth in grades 5 through 9 reported every trying any tobacco products. This represents a 50% drop since 1994. Still, your child may be at risk.

Why do some kids start to smoke?

We know that kids who start smoking do not feel confident about themselves. Some teenagers are easily affected by pressure from their friends and family. Other teenagers believe the hype that smoking is cool and grown up. Many teenage girls smoke because they think it will help them be thin.

How can I keep my child from smoking?

Although it may appear that your children don’t listen to your advice, your opinions do matter to them. Tell your children you don’t want them to smoke. Period.
Make your home smoke-free. It will not only protect your children from dangerous second-hand smoke exposure, but it will also provide a positive role model for them.
Talk about the costs of smoking – not only to their health but also to their wallet. Smoking is expensive. Wouldn’t they rather spend their money on clothes and movies?
Remind your children often that they are wonderful and that you like, respect and admire them. Help them feel good about themselves.
If you’re a smoker – quit. Visit Health Canada’s Web site Go Smoke Free. If you or your partner smokes, your child has a 50% increased likelihood that he or she will also smoke. Even if you’re a smoker, you may still talk to your kids about smoking and its health risks.

Quick facts about smoking

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 toxic chemicals, which can cause damage to the heart, lungs and other organs.
Carbon monoxide in smoke makes your blood less able to carry oxygen. As a result, your heart has to work harder to get enough oxygen to your body.
Nicotine in cigarettes makes your heart beat faster. It also increases your blood pressure and plaque deposits on the inside walls of your arteries. When plaque breaks off, it triggers the formation of blood clots, the major cause of heart attack and stroke.

If your child is already a smoker, you may want to speak to your healthcare provider about ways to help him or her quit. You may also want to encourage your son or daughter to visit Health Canada’s Web site for youth Quit4Life.

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