After 40 yrs--Good advice on obesity. | Other | Forum

I've become so used to poor advice from the "so called" experts regarding weight control in our county that I was very, happily surprised to see (finally) good advice for avoiding childhood obesity in my doctor's office.

This is from memory, but I think it went something like this…

Remember 5-2-1-0

5-Eat at least five fruits and vegetables daily

2-Get two hours of physical activity per day

1-Watch T.V. or play video games only one hour per day

0-Avoid sweetened drinks. Drink water throughout the day

   to stay hydrated and keep you feeling full between meals

Finally, no talk about specific portions and overall calories. Finally, mentioning the importance of water for controlling hunger and overall health. Finally, just tell people to eat lots of fruits and vegetables and avoiding sweet drinks. If Americans do those two things, the calories will take care of themselves. Finally, explaining the importance of both activity and nutrition in the same message. Of course they could have added much more advice, but I think this super-simple message will work great, if this represents the new round of advice to fight the obesity epidemic in our country; especially if we start at a young age and the parents lead by example!

Post edited 8:45 am – June 19, 2011 by gregsfc

Darrin said:

But I will throw in the biggest thing I see in my kids' circles of friends is a lack of lean protein.  I like to say "eat a protein and a fruit or veggie" every time you eat.

Yeah. I was just telling someone that was considering starting a diet the other day to eat a little protein every meal to keep metabolism boosted and to help maintain as much muscle mass as possible while losing weight. Of course she had never heard this before. I've never even heard of this from main-stream nutritionalists; just from legitimate body builder experts. 

I've always said, whenever dietitians and nutritionalists start believing true, scientific body building views on nutrition and exercise, then we'll start seeing healthier Americans.  Looks like it's possible we could start heading in that direction; at least a little bit.