Making children eat healthy is a battle. They love snacks like potato chips but hate healthier homemade options. While enjoying an occasional handful of chips may not cause much damage to someone consuming a healthy diet, the real danger arises when one consumes snacks like chips on a daily basis over healthier options. Moreover, other ready-to-consume snacks and beverages like fizzy drinks and fried chicken contain substances harmful for health and are responsible for non-communicable diseases. However, around half of our children regularly consume fizzy drinks and chips, according to the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey- 2022.
Obesity in children is increasing alarmingly in Bangladesh. Children nowadays have more weight-related problems than adults. Overweight children are at high risk of developing chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes later in life. They are also more prone to developing stress, sadness and low self-esteem. A new study has found that eating healthy could extend the lifespan by six to seven years for middle-aged adults, and by 10 years for children. According to the study, the ideal diet includes more legumes (beans, peas and lentils), whole grains (oats, barley and brown rice) and nuts, and less red and processed meat.
Parents have an important role to play to make children grow a healthy eating habit. They should give proper guidance to their children about the ways of having a healthy life. Sometimes parents force their children to eat more, eventually making them overweight. Most of the parents have a copious tendency of being worried that their children are not eating properly when their weight says that everything is just fine. As parents, we must be careful and should not burden children with extra calories.
Afroza Sheikh,
Dania, Dhaka,
ilcbd2008@gmail.com