For all the adolescents who are overweight and really want to do something about it, the first suggestion is: try cutting out one calorie-full but nutrition-poor food that you're crazy about. If you can't stop eating chocolate candy bars or big dishes of ice cream or those wonderful cookies—or whatever is your favorite bad-habit dish, you're probably not ready to do very much about your weight.

Another help in the direction of self-education is keeping a diet diary. Doing this in any notebook or scratch-pad for a period of at least two weeks will give you more of an idea of what you really eat than just memory will ever do. To be of the most help, such a diary should be kept closely, itemizing what was eaten at each meal and for each snack. Addition of those items not put down during the day can be done at night. Then, when the study of your eating habits for that length of time is completed, each item can be checked for nutritional value and calorie count by using any of a number of nutrition or cook books. Of even more value would be the discussion of such a diary with a nutritionist or physician. ... read more >>

Research has shown that dads are much more likely to engage in active physical play with their preschoolers than mums. Physical activity not only helps children develop and self- confidence and a healthy body image, but also directly links with brain development.

According to Prof. Robert Winstone, of Imperial College London, male caregivers have an important role in active physical play with their children. They tend to extend children in the physical arena. Learning to take risks, within safe limits, transfers to other learning situations.

“The first 5 years is the time when the brain is developing rapidly and learning pathways are being formed,” says Sophie Foster, co-author of a new book ‘Move Baby Move’. ... read more >>

A little while ago I posted an Article on the so called influence over protective Fathers are meant to have on Anorexia read article now here is another study that claims that Fathers may cause Obesity!

They found no connection between the warmth and irritability of either parent and a child's body-mass index. But fathers who scored high for control, falling into the "authoritative" or "authoritarian" parenting category, had leaner kids. "Authoritative" fathers were the least likely to have overweight or obese (O & O) children. Children of "authoritarian" fathers were 11 percent more likely to be O & O. That risk went up to 35 percent for "disengaged" fathers and a whopping 59 percent for "permissive" dads. read the whole article. ... read more >>