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Making
Healty Choices
By
Lucinda Lewis
It
seems everything today is “supersized,” “fast-paced,” and “readymade.” Unfortunately,
waist sizes are super-sizing as
well. Look around and you’ll see the results of high carbohydrate,
low nutrition diets everywhere. As a health care provider,
I teach my patients’ parents about good dental care including
teeth brushing, overall diet and particularly the evils of
excessive sugar consumption. Home is where the training starts
for young children and they should be taught to make good food
choices and perform good oral hygiene daily.
In today’s world, ubiquitous
fast food television advertising drives the food choices for
children. Young children are particularly vulnerable to persuasive
advertising found on television. In fact, the American Academy
of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests limiting TV viewing so children
are not completely inundated with mass media. Choosing the
right foods, snacks and drinks for children is the responsibility
of parents and not Wall Street advertising firms. Parents must
control the variety, quantity and quality of the foods children
consume each day by establishing firm limits.
Most people understand that overall health is greatly influenced
by the dietary choices they make. But few realize that dental
health is affected as well. Native American children have one
of the highest tooth decay rates in the United States. The
problem is concentrated in children from low-income families.
For example, 80% of dental decay occurs in 20% of the children,
mostly from low socio-economic backgrounds. Tooth decay is
not just a food problem. It is influenced by diet as well
as a specific bacterial population in the mouth, overall oral
hygiene and time. The rate of decay increases when these four
causes are combined over time. The key to improving dental
health is attacking all four of the contributing causes.
While working on my reservation, I often saw children carrying
32-ounce “Big Gulps” out of 7-11 stores. How can a child possibly
drink that much sugar water? Filling up on soft drinks doesn’t
leave enough room for nutrient-rich foods that children require
for proper growth and development. The AAP and American Academy
of Pediatric Dentists recommend limiting juices and sugared
drinks to 4 ounces a day up to age five, and 8 ounces after
age five to about age eight. This allows children to eat a
wellbalanced meal rather than fi lling up on liquids of little
or no nutritional value.
The more access children have to poor quality foods and sweets,
the more cavities and unhealthy weight gain they experience.
A fascinating study of the dietary changes of Alaskan villagers
surrounding a “trading post” showed a marked increase in the
decay rates the closer the villagers lived to the store. Conversely,
rates dropped as distance increased from the “epi-center” of
the carbohydrate/sugar food stuffs found on the store shelves.
Restricting and controlling access to sweets and providing
high-quality, portion-controlled meals can dramatically reduce
cavities and improve health in children.
Teaching children to make good food choices helps them establish
healthy patterns early in life. I strongly urge parents to
work as partners with their pediatrician and pediatric dentist
to establish healthy limits for their children, in order to
prevent more deleterious health outcomes such as diabetes and
heart disease.
Lucinda
Lewis, Navajo, specializes in pediatric dentistry and
owns a private pediatric dental practice in Aurora, Colorado. |
