Fortunately, you can prevent. According to a review of studies, school programs to promote healthy eating, physical activity and positive attitudes toward body image aimed at children aged 6 to 12 years are among a series of interventions that can help reduce levels of obese. "There is now evidence to confirm that these strategies can be implemented to curb rising rates of obesity in children. S e know that doing nothing can lead to an increase of overweight and obesity, especially in some countries , "says Elizabeth Waters, McCaughey Centre at the University of Melbourne (Australia). And author of the study is published in Cochrane Library .
Becoming obese is strongly linked to poor nutrition and physical inactivity, so it's no surprise that many of the programs are aimed at improving one or both of these behaviors.
Positive impact
The studies reviewed varied in the programs evaluated for the prevention of obesity and the degree of benefit identified. However, overall the review indicates that the interventions had a positive impact on body weight. "Our findings show that it is worth investing in programs to prevent childhood obesity, but given the variety of programs included in this review, it is difficult to say exactly which components are best, but we believe the most effective strategies are those that focus on changing environments and not only the behavior of individuals, "says Waters.
Among the proposals are proposed in this paper for programs promoting healthy eating to promote physical activity and body image in school programs, increasing the number of opportunities for physical activity during the school week, to improve the nutritional quality of food provided in schools, paying more attention to activities and support to parents at home that encourage children to be more active, or spend less time watching TV or at the computer, among others.
