Creating a Healthy Home Environment - Tips for Parents

Creating a healthy home environment may be the most important thing that parents can do to help fight teen obesity. Teen weight loss programs, especially those that take place outside the home like weight loss camps or "fat camps," may give teens a boost in the right direction. However, sustained healthy weight loss requires consistent support from and healthy modeling by parents, as well as a healthy home environment.

Being a teen is difficult, even without being overweight. In addition to the normal challenges of adolescence, obese teens may face health problems, ridicule by peers, social isolation, and extremely low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. By creating a calm, safe, wholesome, and active home environment, parents can help overweight and obese teens make healthy choices that will lead to long-term weight loss and improved physical and psychological well-being.

One way that parents can improve the home environment is by stocking the kitchen with nutritious foods. A balanced diet includes a variety of low-fat, nutritionally dense foods, including dairy, lean protein, fruits, vegetables, and grains. Healthy diets emphasize moderate portions and fresh, unprocessed foods.

However, healthy modeling is not just about food. Research shows that parents who are physically active are more likely to have kids who are physically active. Parents who feel that their teens are too sedentary should consider making changes in the routine of the whole household. For instance, maybe the number of televisions in the home and/or the amount of time spent in front an electronic screen (watching television, surfing the Internet, or playing video games) could be reduced. Also, the family may benefit from planning healthy meals as a group, and then sitting down to eat the meals together.

Experts have identified certain behaviors that are common among teens who have successfully achieved long-term weight loss. According to Kerri Boutelle, Ph.D., an adolescence and obesity expert at the University of Minnesota's STAR (Service for At-Risk Teens) clinic, these keys to success include:

• Eating more fruits and vegetables;
• Eating more whole grains;
• Eating more low-fat dairy and lean meats;
• Eating less fat;
• Drinking less soda;
• Exercising regularly; and
• Getting on the scale weekly.