According to Dr. Tim Lobstein of the International Obesity Task Force, the scope of these numbers and their implication for mankind is unprecedented.

From smiling clowns at drive-up windows to a beckoning Chihuahua, and a kid whose bologna has a first name; the competition is fierce for market share of your child’s stomach. Drive-up counters have replaced the dinner bell and fast food is no longer fast enough. Not surprisingly, diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes has surged 90 percent, in the last decade alone.

Sugar races into your child’s bloodstream, signaling their pancreas to produce insulin. Trans fatty acids accelerate their risk for heart disease. Preservatives, artificial additives, man-made sugars, white carbohydrates and processed foods add fuel to this internal fire—the building blocks for cellular aberration, degeneration and stored body fat.

If we care about prevention… we need to translate that belief to our children. It starts by recapturing the family dinner and wholesome cooking. Prioritize purchasing locally grown foods and the value of what “live food” can do for the body, mind and spirit. It’s time for us to become nourishers as well as nurturers.

10 Ways to Get There:

1)  Healthy snacks: Seeds are far more nutritionally dense than other foods, particularly those from pumpkin and squash. Add them to a mix with the healthiest nuts like almonds, pistachios, macadamia and pine. They break down slowly and feed you gradually, helping your child avoid hunger and low blood sugar; while bathing their cells with “healthy” fat.

2)  Fruits and vegetables: Seven fruits or vegetables a day “is” doable.  Invest in a great blender, like the Vita Mix 5200, and throw in all things good. You’ll be amazed at how a banana can mask the taste of the most onerous veggie (even fish oil). Consider mixing in some organic” freeze dried” berry powder. Make healthy smoothies or serve fresh vegetable juice.

3)  White Carbohydrates: Eliminate bleached and artificially fortified miracle bread. If you must, opt for sourdough and top it off with healthy Extra Virgin Olive Oil or real organic butter. It’s naturally high acidity, coupled with a topping of healthy fat, slows its entry in the bloodstream, giving your child’s pancreas a break. For pasta dishes, make the switch from white noodles to 100 percent whole wheat.

4)  Organic locally-grown vegetables: Grow your own or purchase them from a local farmers market. Another alternative is Community Supported Agriculture. Go to www.localharvest.org/csa/. Sign up and pick up a beautiful basket of fresh locally grown produce for a small fee at a local community college. Take control of what your child eats in school as well. Farm to School (www.farmtoschool.org) delivers healthy foods from local farms, to schools nationwide.

5)  Less is best: Serve less food by using smaller plates or share an entrée when dining out. We’ve grown accustomed to eating outlandish portions because they’re there. Serve moderate amounts of animal protein too. As a rule of thumb, never eat a serving of protein larger than a deck of playing cards. Kids need even less.

6)  Make healthier choices: Healthy fats in reasonable amounts help balance blood sugar and reduce internal inflammation. Extra Virgin Coconut Oil for higher-heat cooking. Extra Virgin Olive Oil for low to medium heat cooking. Dredge that chicken in coconut flour, not bleached flour. Eat the healthiest sources of protein, by choosing grass-fed beef, free-range pastured poultry, and fish from unpolluted waters.

7)  Sugar: Reduce it. While no sugar is healthy, studies show that Xylitol significantly reduces the bacteria and plaque on teeth when used moderately. Even better, use Stevia, an all natural herbal sweetener with none of sugar’s downside. Fill that “sippy cup” with water, not fruit juice; fructose cravings and tooth decay begin at a young age, from sugary foods.

8)  Family Time: A study by Harvard researchers Taveris et al. (Obesity Research, 2005) of more than 14,000 children ages 9-14, concluded that the benefits of eating dinner as a family appear to include improved diet quality, reduced high-risk adolescent behaviors such as tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use, and improved performance in school.

9)  Water: Drink ample amounts of natural spring water without fluoride; approximately half your child’s body weight, expressed in ounces daily. Example: an 80-pound child should drink 40 ounces of water throughout the day.

10) Walk: Studies show countless benefits from brisk walking for as little as 15 minutes a day, from reduced body fat to increased bone density.

Randy Karp has been featured on radio, television and in magazines highlighting his book new book, Misinformed About Food, an October release.

Advanced author signed copies are available at  www.rkinformedliving.com.

Let’s talk about leptin and insulin…

The ensuing results that occur when attending to and normalizing the function of these two hormones can be accurately described as losing weight naturally. Leptin and insulin are two master hormones when it comes to controlling weight and body composition. When they’re allowed to work, weight management is a self-regulating system. In a recent study, very overweight mice actually doubled their amount of physical activity when the hormone leptin – which regulates appetite and energy expenditure (fat burning)- was switched on in their brain. In fact, when leptin signaling was ‘turned on’ in the brain, the study quotes, “remarkably, blood glucose levels are entirely normalized.”

Totally normalizing blood sugar? Doubling the amount of exercise one is capable of? It’s time the public was let in on this.

Diet induced, type 2 diabetes has risen in this country to levels never seen before.

It’s even infiltrated the future of the nation-our youth.

Insulin resistance…leptin resistance…. what to do? Who’s the chicken? Who’s the egg?

If the culprit of this ever growing obesity and overweight problem was a popularity contest, insulin resistance would win by a mile.

But some research is pointing to the fact that leptin resistance may be an underlying precursor to insulin resistance. We need to rethink weight loss in lieu of these observations. Of note, leptin can also be found in skeletal muscle. The increased risk of diabetes that comes with obesity ay be caused in part by increased lipid deposits in that skeletal muscle as well as the liver, creating insulin resistance. Here is a wonderful illustration showing the reversal of insulin resistance by leptin.

A new study In the  June 2009 issue of the medical journal Cell Metabolism,  shows the astounding possibilities of what can happen once leptin resistance is restored. Raise your hand if your overweight but just don’t have the energy to exercise. OK, more than a few hands went up. Now…read carefully…

In this recent study, obese lab mice with severe type 2 diabetes had their blood glucose levels restored to normal and experienced a doubling in physical activity when sensitivity to the hormone leptin was restored to a portion of their brain called the hypothalamus. So, if this was an absolute truth, then what this research is saying is this- if you can restore your body’s sensitivity to leptin, it may not only increase your ability to engage in activity that helps you lose weight (exercise), but it may also have profound effects on another very important metabolic hormone-insulin.

So again, if this study turns out to be an absolute truth, then restoring leptin’s sensitivity in the brain may  help people who are chronically overweight or obese lead more active lives by enabling them to exercise more. In my experience, it’s far too common that people are stuck in the vicious cycle of not having enough energy to exercise, which diffuses weight loss efforts and leads to ill health.

Leptin and insulin are intimately dependent upon one another, and your metabolism is dependant upon them. Lack of exercise, increased exposure to chronic stress and a diet void of  nutrient dense foods, are what creates these non-responsive states of insulin and leptin resistance.

Embarking on a path to help normalize and resensitize your body to these two powerful hormones is just plain healthy.  You experience a whole different set of outcomes from your efforts when you have your hormones working for you, rather then against you-not only for weight loss but for your entire aging process.

The reason why visceral fat is so bad is that visceral fat increases your chances of developing metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and diabetes. And you already know that once you start down these unhealthy paths, it’s important to stop these processes from occurring, otherwise you’re on a fast track to heart disease, heart attacks, high blood pressure, aging fast, and even cancer.

Right now you can determine if you are suffering from visceral fat simply by looking in the mirror. If you see a large belly or that most of your weight is around the middle, you have packed on some serious poundage of visceral fat.

In one study reported in the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers found that those who did not exercise had a 8.6% increase in visceral fat in only 6 months. That’s amazing!

An exercise program that included a brisk 30-minute walk six days a week, prevented the accumulation of visceral fat. More exercise than the 30-minute walk reversed the visceral fat accumulation.

Sources: Cris A. Slentz, Lori B. Aiken, Joseph A. Houmard, Connie W. Bales, Johanna L. Johnson, Charles J. Tanner, Brian D. Duscha, and William E. Kraus Inactivity, exercise, and visceral fat. STRRIDE: a randomized, controlled study of exercise intensity and amount. J Appl Physiol, Oct 2005; 99: 1613-1618.