You Are What You Eat

I'm sure you have probably heard that phrase before. "You are what you eat." There definitely is some truth to this. If you eat unhealthy food like saturated fats and simple sugars you will most likely be unhealthy. If you eat healthy nutritious food, then you are probably healthy. Not only are you what you eat but it looks like you are what your mom eats as well.

I feel like everyday I hear of a new friend that is having a baby. I guess I am just at that age. I do not have children and do not claim to be an expert in parenting what so ever. However, one thing that truly makes me upset is to see overweight children. Most people just blame it on genetics. This is far from the truth. If your parents were overweight it probably means they did not eat very healthy. Chances are if they didn't make smart nutrition choices then neither did you. Not really by choice. That is just what you were fed.

I work with a large percentage of moms. One complaint that I hear over and over again is that they have trouble eating healthy because they eat what they are giving theie kids. I am always shocked by this, even though I have heard this more times than I would like to admit. If you know you shouldn't be eating something then why are you letting your kids have it. Now I know this can be easier said than done. I grew up only liking pizza and mac n cheese. Luckily I grew out of it and enjoy a variety of foods. We just need to educate our kids on why they need to eat healthier. Or we can just trick them. I remember as a kid, one of the few vegetables I would eat was spinach. Take a wild guess why. I liked Popeye and he eats his spinach. I thought if I ate spinach I would get big and strong too.

Back to the topic at hand though. Obviously childhood obesity is a huge problem and teaching kids smarter choices will just set them up to live longer and healthier lives. New research is showing we can even help them out before childhood. There was recently a study presented at the UK National Stem Cell Network Science Meeting about the development of fat cells in the development stages of cells. This study used stem cells from mice so it can't be directly translated into humans yet, but it is shedding the light on body fat distributions in humans. This study found that during the developmental stage of stem cells, the nutrition available will determine the distribution of visceral versus subcutaneous fat cells. Visceral fat has been shown to indicate a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

What this study may be showing makes perfect sense. By making poor choices with your nutrition during pregnancy and in the early stages after birth will play a huge role in determining how many fat cells a child will develop. So eating healthy during pregnancy is not only great for the mom but will be helping the child out for the rest of their lives. Obviously they can still make poor choices as they get older, but at least there will be a higher chance of success.

The take home message is simple really. Make sure you are eating healthy and make sure you are educating your kids on proper nutrition. Even if you have to lie a little. We lie about Santa Claus so I think it is ok to trick kids into liking vegetables.

You Stay Healthy San Diego,

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS
San Diego Personal Training
My Workout Creator