BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN YOUR CHILDREN

The whole household needs to change and parents should not change just the lifestyles of children, according to an expert doctor on obesity and related issues.

Dr Majid M. Bassuni, CMO, consultant general, Laparoscopic, Bariatric and Colorectal Surgery, Universal Hospital, Al Ain, said more parents have been neglecting the health and wellbeing of their children in the UAE.

“Parents need to monitor their children’s weight from the age of five and if they see a trend of an increasing weight they have to act quickly. They must learn that children do not learn from what we say to them, they learn from what we do around them.”

Dr Bassuni warned that parents who smoke tobacco should also be blamed for their children’s obesity. “Passive smoking, whether from shesha, medwakh or cigarettes, also reduces the chances of children losing weight. The nicotine and carbon monoxide switches off the hunger system and the child begins to just eat out of habit, not out of hunger.”

Dr Bassuni also believes in a low carb diet, adding that the biggest culprit is wheat. “In science and in medicine, we learn that insulin is responsible for the deposition of fat.”

He explained that insulin only works if one eats carbohydrates, it does not work when one eats pure fat alone, such as ghee or butter.

“Children are going to school with three sandwiches in their lunch boxes, this is another reason why they are overweight.”

He said that wheat became “dangerous” after the Second World War, when wheat genetics were modified.

He advised parents to thus use gluten-free bread made from rice, almond or coconut flour.

Dr Bassuni added that children also require proper exercise that increases their pulse rate at least three times above its rest rate and maintain the rate for at least 20 minutes to be effective.