3. “Ditch the Fizz”

Limiting soft drinks in your child’s diet will radically cut down on calories.

A Harvard University study of children over the past 15 years revealed that soft-drink consumption is related to the dramatic rise in obesity. They discovered that children who daily drink at least eight ounces of a soft drink tend to also eat more food. So not only do they get 140 empty calories from the beverage, but they also consume additional calories by eating more. The reason for this is not definitive. It could be due to the fact that sugared drinks cause a rise in insulin, which causes more hunger, resulting in an increase in food consumption. Or, it may be that the reason children eat more when drinking soft drinks is that those who show no restraint in drinking soft drinks also have no restraint in eating.

Studies have also shown that if soft drinks are part of a child’s daily diet, not only are they fatter but they are also presumably more likely to develop diabetes later in life.

So parents, “ditch the fizz” as researchers at the Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrine Centre in southern England say. Their study found that just cutting down on carbonated drinks limited children’s obesity rates. Keep appealing alternatives to soft drinks and sugared beverages readily available. Here are a few suggestions:

Have 100 percent all natural juices on hand rather than sugared juice drinks;

Let your children mix sparkling water with fruit juice for a fun drink;

Keep individual bottles of water and flavored waters in the fridge;

Pack bottled water in lunchboxes, gradually increasing the frequency.

Your children simply cannot be healthy without drinking enough water. Among other things, water helps cleanse the body and is necessary for fat loss. A good goal would be to divide your child’s body weight in half and encourage them to drink that many ounces of water a day—more when they’re in the sun, exercising or sweating.  Next time I’ll have two more tips for you.