Strange things always seem to happen during the holidays. Our clothes shrink! And it seems like it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort to get them to fit back together.

We all wish clothes would shrink! It seems that every year, as we get older, the holiday weight gain increases and the extra weight becomes more and more difficult to shed as the years go by. When it comes to eating, I wish I was a kid again… I think.

I was at a relative’s house for Christmas dinner this year and there were two boys there, one about ten and the other about twelve. I hadn’t seen these two in a year. They both grew more over the last year, but I was a bit surprised to see how “chubby” they got. One was bigger than the other as well, but they were both definitely gaining weight around their abdomens. They looked like forty year old men in small bodies! Unfortunately, they were only in poor physical shape, and yet they were very young. In the past, I wouldn’t have thought about anything other than the fact that they were getting fat.

However, the last five months have brought changes for me…good changes. I had a physical routine (after many years) since I am now in my early 40s. After this, I had to make changes, and fast. But I educated myself and learned a lot about proper nutrition. And I mean “proper nutrition”… not “dieting”. There is a enormous difference. I learned that my main problem was insulin resistance and I attacked it accordingly. In short, I got drastic and positive results.

While learning about my own health situation, I also learned that children today are becoming more insulin resistant and prediabetic at much younger ages than 10 years ago. All of this leads to more weight gain, obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes…for young children! The number of type 2 diabetes drug prescriptions for children ages 5 to 19 doubled between 2002 and 2005, according to an analysis by one of the nation’s largest benefits administration companies. The increase in the use of diabetes medications was most pronounced in children aged 10 to 14 years, with an increase of 106% during the study period.

Children today show physical signs that were rare in children 15 or 20 years ago. BAD NEWS! This means that the potential for serious cardiovascular disease at very young ages will be next for these next few adults. The medical community calls this an epidemic and warns of a large increase in cardiovascular disease at much earlier ages than in decades past.

As I sat there and noted what those two kids ate throughout the day, I could see that, to some degree, they might already be becoming insulin resistant based on what I saw them eat throughout the day and how they looked. They were drinking regular soda, all kinds of white bread, not really eating any vegetables, and eating a lot of sweet snacks. And from what I remember, that’s basically how they eat. And they were already showing the signs, even at ten or twelve years old, of weight gain and obesity caused by poor eating habits. In fact, obesity is now one of the most common, if not the most common childhood diseases diagnosed in the United States. Many kids today eat a lot, but poorly, and don’t get the amount of physical activity they should.

The good thing is that this problem of obesity and weight gain can be solved. Insulin resistance can often be reduced or reversed…especially in children. The thing is, kids can’t do this on their own. They do not understand the necessary relationships between the type of food eaten and how the body responds (blood sugar and insulin) to those foods. This responsibility falls on the parents.

We as parents need to learn as much as we can about food, nutrition, exercise, blood sugar, insulin, and high blood pressure. This benefits us and our children. As we learn how to start burning fat, losing weight, and improving our overall health, we should be able to transfer that knowledge to our children and see their health and well-being improve as well.

So try to find some books and information on proper nutrition (not fad diets! They don’t work!) and how to get your body into fat burning mode instead of fat storage mode. This is the key. To do this, you need to know what kind of food to eat and when to eat it. You have to truly understand how the food you eat affects your glucose and insulin levels. Your children can benefit from everything you learn.

In a future article, insulin resistance will be discussed, as well as ways to greatly decrease and stop it. Insulin resistance… these two little words are really huge… and you should learn all you can about them.