The Age of Computers and Television has also become the Age of the Couch Potato.  Instead of running outside to play, our kids choose to sit down and text.  This decrease in activity level is contributing to the current child obesity epidemic.  One third of all children in the United States are overweight or obese and at risk for medical illness because of their weight.  Is your child part of that group?  If so, insufficient exercise could be partly to blame.

A new study from the British Heart Foundation revealed that the vast majority of parents overestimate the amount of time their kids exercise.  According to this study, seven out of ten parents think their kids get enough exercise but only one in ten actually meets current recommendations.  Most parents don’t even know what the current recommendations are!  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends one hour of exercise almost every day of the week.  Few children get even half that amount.

And many people confuse “physical activity” with “exercise”.  True exercise requires an increase in heart rate and the inability to speak in full sentences.  Your child is not working hard enough if she can carry on a conversation while she is moving.  The next time your child is exercising, try this “talk test”.  Ask her a question and see how she answers it.  If she responds fluidly without any huffing and puffing, ask her to turn the intensity of her exercise up a notch.  You can be sure your child is really exercising is she takes deep breaths between words.

Parents often believe that their kids are exercising whenever they play a sport.  Yet many sports do not get a child’s heart rate up enough to constitute true exercise.  Consider baseball; a child playing baseball spends most of his time sitting on the bench waiting to bat or standing in the field waiting for the ball.  I always tell my patients that baseball isn’t exercise!  Of course, a baseball practice that includes running drills is an exception and would be considered real exercise.

When parents ask me if a particular sport is considered exercise, I tell them that it depends.  When my daughter first started to play soccer, she would stand on the sideline and watch the other kids run with the ball.  If the ball would happen to come to her, she would kick it.  Clearly, this was not exercise.  But fast-forward two years later and she is a soccer animal!  She runs up and down the field, trying to get the ball and score.  Now she is exercising!

How can you ensure that your child is getting enough exercise?  I recommend scheduling your child’s exercise just as you schedule a doctor’s appointment.  Decide in advance when your child has the time to exercise and put it on the calendar.  The key is to keep these appointments.  Being tired or not in the mood does not constitute a reason to skip an exercise session.  Would you skip a doctor’s appointment for those reasons?  Of course not!  Treat your exercise sessions the same way.

Remember, 70% of parents incorrectly believe their kids are getting enough exercise.  Do not be part of that group!  Examine your child’s exercise routine with an unbiased eye and make sure that she is getting the exercise she needs.

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You can’t trust everything you read, especially if it is a nutrition label!  In a disheartening study from the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers found that many dietetic frozen food entrees had many more calories than their nutrition labels claimed; on average, the frozen foods, including items from Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and South Beach, contained 8% more calories than their boxes suggested.  They also found many discrepancies between the number of calories in food items at many popular chain restaurants and the number of calories these restaurants claim their food contains.  On average, restaurant foods contained 18% more calories than listed.

So if you can’t trust a printed calorie count, what can you trust?  It seems, not much.

According to restaurant representatives, these calorie discrepancies are due to slight variations in portions sizes.  For example, a particular restaurant worker may use slightly more cheese in the potato skins than another restaurant employee.  They claim that it is impossible for workers across the country to keep menu items completely uniform.

This study brings into question the usefulness of the new “calorie labeling” laws recently passed in many areas, including New York City.  What is the purpose of requiring companies to post calorie counts if they are not accurate?

In my opinion, calorie postings are crucial, even if the actual calorie count is not exact.  According to the FDA, restaurant and packaged foods are allowed a 20% margin of error.  Therefore, a 300 calorie sandwich may contain anywhere from 270 to 330 calories.  These “estimates” (which is really what they are) give consumers a good idea of how healthy a food is.  Even if you don’t know exactly how many calories an item contains, the postings give you an idea of which choices are healthier than others.  And since few Americans adhere to a very strict number of daily calories, a rough estimate is good enough.

Some nutrition experts argue that eating an extra hundred or so calories on a continual basis will lead to weight gain.  Of course that statement is true, but I just don’t see a better alternative.  Having some idea of how many calories a food contains is better than having no idea at all.

Certain restaurants, however, have crossed the line.  Slight variations in portion size do not explain the fact that P.F. Chang’s Sichuan Asparagus had more than DOUBLE the 200 calories the dish is reported to contain.  Such egregious discrepancies are unacceptable and restaurants should have to pay significant fines for misleading the public.

Yet not all items went over their stated calorie counts.  Researchers found many items that contained fewer calories than reported!  Domino’s large thin crust pizza, for example, had one third fewer calories than the listed 180 calories per serving.  Now that is a refreshing piece of news, although I guarantee that Domino’s will be posting this new, lower calorie count faster than P.F. Chang’s will change their Sichuan Asparagus calorie count!

Obviously, I would like calorie postings to be as accurate as possible.  But when actual people are preparing the meals, there is no way for serving sizes to be 100% standardized.  With the current obesity crisis as it is, we need to do everything we can to give consumers as much nutrition information as possible.  Until there is a way to exactly calculate how many calories a person is eating, calorie estimates will have to suffice.  Let’s just institute strict laws for companies, like P.F. Chang’s, who blatantly misrepresent themselves.

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