Superfood Spike offers Parents New Way to Teach Children about Healthy Eating

QUEENSLAND, Australia July, 2012 – Similar to potty training and homework, parents play a crucial role in the difficult but important role of introducing healthy eating habits to children. In a world where there is a fast food chain on almost every corner and junk food has worked its way into the busy lives of working families, most kids prefer fast food over healthier and fresher meals that their parents cook because, for them, it tastes better. Combine this with the endless stream of enticing advertisements from junk food companies that continue to flood the media, and Australia has a childhood obesity epidemic on its hands. www.childhoodobesityanswers.com/

A balanced diet and exercise routine is necessary for maintaining  a healthy lifestyle, the right weight and ensuring children have all the tools for a healthy, long life. There should be plenty of protein in each person’s diet and just enough carbs and fats. Tipping the balance to the favour of carbohydrates or fats (which is often the case with junk foods) leads to obesity when the body accumulates more fats than it can use. The sedentary lifestyle of video games and television for many Aussie children does nothing to balance out those extra kilojoules or prevent the body from storing the extra fats.

It is easier to feed children with junk food instead of healthy food because they use what experts call “pester power” – they will annoy their parents to no end until they are given their junk food fix. If this unhealthy spiral is allowed to continue, a government study reveals 80% of all Australian adults and a third of all children will be overweight or obese by 2020*.

The key is to educate young people about the unhealthy nature of junk foods and the impact they have on the body. One concerned mother and healthy living advocate, Sharon Cooper, wrote unique and engaging children’s book ‘Superfood Spike and the Fart of Junkfood Jimmy’ in an attempt to counter the lack of healthy eating knowledge among Aussie children.

Superfood Spike is the book’s hero as he embarks on a mission to teach Junkfood Jimmy just how bad junk food is for the body, and the wonders of super foods. ‘Superfood Spike and the Fart of Junkfood Jimmy’ is a book that parents and children can read together to build an understanding of healthy eating choices in a way that children can relate to.

Parents can find out more about how they can prevent childhood obesity in a ‘novel’ way at www.childhoodobesityanswers.com/.
 
*Source: http://www.child-obesity.info/child-health/alarming-statistics-about-child-obesity-in-australia.html

Contact Information

Sharon Cooper

Author

Superfood Spike

forest.blooms@bigpond.com.au