Roberta Anding has been a licensed dietitian for 27 years, so she's no stranger to treating overweight, unhealthy children.

That holds particularly true for recent years.

“I can count on one hand how many teenagers I saw that were over 250 pounds,” Anding said of her early days as a dietitian. “Now, my eye is conditioned (for that weight) because it's the norm of practice. The largest person I've taken care of is 871 pounds.”

Such obesity doesn't begin in adulthood.

Instead, Anding insists that parents must help their children make healthy eating choices at an early age. That includes serving meals made up of at least 50 percent fruits and vegetables, as well as those featuring whole grains.

It also means not indulging in caloric excess while your children watch.
“If you have nothing in your memory bank that defines (a proper serving) for you, you can eat as much as the people sitting next to you,” said Anding, also a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association.

“Rather than having a serving size defined by science, serving sizes are based on our peers ..... We now have individual research to support that if you eat with people who overconsume, you're more likely to overconsume. What your family does, that's the way children learn their behaviors.”

Anding doesn't just recommend fruits and vegetables because they contain less fat and calories than sweets like chocolate and cookies.

They also contain more water than those unhealthy foods, which means a person is much quicker to fill up on them.

“Five hundred calories is five large apples,” Anding said. “I can't eat five. A king-size candy bar also has 500. If we're being honest, most of us could eat that. Our eye and body are saying that five large apples is too much food.”

CLINT HALE | 210SA