Lifestyle Choices

Nutrition and Exercise

Get Healthy as a Family

Any changes to your child’s diet and lifestyle are much more likely to be accepted if they involve the whole family.

1. Eat at the table together – families who eat regular meals at the table with no distractions such as television are more likely to be a healthy weight.
2. Include children in family activities – take the dog for a walk, wash the car or mow the lawn, or plan a family bike ride. Children won’t see it as exercise, just fun.
3. Water, drinks and your health – encourage all members of the family to Drink Water. Fizzy drinks, fruit drinks, sports drinks, milky drinks with added sugar, and even 100% fruit juice are high in calories. Children tend to drink fewer sweet drinks when they’re not freely available in the home.
4. Eat breakfast every day – children who eat breakfast are less likely to overeat later in the day. If time is an issue, choose healthy items such as porridge, wholemeal toast and fruit.
5. Reduce screen time – reduce the time your child spends watching TV, playing  computer and games console, and instead get active as a family by walking, cycling, going to the park or playground, or swimming together. Make exercise fun
6. Prepare meals at home – cooking from scratch enables you to use healthier ingredients and reduce sugar and salt. Try these tasty, quick and healthy recipes ideal for midweek evening meals.
7. Portion size – avoid giving adult-sized plates to younger children, start meals with small servings and let your child ask for more if they’re still hungry, portion sizes have increased over the years and it’s one of the reasons children become overweight.

• Change for Life – Food Facts
• NHS Choices – The Healthy Weight Advice
• NHS Choices – Physical Activity Guidelines for Young People

Guidance for 5 to 18 year-olds

To maintain a basic level of health, children and young people aged 5-18 should do at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day in order to maintain a basic level of health. Three days a week, activities should involve exercises for strong muscles, such as push-ups, and exercises for strong bones, such as jumping and running.

• moderate activity such as walking to school; riding a scooter or playing in the playground.
• vigorous activity such as running, swimming and football.

• NHS Choices – Healthy Eating for Teens
• NHS Choices – Physical Activity Guidelines for Young People

Legislation on tobacco

It’s against the law for a retailer to sell any form of tobacco to anyone under the age of 18.

From 1st October 2015 it also became illegal for an adult to purchase any tobacco product or nicotine containing product on behalf of anyone under the age of 18.

What makes smoking harmful?

There are 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke – many of them may cause cancers and other horrible diseases. The labeling on tobacco and cigarette packets groups all the 4,000 chemicals into just 3, which are nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. Well, there wouldn’t be room on the pack to list all 4,000 like food products have to, would there?

• Nicotine– this is the addictive chemical in tobacco smoke. On its own, it’s pretty harmless. The trouble is children and young people who experiment with cigarettes can quickly and easily become addicted to the nicotine, and this makes it hard to give up.
• Carbon Monoxide– an invisible gas that has no smell and is normally connected with car exhaust fumes and faulty boilers. It is often called the ‘silent killer’ because it can be so dangerous. Corbon Monoxide thickens the blood, increases blood pressure and negatively affects the ability for oxygen to be carried around the body by blood.
• Tar – The sticky black substance produced by burning tobacco – It’s in the tar that all the other 3,998 chemicals are lurking. This includes many poisons, the chemicals from the tar go from the lungs into the blood stream and then round to every cell of the smoker’s body causing damage along the way. This harms the smoker’s lungs over time, and can also damage the mouth by rotting teeth, damaging gums and making taste buds stop working properly. The chemicals cause cancers, heart disease and lots of other illnesses.

NHS UK – Smoking

Useful Links