Ending the Food Fight: Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/Fake Food World

by Ludwig, David S.

• ISBN13: 9780618683260
• ISBN10: 0618683267
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-25
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

A use of a low-glycemic diet in combating obesity. His groundbreaking research is the basis for some of the most successful diets of the last decade, including the "South Beach Diet" and "SugarBusters." Ten years ago, Dr. Ludwig founded theOptimal Weight for Life Program (OWL) at Children's HospitalBoston. There he and his team tailored his low-glycemic diet forchildren and combined it with a powerful nine-week progressiveplan that benefits the patient and the entire family. This scientifically proven approach addresses, for the firsttime, all three key factors affecting body weight-biology, behavior, and environment-and integrates them into a practicalprescription for weight loss. It also recognizes the challengeschildren and their parents face in today's toxic food world. We are surrounded not only by high-calorie, low-quality fast food, but also by more and more "fake food": processed foods unlike anything found in nature. In Ending the Food Fight, Dr. Ludwig shares his programwith parents everywhere, giving them all the tools they need tohelp their children win the food fight, once and for all.In his groundbreaking book, Dr. Ludwig shows how to- Harness the clinic's nine-week progressive plan and permanently improve your family's lifestyle and eating habits- Avoid "fake foods" to lose weight without feeling hungry orrundown- Give kids age-appropriate information about food and eating

Table of Contents

Note to Reader	p. vi
Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
A View from the Battlefront
Overweight and Overpowered	p. 7
Welcoming Children to Weight Loss: A Day at the OWL Clinic	p. 20
Making Peace Within Us
Eating to Feel Full	p. 43
Getting Physical	p. 74
It's the Thought That Counts	p. 99
Making Peace in Our Families
There's No Place Like Home	p. 123
The 9-Week Program	p. 149
Making Peace Around Us
Changing the World	p. 185
Increase the Peace
Recipes	p. 205
Reinforcements
Diaries for the 9-Week Program	p. 299
Shopping List	p. 307
Recommended Reading	p. 317
Notes	p. 319
Index	p. 330
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

INTRODUCTION During my pediatrics residency training in the early 1990s, I helped care for Grace, a three-year-old girl who was admitted to the hospital with failure to thrive. This condition - usually caused by a chronic medical problem, improper nutrition, or neglect - results in poor weight gain and stunted growth. However, Grace's condition was unusual: she had gained no weight at all in nine months, but her growth had continued at an entirely normal rate. In addition, her appearance was striking, especially compared to photos taken of her in infancy. Over the previous year, all of her normal baby fat had melted away, yet her muscles were remarkably preserved, making her look like a tiny bodybuilder. After a few days of fruitless investigation, we finally discovered that Grace had a rare abnormality in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus, which controls body weight. Somehow her brain was sending her body the message to shed every single ounce of fat. But since she was otherwise healthy, the growth of other body tissues continued uninterrupted. Unfortunately, the surgery needed to treat Grace's condition produced damage to the part of the brain that controls satiety, the sensation of fullness we get after eating. Almost immediately after recovering from surgery, Grace developed a ravenous appetite and a significant problem with overeating. Through the next few years, Grace gained a great deal of weight, going from being substantially underweight to seriously overweight. Grace's mother, with support from our medical team, struggled to control her daughter's hunger and slow down her weight gain. By the end of my pediatrics training, the obesity epidemic in the United States was in full swing. Influenced in part by my experience with Grace, I decided to pursue a career in obesity and joined a basic research laboratory studying the biological factors that affect body weight. I became fascinated by the beauty and complexity of the body's weight-regulating systems. Under most circumstances, these systems help maintain a near- perfect balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure. Without these systems, our weight would fluctuate wildly, as did Grace's. Just the calories in an extra bagel and cream cheese each day could cause a thirty- five-pound weight gain in one year. During my five years in basic research, I helped discover a gene that can make laboratory mice fat and might contribute to human obesity. However, I came to believe that the discovery of new genes was unlikely to provide a cure for obesity anytime soon. After all, our genes haven't changed much in the past thirty years, but rates of obesity have more than doubled. So in 1996, I left the basic laboratory, began researching new dietary approaches to obesity in people, and developed the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) Program at Children's Hospital Boston. Since then, OWL has grown from a staff of two to one of the largest clinics for overweight children and their families in the country. When people find out what kind of work I do, they often say something like, "You treat overweight children? That must be so sad." Sometimes I do feel sad. Overweight people, and especially children, are subject to incessant teasing, abuse, and discrimination. The stories of our patients can at times be heartbreaking. And sometimes I feel angry. Soft drink companies spend millions of dollars on advertising targeting children, but OWL has to fight with insurance companies for only a few hundred dollars to cover the treatment of an obese child. More often I feel joy. In addition to the small, day-to-day victories that you'll read about throughout this book, there are gre