Have you wondered why you've steadily gained weight since the birth of your children? D. L. Stewart explains all!
Research studies, most of which are conducted to find newer and bigger reasons for people to worry, have come up with one more health hazard for us:
Children
According to a new study conducted by the universities of Iowa and Michigan, adults living with children eat an extra 4.9 grams of fat daily, including 1.7 grams of saturated fat. Adults living with children also were found to be more likely to eat high-fat foods and snacks.
“Adults with children in the home ate more of those snacks and other foods that we considered convenience foods, “ reported Helena Laroche, a researcher at the University of Iowa.
“These dietary choices may be due to time pressures, advertising aimed at children that also includes adults, or adults’ perception that children will eat only hot dogs or macaroni and cheese. Once these foods are in the house, even if bought for the children, adults appear more likely to eat them.”
I don’t know exactly what 4.9 grams of fat looks like. But I’d have to concede that this study has a lot of weight to it, even if those aren’t the reasons I’d cite.
When we had children living in our house, I’d estimate I ate several hundred grams of fat daily, most of who still are living in various parts of my body. And nearly all of those grams got there because of my children, who never joined “The Clean Plate Club.”
When I was a kid, the highest praise I received from my parents was on those days when I was a member of “The Clean Plate Club.” They never explained to me what benefits there were for belonging to the club, or even where the club held its meetings. All I knew is that, if I ate every bit of food they put in front of me, one of them would pat me on the head and tell me I was a member.
But somewhere between childhood and parenthood the club apparently disbanded, so my kids formed their own club, which was called, “I’m not Eating One More Bite of This Stuff and You Can’t Make Me Club.”
Instead of cleaning their plates, they merely stirred their food around for a while and then left the table. Which left me with three choices: I could throw out the uneaten, I could feed it to the dog or I could eat it myself.
Throwing food out was not an option for anyone raised in the “children in India are starving” generation. And the dog was on a low-carb diet.
So, before they left the dining room, my kids would lift one end of the table and let all their plates slide down it until they were in front of me.
And, conditioned by all those years of praise for belonging to “The Clean Plate Club,” I would clean them.
So I totally understand how adults living with children could wind up eating all those extra grams of fat. But, for those of you who are concerned about the extra weight you may be gaining because of your kids, there is some good news.
Eventually those kids will become teenagers.
And then there won’t be any food in the house at all for you to eat.
Comments to D.L. Stewart can be sent by e-mail to dlstewart@coxohio.com.
