Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 12, 1994 TAG: 9501190001
SECTION: NEWSFUN PAGE: NF-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Usually, if it's really obvious, other kids will tell you, said Dr. Clifford Nottingham, a family doctor who sees people of all ages.
But because different people have different amounts of muscle and different size bones, it's hard to go just by weight alone. For instance, a girl who is 4 feet 6 inches tall can weigh as little as 60 pounds. or as much as 80 pounds and still be fine.
If you really want to know if your weight is right, your doctor can tell you, Nottingham said. There are charts and graphs he uses to match a child's weight against other kids of the same age and sex, but the charts aren't perfect because they don't take different body sizes into account, he said.
The important thing is not to compare yourself to anyone else, said Deborah Miller, a counselor who works with people with eating disorders. Each person is different, especially during adolescence, when everyone's body is changing so fast.
Eating right and exercising all your life is the best way not to be too fat or too thin.
Pauline Holloway is a nutritionist who has planned school lunches for Roanoke County school children for the past 29 years. A nutritionist knows all about the foods people need to eat to stay healthy.
Unfortunately, she said, no one has studied much about the different needs of children and adults. Some experts think children need more fat than adults and more milk to be sure they have healthy bones and strong teeth. But until we know more about what children should eat, Holloway said they should follow the guidelines for adults.
That means eating two to four servings of fruit a day, three to five servings of vegetables, six to 11 servings of bread, cereal or pasta, and less than two or three servings of meat, fish or eggs. Children also should have at least four servings of milk or cheese every day.
This sounds like a whole lot of food, but Holloway said that if you get out and exercise instead of sitting around, you can eat a whole lot and still be healthy. We get fat when we take in more food than our body can use, she said. Exercise uses up the extra.
One of the most important things you can do is to eat carrots and celery sticks, fruit, granola bars, cereal, crackers and other healthy things for snacks. If you drink fruit juices instead of sodas, you also can save calories and get more vitamins.
It's OK to have cookies and candy and soda once in a while, she said, but not every day. Moderation, which means being careful about what and how much you eat, will keep you at just the right weight without too much work, she said.
by CNB