Kids may have trouble getting junk food out of their head, especially since many advertisements for fast food and sugary snacks appear on popular children's television channels. Although the potential temptations may always be there, one children's book author is trying to make eating healthfully cool, the Daily Mercury reports.
Australian author Sharon Cooper recently published a book, Superfood Spike and the Fart of JunkFood Jimmy. She said the idea came about after she had been having trouble finding the correct reasons to tell her teenage daughter why her love of junk food was so bad. After doing some research, she decided to share the real dangers of kids eating too much unhealthy food with other parents to educate them and their children.
"The book is written so it's easy to understand and parents to easily explain important health facts," Cooper told the publication.
Cooper added that another reason for the book is to help parents broach the delicate subject of their kids' weight. It can be hard to approach the topic even if it is for a child's benefit in the long run.
"Sometimes tackling the issue of obesity can be challenging for them [children] as well but this book gives kids easy access to a complex problem," Cooper told the newspaper. "One in four kids face weight challenges in Australia but none of the messages are reaching them."
The book is written so that kids can read it themselves or with their parents and tries to be humorous and fun to help lighten the mood. Although the goal is always to sell books, for Cooper the real reward will be knowing that her efforts may help kids get healthy.
"We are really facing an obesity epidemic in this country and everyone appears to be squabbling about who should do what to address it," Cooper told the news source. "That is why I wrote the book, to make it easier for children and parents to get the message and understand why junk food is a massive issue in society."
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 percent of all American children between the ages of 2 and 19 are obese. Parents can ensure their kids stay healthy as they age by making sure they exercise and engage in
outdoor play for at least 60 minutes each day. This can be accomplished by going for family walks, having the kids join sports teams or bringing them to local parks to use
playground equipment with friends.