Combating childhood obesity starts at home

Registered dietitian nutritionist Dr Christine Fray is urging parents to create healthier home environments to combat childhood obesity and promote lifelong wellness.

Speaking at a recent JIS Think Tank, Fray said that children are growing up in environments where dietary habits, limited physical activity and increased screen time are contributing to weight gain from an early age.

“Our children live in what is called an obesogenic environment, meaning that everything around them, the way they eat, the activities that they have, the things that they do, yield a higher probability of weight gain,” she pointed out. Fray is president-elect of the Jamaica Association of Nutrition and Dietetics and Associate Professor and Programme Director, Dietetics and Nutrition, College of Health Sciences at the University of Technology. She noted that unhealthy eating patterns often begin at home, where children are introduced to foods high in fat and sugar from an early age, shaping preferences before they enter the school system and making healthier choices more difficult as they grow older.