CONTENTS

• JUST VISITING
• FEATURE ARTICLE:
  Book Review: Fat Proof Your Family
  

  Just Visiting

  It has been estimated that between 5 and 25 % of all children in the United States have serious obesity problems, and that obesity in children is on the increase. Part of the problem involved poor diet and sedentary lives. Many parents are concerned about it, but they don't know what to do about it. Kids seem to prefer a diet consisting of hot dogs, pizza, nachos and hamburgers. Vegetables are low on their list of desirable foods. In his recent book, Fat Proof Your Family, J. Ron Eaker, a medical doctor insists that parents take a careful look at their own diet, and lead by example. We are grateful to Richard Pierce for providing us this review.

  Norman and Ann Bales

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  Book Review: Fat Proof Your Family

  Reviewer: Richard Pierce, Charlotte, North Carolina

  Title/Subtitle of book: Fat Proof Your Family: God's Way to Forming Healthy Habits for Your Life.

  Author: J. Ron Eaker, MD

  Subject/Topic: Weight Loss

  Publisher, Date of publication: Bethany House, 2007

  Recommendation: Recommended

  REVIEW: Unfortunately, Dr. Eaker hasn't found a long-hidden Biblical passage that contains the key to the perfect figure. He hasn't written a book prescribing an unrealistic diet to magically vanish those pounds. What he has done, however, is outline a set of common-sense changes to help individuals and families lose weight and maintain it.

  We all know the secret to losing weight and keeping it off- eat better, exercise more, and live healthily. As any of us who have tried to lose weight can attest, this is easier said than done. Fat Proof Your Family takes these basic building blocks of good diet and exercise and attempts to show why we fail to meet them and how we can succeed. Each chapter contains anecdotes to help you rethink what has worked, and what hasn't, and provides strategies to help better understand and apply healthy habits. Each chapter concludes with a list of pointers- highlights of the chapter for easy reference and review.

  Perhaps the greatest difference between this book and the rest of the myriad diet books is the focus on parenting. Dr. Eaker discusses children's nutritional needs for different stages of development, and offers tips for helping kids to eat healthy… and enjoy it! Moreover, he talks about how parents' choices and examples set the framework for children's eating and exercise habits for the rest of their lives. Family meals, and the opportunity they provide not only to demonstrate healthy eating habits but to foster closer relationships, are seen as integral to creating healthy children.

  As part of its holistic approach to health, an entire chapter is dedicated to the Bible and what it says about food and health. The conclusions it draws, after citing passages from Genesis through the gospels, is that we are called to avoid gluttony and eat a balanced diet. A key point is that Dr. Eaker feels the Bible mandates a more vegetable based diet; that is not to say a strictly vegetarian diet, but rather one in which fruits and vegetables and grains take a greater precedence than they do in the more common protein centered diet. He backed this conclusion with some nutritional analysis, but I must admit I found this entire conclusion- both the parts based on Biblical study and nutritional analysis- rather weakly presented as compared to the rest of the book.

  From nutritional basics, to the importance of setting an example for one's children through one's actions ("Do as I say... and as I do!") to the value of exercise and what the Bible has to say about healthy eating, Fat Proof Your Family features both sound medical and spiritual backing. It is a book, which focuses on a more holistic, realistic approach to weight-loss and healthy living, and as such I would recommend this to any person who wants to make a change for the better for themselves and their families.

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  If you have questions about marriage and family relationships, you can " ASK THE COUNSELOR" Address your questions to Mikal Frazier. Her address is mikal@allaboutfamilies.org

  Norman's e-mail address: nlbales@allaboutfamilies.org
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  Central Church of Christ
  1500 First Avenue NW
  Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52405 E-mail:
  Norman Bales: Norman's e-mail address: nlbales@allaboutfamilies.org
  Ann Bales: ann@allaboutfamilies.org
  Mikal Frazier: mikal@allaboutfamilies.org
  "Jim Bales"jbales@prcoc.org
  Web:allaboutfamilies.org
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