Can Nutrisystem Help?
It has often been considered that there might be a partial solution to the problem of childhood obesity in popular diets such as Nutrisystem.
While the cost of such diets is certainly a serious consideration, there is an element of its popularity via television commercials that will appeal to children's sense of what is good for them.
The theory is that while children that are difficult over eating healthy foods such as vegetables for instance, they can be more easily convinced to eat a healthy, calorie controlled meal from Nutrisystem based on their recognition of its TV presence and the link to its popular celebrity spokespersons, with past icons including the extremely popular Janet Jackson.
The basis for this idea comes not so much from the perspective of the diet's weight loss properties, nor its nutritional value, but more simply from the fact that children's opinions of what they want is very much influenced by the power of television advertising.
The numerous online, up to date and topical Nutrisystem reviews 2024 make up a popular part of that media machine. The benefits are plain to see, while the drawbacks are not so prominent as they may be with an adult who is used to eating large food portions.
Benefits of Nutrisystem
The benefits are clear in that overweight children would immediately begin to lose weight thanks to the calorie restriction placed on the meals themselves, as long as they could be coerced to eat only the meals, snacks and protein drinks provided by the company.
As long as all the food is eaten, there is less likelihood of the child feeling hungry between meals and if they do, the snack bars are the perfect filler. They are less likely to reject Nutrisystem protein bars than unbranded bars, again due to the brand recognition factor created by the TV commercials.
Further benefits come in the form of proper nutrition from the balanced meals, which most overweight children are missing out on, thanks to a poor existing diet of junk and processed food.
The Drawbacks
There are some drawbacks with placing an overweight child on a Nutrisystem diet that need to be addressed. Of these, probably the major one would be the cost to families on lower incomes. While many children may have an allowance for food that will typically be spent on hamburgers and other junk foods, many more have to rely on eating at family mealtimes and the family budget simply would not stretch to the cost of the food for the whole family in addition to the cost of the diet.
Another drawback is in ensuring a child continues to eat sensibly once the diet has been completed and the necessary amount of weight has been lost.
It is tough enough for an adult to refrain from reverting to old eating habits as soon as a diet is successfully completed and they are "free" again. Children are even less likely to have the discipline to maintain a healthy diet once they have completed the Nutrisystem diet. This means reverting back to eating junk food and gaining weight again unless on-going supervision is undertaken.
No Easy Answers
While there are often no easy answers to this particular problem, there are several options that can be explored. It is far better to make an attempt at helping the situation rather than simply avoiding it in the hope that it will work itself out in time.
Recent history has already taught us that overweight children most commonly grow into overweight adults with only a few exceptions. These adults then take it upon themselves to put right the problem, often at a significantly greater cost than would have been encountered had the problem been nipped in the bud earlier in life.
But it's not so much a case of laying the blame at any one person or situation. It's more a case of putting all the energy into making sure the solution is found, understood and actioned.