The Wellness MoonshotTM
The GWI’s Wellness MoonshotTM: A World Free of Preventable Disease is a global call to action. And new research from Harvard University indicates that tackling the world’s obesity crisis may have much to do with mothers. The large study found that if mothers follow five healthy habits—exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy body weight, consuming moderate levels of alcohol, and not smoking—it can cut a child’s risk of becoming obese by 75 percent.
Nurture rather than nature appears to have a bigger impact on whether a child will become obese, and it’s the first study to show that an overall healthy lifestyle outweighs individual healthy lifestyle factors followed by mothers when it comes to lowering the risk of obesity in their children.
The GWI supports two relevant initiatives: one exploring the impact of parental health on children’s health outcomes and one on wellness for children.
Learn more about the new First 1,000 Days Initiative.
Learn about the Wellness for Children Initiative.
Great to see GWI shining a light on the global childhood obesity crisis, and parents’ roles. I would add that Dads play an all-important role in passing along healthy eating/healthy living habits to their kids. How Harvard, here in the 21st century, missed this all-important variable is beyond me.
We agree, Josef, that Dads play a critical role in their child’s health and wellbeing. The Global Wellness Summit addressed a father’s role (and need of research on this topic) within its 2018 Global Wellness Trends Report in the First 1,000 Days Trend. You can read more about that here.