Diet book for girls causes controversy

A new children's book called Maggie Goes on a Diet depicting a young girl dreaming of fitting into a smallish pink dress, is causing a lot of controversy.

One local mom, Michelle Rowe, who's made healthy families her mission, isn't crazy about a diet book for kids. She thinks a diet book for kids is a bad idea.

"The problem I see with the book is, I have not read it, it has not been released until October, is that we definitely don't want to encourage any child to go on a diet."

Rowe, a nurse and health educator, has launched a website for moms called Always Healthy Mom and it's aimed at teaching healthy lifestyles instead of demanding diets.

"Always Healthy mom where families and moms can come for support. I think get some tips and how to's on how to raise a healthy family and kind of follow my journey in trying to raises a healthy family," says Rowe.

Rowe is the mother of three and in her job as a health educator she was seeing too many moms like her make their own health the last thing on the to-do list. So she says she working to change that, "Going on a diet is not the answer, children should not go on diets it's not recommended for them."

Here are three steps this Always Healthy Mom recommends:

Step 1. Make sure you eat dinner as a family.
Step 2. Plan ahead and make a grocery list.
Step 3. Get your family moving.

Rowe says, "One in three children today from ages 2 to 19 are actually considered overweight or obese." That's why she's working hard to spread her Always Healthy Mom message online, on the radio and in the newspaper.

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local, rebecca regnier

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