Empowering Healthy Kids Blog

From The Age:

A NATIONAL campaign to combat obesity by using sports equipment to reward children who exercise for an hour a day will be discussed this week at a meeting of education ministers.

Under the plan, which is being introduced in the ACT this year, all schools would be invited to participate in a 10-week competition, with equipment given to children who successfully meet the challenge.

The exercise need not happen in one session and could be accumulated during the day by walking or riding to school, participating in physical education at school and sport after school and on weekends

I wonder though - wouldn’t children who want sport equipment are already motivated to play sports in the first place? In any case, as long as the competition is voluntary, this seems like a good idea.

This is pretty cool from HandsFree3D:

I like the fact that it is camera based (like the EyeToy) and no extra wearable sensors are required. I also like the way which they’ve implemented “flying mode”. Plus, they’ve got a Matrix reference.

I stumbled upon a new initiative by New Zealand’s Ministry of Education called Fuelled 4 School:

Fuelled 4 School is about helping students be at their best all day, every day. We’re part of Mission-On, a campaign aimed at getting young New Zealanders to eat better and be more active.

This website is here to provide you with advice and support in making lifestyle choices that will help you achieve your goals – both in and out of school.

I like the design and it’s features such as txt updates and a link to their Bebo group.

National Start! Walking Day On April 16:

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the U.S. And physical inactivity doubles the risk. Start! walking and start reducing your risk. You can support the fight against heart disease by participating in National Start! Walking Day, Wednesday, April 16

One of the goals of this blog is to catalogue the numerous projects and activities designed to improve the health and well-being of children and hopefully inspire other communities to do the same. The Medica Foundation has released their projects for 2007 and listed below are their kid related projects:

• 2008 City of Lakes Loppet Event and Programming Initiative, $30,000 to support the 2008 event and incorporate a year-round program to educate youth and promote physical activity and involvement in the Tri-Loppet and Trail Loppet events for Minneapolis Public School Students. A project of the City of Lakes Nordic Ski Foundation.
• Fit Team for Kids, $30,000 for expansion of the Health Start School-Based Clinic comprehensive health and fitness program for low-income students at risk for obesity in three St. Paul high schools. A project of West-Side Community Health Services.
• Healthy Lifeways Project, $30,000 to utilize nutrition awareness and structured physical activity to reduce health disparities in American Indian youth. A project of Little Earth Residents Association.
• Bolder Options Health Habits Program, $30,000 to expand the Healthy Habits Mentoring Program to a satellite office at Dunwoody Institute to support North Minneapolis youth. A project of Bolder Options.
• Healthy Lifestyles for North Minneapolis Teens, $25,000 to expand health and wellness activities through the completion of a health assessment, referrals to a nutritionist, health educator or on-site clinic and by offering healthy food choices. A project of the Plymouth Christian Youth Center.
• Ready. Set. Action! Peer Education Model, $30,000 to develop a program by junior high/middle school students to educate elementary school students about healthy eating and exercise. A project of the Illusion Theater and School, Inc.
• Running Buddies Program, $20,000 to pair at-risk youth (ages 5-17) with adults to train and run 5K, 5-mile and trail races, including training plans, nutrition education, shoes, goal setting advice and relationship support. A project of Duluth Area Family YMCA.
• Strong Kids, $25,000 to provide a 12-week program for parents and children to develop a healthy approach to lifetime weight management. A program of the Marshall Area YMCA.
• SWITCH, $30,000 to implement the program in two Burnsville, Minn. elementary schools. SWITCH, designed to help communities, schools and families promote and choose healthy lifestyles, is a program of the National Institute on Media and the Family.

It’s great to have a treadmill at home - sets a good example for the kids (provided it is actually used). Anyway, be careful:

SMALL children are getting their hands caught and their skin ripped off by home fitness treadmills

Patrick Basham and John Luik, co-authors of Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade, responds to International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) plans to  to ban television advertising between 6am and 9pm for foods high in fat, sugar and salt; to completely ban internet and new media advertising; and to prohibit the use of celebrities or cartoon characters, competitions and free gifts to promote ‘junk food’. An excerpt:

If you peek behind the regulatory curtain, however, the claims about the causal influences of food advertising on children’s diets and weight share a central and definitive flaw in their understanding of what counts as demonstrating causality. In order to establish an evidence-based case for food advertising as a cause of childhood overweight and obesity, one would have to demonstrate that such advertising had an independent effect on children’s weight. This, in turn, would require a research study design that controlled for the multiple other risk factors (by some estimates dozens) connected with childhood obesity.

However, none of the studies purporting to demonstrate that food advertising causes childhood obesity control for more than a handful of these other risk factors. These studies therefore cannot establish an evidence-based case about the connection between food advertising and children’s weight.

If food advertising caused children’s weight gain and obesity, wouldn’t you expect to find an increase in advertising that parallels the increase in obesity? This is not the case. UK food and drink ad spending has been falling in real terms since 1999 and is now roughly at 1982 levels, even while rates of overweight and obesity have been rising. Consider, too, that in 1982 food ads constituted 34 per cent of total television advertising, whereas in 2002 they made up only 18 per cent.

Read the whole argument. My opinion is that, generally speaking, bans insult our intelligence and undermines the value of parents role in raising their children. In particular, if there is no evidence of a direct influence of junk foods ads in the increase in childhood obesity, then why bother with bans in the first place?

It’s great to see schools come up with innovative solutions to legislation. Last fall, Florida passed a bill to mandate that students from Kindergarten to Grade 5 required to do 150 minutes of exercise per week. As TampaBay.com reports, some schools are resorting to measuring their 150 minutes in 5 minute or even less exercise blocks. Here are some examples:

• When the law went into effect last fall, some — including Hillsborough — began counting 5-minute exercise breaks and short walks around campus as exercise.
• For five minutes, the kids practice clapping, flying, jumping, marching, lunging and high-fiving. Then the activity break ends.
• Choosing to stick to a plan that has allowed elementary kids to receive daily PE instruction for the past 30 years. The catch: They group several classes together and rely on PE assistants for supervision.

Here are two schools’ methods of meeting the targets:

A typical 30-minute PE session at Cross Bayou Elementary School

Walking from the classroom to the PE field: 3 minutes

Stretching/warming up: 5 minutes

Running a quarter mile: 4 minutes

Instructional time*: 15 minutes

Walking back to the classroom: 3 minutes

*This includes the teacher’s explanation of the activity and the activity itself, which could be passing a basketball, shooting hoops or kicking a soccer ball.

Dale Mabry Elementary: How one school fits in 150 minutes of PE for fourth-graders each week

PE class: 60 minutes

Teacher-directed PE: 60 minutes

Movement in classroom: 20 minutes

Health education: 10 minutes

Meal diaries, nutritional Web sites, activities about 5 minutes

My own opinion is that while this may not be was legislators had in mind, focussing more attention on physcial activity is good. But more importantly the 150 minute targets allow schools the freedom (but not necessarily the resources nor expertise in some cases) to pursue innovative and creative solutions for their students. It would be an interesting research study to see the outcomes of this legislature and the various methods that schools employ actually makes a difference on children’s health.

Walking, moving organised:

Mayor Karl Dean and the Healthy Nashville Leadership Council will take to the trails of the Richland Creek Greenway on Saturday morning to start off a city wide challenge to “get moving” and to restart the Healthy Nashville initiative.The Mayor’s Let’s Get Moving Challenge is in conjunction with National Public Health Week from April 7 to 13. During the week, Mayor Dean will be participating in a number of activities to demonstrate how all Nashvillians can get moving more and in the process take advantage of our city’s many resources for a healthy lifestyle.

“The health of a city is indicative of the community’s overall quality of life and its economy. Nashville is a great and growing city, and the type of people we want to continue to attract here are looking for a lifestyle that is more active, and in turn more health and environment conscious,” Mayor Dean said.

“This week is about leading by example and bringing awareness to an issue that I hope will be part of our city’s conversation going forward. It’s also an opportunity to highlight our award-winning system of parks and greenways, which are a great place to get outdoors and get moving.”

Healthy Nashville is an initiative of the Mayor’s Office created by Executive Order. The initiative is lead by an 18-member Leadership Council and supported by the Metro Public Health Department.

“Just 30 minutes a day of activity – even a brisk walk or a bike ride – can have great benefits. It can improve your mood, your sleep, and your overall sense of wellbeing right away. Exercise can also lower blood pressure, improve cholesterol and reduce your chances of getting heart disease, cancer, or brittle bones,” said Dr. Bill Paul, Metro Health director.

“Let’s Get Moving Challenge” Schedule:

Saturday, April 5 – Kickoff Walk and “Leadership on the Move” Day
Members of the Healthy Nashville Leadership Council will join Mayor Dean at the Richland Creek Greenway to kickoff the Let’s Get Moving Challenge with a 2.5 mile walk.

The Challenge: Join the mayor and the Leadership Council at 9:30 a.m. at the McCabe Golf Course Trailhead, 4601 Murphy Road.

Monday, April 7 – “Departments on the Move” Day
Each department of the Metropolitan Government will be challenged to find a way for their employees to get moving during the work day.

The Challenge: Find a way to put more physical activity into a typical day. Climb the stairs instead of using the elevator or take a short walk during a break.

Wednesday, April 9 – Kids on the Move
Mayor Dean will teach a P.E. class at one of the public elementary schools to highlight the need for children to get more exercise.

The Challenge: Spend some time with a child and show them how fun exercise can be. Go swimming, skating or play a ball game.

Thursday, April 10 – “Moving for Free” Day
Mayor Dean will highlight one of the ways to get moving for free in Nashville by walking at the East Community Center with one of the city’s most avid walkers.

The Challenge: Use the free resources at one of the many community centers or greenways to get moving.

Friday, April 11 – “Move over Traffic” Alternate Commute Day
Mayor Dean will walk to a bus stop and ride an MTA bus to work to highlight how easy it is to get more exercise, lessen the impact the daily commute has on the environment and save on fuel costs.

The Challenge: Find an alternate way to commute to work – ride a bike, take a bus or carpool. Get moving more and the car moving less.

YMCA Healthy Kids Day 2008 is coming up on 12 April:

YMCA Healthy Kids Day is a free, fun-filled day of activities designed to promote healthy kids and families in spirit, mind and body. YMCA Healthy Kids Day celebrates making fitness fun, and introduces kids to an array of YMCA programs and tools that teach healthy behaviors and healthy ways to play-an essential lesson in learning how to take care of themselves throughout their lifetimes.

Click here for a list of YMCAs hosting Healthy Kids events.

Launching this year at YMCA Healthy Kids Day is Healthy Family Home, a program to help families in any community incorporate healthier habits at home. Funded by Eli Lilly and Company, Healthy Family Home focuses on practical, achievable lifestyle changes in the areas of family life where small changes can have the biggest impact—playing every day, eating healthy and family time. Pick up a free Healthy Family Home Starter Kit at your YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day event, or visit www.healthyfamilyhome.org beginning April 12 for a Starter Kit and additional information to help you feel supported in making important changes with your family.

YMCA Healthy Kids Day is part of Activate America®, an innovative public health initiative of the YMCA movement that is making healthy living a reality for millions of Americans. By celebrating health and wellness of young people through a variety of fun, physical activities, YMCA Healthy Kids Day encourages kids and families nationwide to stay active, connected and healthy.

The YMCA Healthy Kids Day event is celebrated annually. Activities at participating YMCAs will vary and may include games, sports, health screenings and more.