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Ideas for Schools
CDC's "Healthy Youth" targets schools
A new web page by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) gives valuable information on getting healthy curricula for all aspects of child health, including Health Education, Physical Education, Health Services, Nutrition Services, and Counseling. Click here: Healthy Youth! and Make a Difference at Your School
NIH Launches Media Smart Youth Program
How do children know the difference between real health information and junk food that is advertised in the media? Most of them don't! But a new program produced by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gives a detailed curriculum for schools to use. The program consists of ten 90-minute lessons which are broken up into learning and activity periods. Children learn how to identify healthy foods, and which foods are merely "media hyped" but nutritionally poor. Download the whole program here: [NIH Media Smart Youth Program]
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High School Football Teams Encourage Obesity
A research letter in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) in Jan 2007, demonstrates what we have all noticed in the past, that high school football pushes kids to become obese. The bigger the team's linemen the better inertia they supply for the line, so coaches encourage the players to gain weight to the point of morbid obesity!
The study, by Drs Eisenmann and Laurson at Iowa State University, measured the BMI in 3683 high school linemen during last year's football season. Of these "athletes" 73% were over the 85th percentile for age and 45% were over the 95th percentile. The health implications are horrifying. These children have been intentionally placed at high-risk for diabetes, heart disease and a host of other chronic diseases for years to come, many for life.
Dr Taras Outlines Obesity Problems in Schools
American Academy of Pediatrics article about how schools can impact the obesity epidemic in children.
Toolkit for School and Community Education
The Healthy Weight Kids Coalition has developed a toolkit for presentations in schools and community groups. Teachers present relevant info, cultural issues, results of our survey, nutrition facts, and strategies for bringing about changes.
Contact Healthy Weight Kids Coalition to get a toolkit with educational materials, sample foods, and teaching plans, at a cost of $75 per kit. Some kits are already in use at Natcher Elementary School.
This is the actual toolkit.
Health Report Cards
Progressive schools, such as Natcher School in Bowling Green, KY, are starting a new trend: include a health report card in addition to each child's academic report card. A "Fitnessgram" is prepared for each child, and includes BMI, aerobic capacity, muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, and overall activity. The report is produced by software developed by the Cooper Institute in Texas. The software also adds the interpretation of the numbers given in each section of the report. Rather than assign a letter grade to each parameter, a bar graph shows where the measurement lies in relation to a "fitness zone". Find out more at the Cooper Institute website: www.cooperinst.org.
Article from the St Petersburg Times
Here is an excellent article about how many schools are dealing with the obesity problem. [full text]
Media
awareness: The program uses 6 media questions
that help young people learn to analyze and
recognize ways the media tries to get their
attention, and to evaluate these media messages for
accuracy and for consistency with their ideas about
being healthy.
including
fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and
calcium-rich foods, and to reduce the amount of fat
and added sugar they eat. Each lesson includes a
Snack Break during which young people learn to
make a nutritious snack and receive a recipe to take
home and share with their families.
Physical
activity: Participants learn the importance of
daily physical activity for good health and develop
strategies for becoming more active. A 10-minute
Action Break during each lesson engages youth in
a fun physical activity.