It has been a year since our First Lady Michelle Obama launched the Let’s Move! campaign in hopes to change behaviors and current norms to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015. The main initiatives of the Let’s Move! campaign focused on educating and empowering parents, providing more healthful foods in schools, increasing access to healthful foods in underserved neighborhoods, and encouraging more physical activity.
Michel Obama’s initiatives have created great outcomes! Earlier this year, we began to see some of these initiatives being implemented by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) who proposed new school meal standards that will raise the bar for all school meals. Included among the changes are requiring schools to serve more whole grains, fruits and vegetables while limiting the sodium and calories in each meal, as well as requiring that milk served with each meal should be one percent or nonfat.
I just LOVE this video with Elmo talking about finding nutritious foods at school!
Most recently (Tuesday, May 3), the efforts to focus on the initiative of promoting and increasing physical activity among today’s youth came to life with the “Let’s Move! Flash Workout.” Middle school students across the country were encouraged to participate in the workout at an identical time (1:42 p.m. Eastern Time) in a dance exercise routine lead by Beyoncé in hopes of giving children a new appreciation of what it feels like to be active.
I came across this video from SPARK (a research-based, public health organization dedicated to creating, implementing, and evaluating programs that promote lifelong wellness, particularly focusing on physical education), and I think it is GREAT.
It not only raises key issues about the obesity epidemic affecting children today, but also addresses the issues related to lack of physical activity in schools and cutbacks on crucial physical education programs. Take a quick read below for more reasons I think we should share this video with others, plus I give you a healthy tip for the day . . .
Why I like this video and think it’s important to share:
The 2011 movement is focused on prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through nutrition education and physical activity – Tuning People into what it means to Eat Preventively and Be Active!
As a leader in the area of pediatric obesity and working with under-served communities, I see the urgent need to change poor eating and sedentary behaviors that are fostered not only in schools but in homes. Kids have developed a taste for highly-palatable processed foods (hot dogs, chicken nuggets, nachos with cheese or pizzas) and the lack of desire or motivation to engage in consistent physically activity, because schools are not instilling this healthy, active lifestyle as a habit.
I can see from my experience in working with the community that most children and teens who attend low-income school districts have limited or no physical education and consequently are not getting the recommended sixty minutes of moderate to vigorous activity level they need each day. Today, most kids are out of balance—and this video helps bring awareness of this to the greater public. Read more...
I put this blog together regarding tactics targeting children, families and underserved ethnic groups that carry messages encouraging the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages. For any health professional who works with underserved communities, the story I’m about to share is not unusual!
I sent the below note to a principal of an elementary school in which I am currently conducting three-part Heart Healthy Nutrition Program presentations to 4th and 5th graders in the Bay Area. Following a presentation at one of the schools, I encountered a family not unlike many others, who must daily face difficult situations in which making an effort toward healthy eating faces up against convenient, affordable, yet non-nutritious food options.
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It was a pleasure meeting you during my Heart Health Nutrition Program presentation for your 5th grade class. I just wanted to share a little story with you based on our discussion about the importance of reading food labels and ingredients lists prior to purchasing packaged foods and the strong influence junk-food vendors have on kids outside school premises.
Just after finishing the last presentation for the 5th graders last Wednesday, I noticed the mobile junk-food truck parked next to my car; and consequently, I was able to notice how kids and their parents automatically gravitated toward the truck with their dollars rolled in their hands ready to mindlessly purchase high-calorie, sugary and hydrogenated oil snacks for less than $2. Read more...
