Our nation struggles with ways to reverse obesity in young children. A recent report published in BMC Medicine states that a program from Iowa State University is showing some interesting findings. The Switch™ program--‘Switch What You Do, View, and Chew’--has demonstrated that by including children’s parents and teachers, promoting children’s consumption of fruit and vegetables, and lowering screen time helps children’s nutrition improve.

The results thus far are encouraging. The experimental group who participated in the Switch™ program had differences with fruit and vegetable consumption and screen time over the control group. Dr. Gentile states, “Although modest, these results are not trivial. The effects remained significant at the six month follow-up evaluation, indicating maintenance of these differences over time. This maintenance may contribute to reduced weight risks in the future.”

Source: Science Daily, September 28, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090922095806.htm

“Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin” by John Cloud appeared in the August 9, 2009 issue of Time Magazine. This article discusses the struggle with weight loss and the role that exercise may not play in helping individuals obtain the results they desire. Mr. Cloud quotes Steven Gortmaker, who heads Harvard’s Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. “If you‘re more physically active, you’re going to get hungry and eat more.” Gortmaker has also studied childhood obesity. Also detailed in the article, was a paper published in the International Journal of Obesity describing a study of 538 children. Gortmaker and Sonneville found that children who begin exercising, end up eating more. The average consumed was 100 more calories than they had burned while participating in exercise. Exercise has many health benefits and should be encouraged. However, from this article it is questionable if rigorous exercises help obese children.

Food intake remains a concern in fighting childhood obesity. Eating healthy is very important in the lives of young children. Just recently MyPryamid, which is part of U.S. Department of Agriculture, joined Twitter. This is an excellent resource to support healthy eating in child and adults. Whether you use Twitter or the internet at www.usda.gov, you will learn what is going on, and what is coming up!

Thanks and have a fabulous weekend!

Hatch® encourages exercise, wellness and awareness with the Fit 4 You™ Kit