The three candidates, Clinton Obama and McCain discuss their views on childhood obesity and nutrition.

According to this article, here is what each candidates says about childhood obesity:
Clinton: ban junk food in school that participate in school lunch or breakfast programs
Provide foods that meet or surpass the nutrition standards
Make the school breakfast program universal for all students in low income communities
Double the summer feeding program

Obama: convene a high-level task for identifying opportunities for coordination, collaboration across departments, establishing consensus regarding priorities for action
Ensure departments had the appropriate resources and authorities to implement recommendations from task force

McCain: do a better job of teaching children and their parents about child health, nutrition and exercise.

They were also asked other questions like what the role of federal government should be, national regulation on food advertising and marketing to children and should there be changes to the No Child Left Behind law. Here is the article to see the answers each one of them gave.

Children that are skipping breakfast can be headed to all sorts of problems in school.

We talk about this in our Breakfast article in our April newsletter, but this article is a good reinforcement that breakfast is important. It cites the American Medical Association reporting that kids who skip breakfast have:

• trouble with concentration
• hungrier kids have lower math scores
• hungry kids are more likely to have behavioral, emotional and academic problems
• are hungrier earlier (yeah, they haven’t eaten yet!)
• tend to overeat at lunchtime

But this is interesting, at least I thought it was, another study showed that kids who ate high sugar (they refer to it as “fast-release sugar”) breakfasts, like a doughnut- ate more calories at lunch than kids who ate a healthy breakfast.

When you think about it, it makes sense. The brain needs fuel to think. The brain also controls our behavior and emotions. After sleeping all night and doing some growing… well there is not much fuel in those little tanks. That is why kids really need to have breakfast. It really is that important.

So, if your kid is still skipping breakfast, it’s time to step in and work to begin changing their attitudes and habits. Remember, small steps are okay so be patient.

We have a breakfast agreement and tracking tool that you can use. Keep it positive; keep it fun. Change takes time. Okay, I’m done.

This annual event is designed to remind kids of the importance of exercise.

This year, May 8th was the annual ACES (All children exercise simultaneously) event. Millions of children in the United States and from over 50 countries were supposed to partake in the event.

Essentially, the school has the children walk together at a specific time. This was a special walk that was first started by Len Saunders, a physical ed teacher from New Jersey in 1989. This is one day to remind children of the importance of being active. Did your child’s school participate in the annual event?
BTW, next year’s event is scheduled for May 6, 10am east coast time. Here is the website for more information. See if you can get your child’s school to participate.

A new bill passed in Oklahoma adds more exercise to the school day.

There has been a lot of talk lately about this new bill that Governor Brad Henry signed on May 5th. This bill essentially doubles the amount of exercise that children are required to get in school.

In Oklahoma, kids were required to get 60 minutes a week of physical activity. Now, thanks to his bill, they will get 120 minutes. Well, it seems to take great feats to pass bills in our political system so I applaud him for staying the course and getting this bill passed.

What is sad is that kids need 60 minutes a day. So, although this helps, hopefully there is also some associated messages to parents of Oklahoma telling them that they have to be responsible to make sure their child gets the remaining 300 minutes (at minimum!) of exercise that they need to be healthy.

When you think about your whole day, one hour of playing actively (for a kid that doesn’t have a job yet!) should be easy to find. But, obviously, it is not that simple. But honestly, shouldn’t it be?

Gym in Australia fights childhood obesity with tottler sized work out equipment and personal trainers.

Hmm, this is different. When getting your kids to play outside doesn’t work, having them join a sporting activity is a “No” and there is no time for physical education in school, what is a parent to do? How do we get our kids to be more active? According to this article, it is taking place in the gym. Australia is looking at personal trainers. Yup, personal trainers for the little ones.

At Sydneys’ Oxegen fitness studio, they have child sized steppers, rowers and spin bikes. Children have a personal trainer and work out for about an hour. Australia has 15.2% of their preschoolers are overweight or childhood obesity rate, so they are really looking for solutions. The class does have a healthy eating portion. I guess what is a concern is that it just doesn’t sound fun. It seems to lose the creativity and imagination that preschoolers naturally have.

I bet it is expensive too! So not a solution available for all families. What do you think? Should we start getting these little ones in the gym for a treadmill session

A study that looks at the environment and how neighborhoods with fast foods might be affecting our eating habits.

Neighborhoods with fast food restaurants in it are associated with higher counts of diabetes and obesity. How much does our environment really affect our eating habits? According to one statewide study conducted by UCLA, if there were five times more convenience stores and fast food in comparison to grocery stores and produce vendors, the obesity rates were 20% higher. It did not matter what race, economic status or gender.

Two recommendations came out of this study, restaurants should post the nutrition information on their menus and there should be restrictions to zoning laws. No surprise that the California Restaurant Association came out with a strong statement against the study. They called it ludicrous, citing that people need to be held responsible for their choices.

I am looking at my kids environment. I never really paid attention to the local restaurants in the area. Hmm, a fast food restaurant was located two blocks from the middle school my children attended. Take a look at your child’s neighborhood and school area as well.

We can’t watch our children 24/7 especially as they get older. This is why it is so important that we begin to instill healthy habits and solid foundation of what their body needs at a young age. Changing the zoning laws could take years, our kids our growing up now, we don’t have years…

Involving your children in the kitchen might present a great opportunity to teach your children about nutrition.

Kids, especially the younger ones, are so open to learning and spending time with mommy and daddy. Giving them simple instructions while preparing the meal lets you talk to them about the different ingredients found in food.

• Why some food should be eaten in smaller portions
• Why other foods should be eaten in larger portions
• Stressing to your child the importance of each of the five food groups
• Why you need to eat all five groups everyday

All these simple message will begin to set the seeds of the importance of a balanced diet. It’s hard to believe but most kids do not eat a balanced meal. Yes, I know you probably have already heard this or read this before. But I have to say it again. Less than 20% of children eat a balanced meal. Many meals are too heavy in fat and proteins and too low in fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains.

Start with the simple basics. You may be surprised that they will remember if they hear the message enough. If you repeat in different ways, they will learn that it is an important message. Don’t forget the activity part. That is all part of being balanced, healthy meal and activity every day.

New toys launched that are designed to get kids moving.

I found this article that lists some new toys that are designed to promote activity. Getting kids to be active is an important part of being healthy. Kids need at least 60 minutes a day. This helps with growth, bone development and overall health. Here are some new toys that have come out that promote activity in a creative way.

I am not endorsing any of these toys since I have not personally played with them (one of the perks of being a parent). But I just wanted to pass them along. It lists the toy and associated prices.

Restaurants are evaluated for healthy food choices.

It’s nice to go out to eat with the kids and of course then there’s no clean up, which is also a perk. But it can be good family time, something the kids remember. But picking the right restaurant can be a challenge.

The magazine looks at a variety of criteria in determining how healthy it is. For example, does it use trans fats (a no-no for the heart- for more information on trans fat-you can go to our nutrition dictionary) how about the grains are they whole grains like brown rice, or wheat pasta? Is it organic? Okay, good thing they did the work for us.

Here we are trying to give our children more nutritious meals and that does not always align with eating out. So here you have it, Health magazine’s top restaurants to go to for a healthy bite.

Top 10 chain restaurants for healthy eating:

1. Uno Chicago Grill
2. Souplantation (also called Sweet Tomatoes)
3. Mimi’s Café
4. P.F. Chang’s China Bistro
5. Bob Evans Restaurants
6. Ruby Tuesday
7. Romano’s Macaroni Grill
8. Chevy’s Fresh Mex
9. Olive Garden
10. Denny’s

Top 5 fast-food restaurants for a healthy lunch:

1. Noodles and Company
2. Chipotle Mexican Grill
3. Cosi
4. Panera Bread
5. Au Bon Pain

(Source: Health magazine)

Hope this helps going out to be a fun family event and still be a nutritious one!

Changing your child’s diet in small steps does add up.

The key message in this article is you can make changes to your child’s diet that are small and it will make a difference.

Sometimes as parents, we get too bogged down with thinking that the change has to be significant in order for it to be worth it. We get so wrapped up with the thought of how difficult it will be to get our child to eat healthier that we end up putting aside “the change” for another day.

But the reality is, changing our child’s diet can be simple. We can keep it really simple by starting with just one or two things in our child’s diet. For example, just start changing your bread from white to whole wheat. Now that may not sound like a big change or so hard but now your child is getting more fiber in their diet which, by the way is associated with lower rates of cancer and a healthier heart.

All that from one simple change. Then you move to pasta or cereal. Just a little change can go a long way. Keep a look out for our new interactive feature, Interactive Healthy Recipes. It will be designed to not only give you some suggestions for healthy meals but also healthy substitutions.