Fitness Fact: Let's Move

Marci Anderson - Thursday, February 18, 2010


For this month's fitness fact blog post, I decided to highlight the new Let's Move website I mentioned on Monday's blog post.


Did you know that children need at least an hour a day of vigorous play and activity to stay healthy?  This may seem like a lot but consider the number of hours children spend sitting at school, watching TV, or playing on the internet.  Our society is built around stationary activities and getting enough healthy movement takes planning and effort.  The American of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has an excellent article which delineates the harmful effects of excessive media consumption on our nation's kids.  

The Let's Move website provides a list of resources to help parents and other caretakers make sure kids get the 60 minutes of play they need as well as ideas of how to keep your kids active in your community.

One of my favorite pages on the website gives a whole list of ways that you can help make family time, play time.  As a person who does not yet have children of my own, I'm curious to know if any of these tips seem helpful or feasible.  I'm eager to hear about your own success stories that involve increasing play time together as a family.

Your dietitian in Harvard Square,
Marci

 

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Michelle Obama: Tackling Childhood Obesity

Marci Anderson - Monday, February 15, 2010

For those of you who listened to President Obama's State of the Union address on January 27th, you likely heard him introduce his wife's initiative to tackle childhood obesity.


Interestingly, she received some criticism for sharing her own family's story and making explicit reference to her daughter's weight.  Many eating disorder experts fear that her blatant discussion about their weight is a set-up for disordered eating and preoccupation with their weight.  I have to admit, as a nutrition therapist who specialize in counseling people with eating disorders here in Cambridge, I was unhappy to hear her reference her daughters' weight on national TV.

Despite this criticism, I felt hopeful and excited while watching her YouTube video which unveils her project "Let's Move."  I'm thrilled at the prospect of nationally prioritizing our children's eating and exercise habits.  Creating healthy kids is essential for the success and health or our nation's future.

Check out her website Let's Move and watch her video clip.  Makes me wonder what we can all be doing at a community level to help support this initiative. What do you think?

 

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BMI Screening in Mass Schools

Marci Anderson - Sunday, May 17, 2009

So it’s been over a month since The Boston Globe published an article“BMI screening will begin this fall in Mass. schools.” This topic has weighed heavily on my mind (yikes, no pun intended) but I still seem to be combing through all of my thoughts on the topic.

The article states that starting this fall public schools will begin weighing and measuring 1st, 4th, 7th, and 10th graders (parents can opt out) as a means to screen for overweight and obesity. The results, along with a report on how to deal with a child’s weight problem will be sent home to the parents. As I type, my blood is beginning to boil.

Here are a couple of thoughts:
1.) America has a pretty poor track record. As we’ve become more weight obsessed over the past several decades, the number of people that are overweight and obese has continued to climb.
2.) Research has shown that obesity prevention programs targeted to elementary and middle school children increased disordered eating behaviors.
3.) There is no utility in sending home a report card to a parent that says “your child is fat and at increased risk for Type II diabetes.” The article states that one of the recommendations for parents with overweight kids is to take them to their pediatrician. No offense to any pediatricians out there but I cannot help but laugh. I’d love to meet a physician that has the skills and more than 10 minutes solve their patient’s “weight problem.”

So rather than sending our children home with a report card, why don’t we start taking action that focuses on behaviors, not numbers. There is plenty of research to show that this is effective. Here are some ideas:
1.) Have students track the number of minutes they spend per day engaging in physical activity. And by all means, let’s stop cutting out recess and gym classes.
2.) Create a school garden. It will teach our children where food comes from, how to take stewardship over the earth, and supplement the pathetic meals they are served at school with more fruits and vegetables.
3.) Partner with local farms to facilitate work in exchange for reduced or free crops for low-income families.
There are a myriad of ways to promote healthy living. Sending report cards home is not one of them. With a Department of Health staffed with intelligent and capable people, I’d like to think we can do better than that. (Sorry for the rant, I do try to keep them to a minimum.)


 

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