Childhood Obesity – Sleeping May Prevent Pounds

Sleep serves important biological functions, giving the body time and opportunity for a host of metabolic processes that just can’t be done while we’re conscious and actively using our bodies and minds. It also serves important cognitive processes, such as solidifying memories and strengthening the brain for learning. Infants even learn while they sleep, as one study recently demonstrated. Interrupted sleep, in turn, may impair memory, if current animal studies prove to be correct.

We discuss the need for rest and quality sleep at some length in our book Yoga Calm for Children – a discussion summarized in our previous post, 10 Tips for Better Sleep.

Now we’re seeing that sleep may play a role in the epidemic of childhood obesity, as demonstrated in a study published earlier this year in Pediatrics. As ABC News’ coverage of the study noted,

The report…said young children who skimp on sleep both during the week and on the weekends have a four-fold risk of obesity compared with their more well-rested peers.

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Total sleep time for obese children was more variable on weekends than on school days and they tended to get less catch-up sleep compared with normal and overweight youngsters. Those who got the least amount of sleep overall had a 4.2 times higher risk of tipping the scales in the obese range than other children. When the researchers drew blood samples from a third of the children at random, the heaviest children also had the unhealthiest blood profiles.

Even children who slumbered little during the week but managed to make up for a small portion of missed sleep on the weekends tripled their risk of obesity.

Why should this be? One theory is that irregular sleep so messes with the body’s internal clock, hormone regulation is thrown out of whack and metabolism is disrupted. This, in turn, may lead the body to slow it down and retain fat stores.

Of course, we all know that the ongoing problem of childhood obesity isn’t a single-cause problem. (Indeed, at least one new study has been launched that aims to examine the full range of contributing factors, from the cellular level to the cultural.) There are, of course, the most conspicuous culprits – diet and lack of physical activity – but there are others, including stress, which ensures elevated cortisol levels, which in turn prompt the storage of fat. And many of these may prove to be mutually reinforcing factors, making the problem that much more difficult to solve.

Yet – as our newsletter subscribers know from our latest mailing, “Obesity on the Run?” – as awareness grows, we’re starting to see more practical proposals for combating it, from Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to new models of taxing junk foods and subsidizing healthy ones.

In our next posts, we’ll look at more ways of confronting the obesity epidemic, including tips and activities to help kids to get outside and active.

Image by Visions By Vicky, via Flickr

Tips to Help Kids Make Healthy Food Choices in a Junk Food Filled Environment

cproppe/Flickr

One of the biggest and most persistent obstacles to kids’ making healthy food choices is the heavy marketing of highly processed, usually sugar-laden junk food. It’s not just about outright advertising such as commercials on TV – though there’s plenty to complain about there – but also things like product placements in video games and activity-loaded websites meant to build brand recognition. Our schools aren’t even the safe havens they used to be. Food companies supply vending machines, sponsor facilities and even provide “educational materials” that serve to teach kids about their products as much as math, reading, science or any other subject. Yet in these days of ever-shrinking budgets, where more and more teachers are having to pay out of pocket for even basic classroom materials, it can be hard to say no to a General Mills or PepsiCo or any other company that offers to help offset costs.

Our kids are literally surrounded and bombarded by food marketing on a daily basis. Between this and the easy availability of the junk advertised – along with reduced amounts of recess, PE and other opportunities for physical activity – it’s no wonder that the obesity epidemic shows no sign of let-up.

Fortunately, more parents, educators, health professionals, government officials and others are taking steps to reverse the trends.

For instance, the Nutrition Council of Oregon has a new campaign that we recently learned of via The Portlander: Marketing Junk Foods to Kids: Oregon’s Parent Awareness Campaign.

The statewide campaign will include ads in 200 TriMet buses, posters and bookmarks in child care and health care facilities, and a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/TooManyAds) with useful links to information on marketing to kids and providing them with healthy food.

The Nutrition Council is aiming its campaign at parents of young kids. “Children younger than 8 years are cognitively defenseless against advertising,” says Young. “They don’t understand sales techniques and accept claims at face value.”

The Nutrition Council hopes the campaign will raise awareness among Oregon parents about food marketing and provide parents with the information they need to help their kids make good food choices.

“There’s strong evidence that television ads for food and beverages have a direct influence on what children choose to eat,” says Young. “The majority of ads targeting kids are for products high in calories and low in nutrients; foods completely out of balance with healthful diets and contributing to the current obesity epidemic.”

The Nutrition Council of Oregon urges parents to learn all they can about how food marketers target kids, so that they can help their children make good choices about the foods they eat and develop good eating habits that can last a lifetime.

It’s also important for parents – and others who feed children – to learn how to help kids make those good choices. There are a lot of helpful tip sheets out there, but one of the best we’ve seen is the ACE Fitness Matters article “10 Ways to Get Kids to Eat Healthier’. A sample:

1. Model healthy eating. One of the most important actions adults can take to help children eat healthier is to eat healthier themselves. In one study, parental modeling was associated with increased milk, fruit juice and vegetable intake (Young et al., 2004). Another study found that children’s intake of a novel food increased at meals during which they witnessed a teacher enthusiastically eat the food (Hendy and Raudenbush, 2000).

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5. Share the control. Several studies have shown that when a child is allowed to self-regulate food intake, free of any adult pressure or influence, total caloric intake and nutritional value differ only minimally from day to day (discussed in Birch and Dietz, 2008). On the other hand, encouraging children to eat by focusing on the amount of food left on the plate promotes more food intake and makes children less able to self-regulate caloric intake (Birch et al., 1987). Furthermore, several studies have confirmed that requiring a child to consume a particular food to receive a “reward” such as a dessert, led to increased dislike of the food the child was required to eat and increased liking of the typically unhealthy “reward” food. Higher levels of parental control and pressure to eat are associated with lower fruit and vegetable intake and higher intake of dietary fat (discussed in Birch and Dietz, 2008).

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8. Exploit similarities. Susan Roberts and Melvin Heyman, authors of Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health (1999), suggest that parents exploit similarities to develop a taste preference for new foods.

Once a food is accepted, find similarly colored or flavored “food bridges” to expand the variety of foods a child will eat. For example, if a child likes pumpkin pie, try mashed sweet potatoes, and then mashed carrots.

Since this article first ran, another study came out that also provides some insight on how we can help kids eat the one thing that most of us need a lot more of anyway: vegetables. How? Give kids veg first:

Children were provided with no carrots or 30 grams (about 1 ounce), 60 grams (about 2 ounces), or 90 grams (about 3 ounces) of carrots as the first course of their lunch.

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The children had 10 minutes to eat the carrots, after which they were served pasta, broccoli, unsweetened applesauce, and low-fat milk. Preschool children who received no first course of carrots, consumed about 23 grams (nearly 1 ounce) of broccoli from the main course.

When the children received 30 grams (about 1 ounce) of carrots at the start of the meal, their broccoli intake rose by nearly 50 percent compared to having no carrots as a first course.

But when the first course was increased to 60 grams (about 2 ounces) of carrots, average broccoli consumption nearly tripled to about 63 grams – or a third of the recommended vegetable intake for preschool children. The extra carrots eaten at the start of lunch did not reduce the amount of broccoli eaten in the main course, but added to the total amount of vegetables consumed.

A journey is not made of one big step but many little steps. Little steps like these can go a long way toward helping kids become more able to make healthy food choices for a lifetime – and perhaps helping ourselves in the process as we take more seriously our role as role models for them.

A Healthy Summer Treat

There are a few times each year when we’re more apt than usual to indulge in delicious but not always healthy foods. Thanksgiving. Christmas. And summertime? You bet!

Think of burgers, hot dogs and corn dogs at a theme park, ballpark or beach boardwalk. Think of the deep-fried everything that’s fair food. Fourth of July barbecue. Ice cream and popsicles. Casseroles and other comfort foods at family gatherings. Rich entrees or desserts in restaurants while traveling, just as a “special treat.” Sodas, lemonade and other sugar-dense drinks.

Perhaps the one saving grace is that we also tend to be more active in the summer, so we burn off some of the excess intake.

But summer treats don’t need to be unhealthy. Instead of just saying, “No,” why not provide healthier alternatives? And by making the effort to provide better ones, we can be good role models for the children in our lives, showing how making healthy choices can be enjoyable.


Here’s a recipe for one such summer treat: a gluten-  and dairy-free pineapple upside down cake, by Jim’s sister, Mary Hendrick, who’s currently writing a recipe book and launching a website on gluten-free cooking.

Mary’s Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

• 11 tbs butter (1 stick plus 3 tbs) or coconut oil
  I use unsalted butter, as it is cleaner than salted and doesn’t add so much sodium.
• 1 cup coconut palm sugar (or less, to taste)
  This can be found in most natural or health food stores or ordered online. It may be a bit chunky. If so, just smooth it out with a rolling pin.
• Pineapple slices – enough to cover bottom of pan
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of Pamela’s Pancake Mix
  This can be found in most natural or health food stores or ordered online.
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
  This can be found in the refrigerated section of most natural or health food stores or ordered online.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Melt 3 tbs of butter OR take 3 tbs of melted coconut oil, and spread it evenly over the bottom of an 8″ square pan.
3. Sprinkle 1/3 cup of coconut palm sugar evenly over the greased pan.
4. Arrange pineapple slices on the bottom of the greased and sugared pan.
5. In a medium bowl, cream together 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter or coconut oil and the remaining coconut palm sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla until light and fluffy.
6. Combine pancake mix and salt, and add to creamed mixture alternately with the coconut milk.
7. Spread the batter over the pineapple in the pan, making sure to cover the fruit completely.
8. Bake 40 – 50 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
9. Serve warm out of pan or, if desired, allow the cake to cool, then invert it onto a serving dish.

This dish works well with other fruits, too, such as apples, peaches or even a mixture.

Enjoy!

And for more ideas on improving children’s nutrition, be sure to join us for our upcoming Children’s Wellness Conference, where Dr. Michelle Ratcliffe – Manager of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Farm to School Program – will be one of our featured speakers. Changing school food can improve children’s health and learning, develop healthy lifelong habits and connect schools with their local communities. Learn how to make a difference in your school and community with one of the key issues of our age – food!

Learn more about the inaugural Children’s Wellness Conference. The full program of speakers and sessions is available here.

Helping Kids Eat Better & Make Healthy Choices

If there’s any silver lining to the ongoing obesity epidemic, it’s that we’re finally coming to understand that what we eat matters – not just how much we eat but the quality of our food. Over the past decade, the conversation about this has been getting louder and more faceted as books like Fast Food Nation, Food Politics and The Omnivore’s Dilemma – not to mention films like Super Size Me and Food, Inc. – have captured the public’s imagination. As a society, we’ve debated ideal diets, sustainability issues, food safety and food security. We’ve come to know about food deserts and the damage that highly processed, industrial food does not just to our bodies but to the earth itself.

Lately, there’s been an increasing amount of talk about improving school lunches to improve student health, as well as help instill healthier eating habits outside of school. This comes on the heels of various legislation to get sodas and other sugary drinks out of the schools (or voluntary withdrawals such as that being done by PepsiCo) and in anticipation of revisions to the Child Nutrition Act. Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative includes improvement of school lunches as a key component in combating childhood obesity. Individual teachers are also bringing attention to the subject, such as “Mrs. Q,” who’s eating school lunch each day for a year, “just like the kids,” and blogging about it at Fed Up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project.

 

SpecialKRB/Flickr

 

Most prominent of the efforts to improve the quality of school lunches – some might say notorious – is, of course, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which began airing on ABC TV a few weeks ago. This reality show documents Oliver’s attempt to help residents of Huntington, West Virginia – rated the “most unhealthy city in the United States” – commit themselves to better nutrition, starting with improving school lunches, replacing the ubiquitous chicken fingers, fries, pizza and sweetened, flavored milk with more nutritious, whole food-based meals. Many have lauded his efforts, glad for the attention he brings to the subject, while others have lambasted him for arrogance, short-sightedness and an inability to appreciate the vast number of forces that combine to make school lunches less than healthy but better than nothing.

It’s clear that, as with any highly complex problem, there’s no silver bullet here. Change will have to come from many fronts and address many diverse issues. Likewise, each of us who cares about kids will have to take individual action to help bring positive change into being. That said, considering how teachers and school staff are the adults who kids spend the most time with other than their parents or guardians, we are in a unique position to help spur that change not just in the cafeteria but in the classroom and at home.

Any number of Yoga Calm activities can be integrated with a health curriculum. Even just nurturing awareness about the body and how it works can help children become more sensitive to how what they eat affects them physically. But one activity can be especially helpful in guiding children to consider what they eat, and that’s the “Mindful Snack,” included in our book Yoga Calm for Children. For it, children help prepare a fancy way of eating a small snack and then reflect on the food before eating – what it’s like, where it comes from, how it got to be here and so on. Through this simple activity, we can nurture consciousness about eating, as well as community, the connections among us and the need for each other.

With all the attention being given to the food kids eat and the need to teach them how to make wise choices, we encourage you to try this activity with your own students or kids – and if you do, to share the results in the comments.

 

Late-breaking news: Just as we were getting ready to publish the above post, we got confirmation that Michelle Markesteyn Ratcliffe, PhD, Farm to School Program Manager for the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Food Innovation Center, will be a featured speaker at our upcoming Children’s Wellness Conference.

In her work at the ODA, Dr. Ratcliffe directs a wide-range of initiatives that promote farm to school programs and enables schools to feature healthy, locally sourced products in their cafeterias, and provide students with food and garden-based learning opportunities. She has worked on a variety of agricultural operations, direct marketed agricultural products to individuals and institutions, taught youth and adults about agriculture, and advocated for farm to school policies. Dr Ratcliffe’s research areas include the influence of farm to school and school gardens on students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to fruit and vegetable consumption.

The Children’s Wellness Conference will be held at Still Meadow Retreat Center on June 23-24 and features presentations, discussion panels and expert guest speakers on a variety of children’s health topics including Yoga Calm applications for ADHD, preschool, counseling, family work, physical/health education, occupational therapy, working with adults and therapeutics. A unique gathering of creative professionals, the Children’s Wellness Conference also gives you the opportunity to provide feedback and guidance in charting Yoga Calm’s development.

Registration is now open. Learn more.

Michelle Obama Says, “Let’s Move” – We Agree

Last month, we looked at how the distraction brought on by electronic media and multitasking can cause problems for kids – things like lower grades, mood swings and more behavioral issues. But it’s not just about mental distraction. There’s a physical aspect, as well. For kids who are glued to a screen are kids who are not being physically active. The glut of electronic media and gadgets encourages sedentary behavior. In fact, the more screen time a child has, the more likely it is that he or she will become obese. Some estimates suggest that the incidence of obesity rises 6% for every hour a child spends in front of a screen.

Of course, screen time isn’t the only factor in determining obesity, but considering how childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed through the period in which computers and gadgetry have become ubiquitous, we may assume that, in addition to dietary changes, it’s a major factor. According to NHANES data reported on the CDC website, from 1976 to 1980, the obesity rate for children was between 5 and 6.5%. Today, the rates are over 12% for the youngest cohort (ages 2 through 5) and over 17% for remaining groups up to the age of 19, and even higher for Latinos and African-Americans. Type 2 diabetes, once so rarely seen in children that it was called “adult onset diabetes,” is being diagnosed at ever increasing rates in children, and it’s now predicted that today’s younger generations will be the first to not live as long as their parents.

Recently, First Lady Michelle Obama rolled out the program she’s spearheading to try to get our nation’s kids fit and healthy once again: Let’s Move!

 

Meeza 1/Flickr

 

Let’s Move aims “to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation” by encouraging physical activity; improving access to healthy, affordable food, including in the schools; and supporting parents in making healthy family choices. It will be interesting to see the results of this program, not just its effect on obesity rates and physical fitness, but also how it may impact kids’ academic achievement.

For it’s well-known that exercise, movement and play boost brain power and mood, and also support the development of positive social and emotional skills. Amongst some of the more telling findings, which we discuss in our book Yoga Calm for Children:

• Many studies have shown that the greatest yield of nerve growth factors happens when the body engages in complex movement patterns (Ratey, 2003).
• Movement and play develop the sensory-motor intelligence that supports intellectual, social, and personal development (Ayres, 2005).
• Higher levels of fitness are associated with higher academic achievement (California DOE, 2002).
• Exercise is really for the brain…It affects mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being (Ratey, 2001).

More of the strong ties between physical activity, good nutrition and academic preparedness and achievement are spelled out in this excellent handout (PDF) from the Minneapolis Public Schools on “The Relationship Between Student Health and Learning.”

What’s more, there’s some evidence that obesity itself may be a drag on academic achievement. For instance, a recent study by Jimmy Byrd, “The Impact of Physical Activity and Obesity on Academic Achievement,” showed that

students that maintained a higher level of physical activity maintained higher grades and learned at a faster rate than those students who were less physically active. Conversely, a negative relationship was observed between obesity, as rated by the BMI, and academic achievement. In other words, obese students performed below their more physically fit counterparts regarding academic achievement.

Of course, the question still remains: in the school environment in particular, where testing mandates and budget cuts have led to the slashing of physical education courses and extracurricular sports programs, how can one create opportunities for kids to get the exercise they need – the minimum 30 minutes a day (though some experts like John Ratey suggest that 2 hours is ideal and 1 hour, the minimum for maximum benefit to the brain)?

This real-world need is one of the reasons we designed Yoga Calm as we did – to make it adaptable to the needs and realities of present day conditions and expectations in our nation’s schools. The physical activities can be done in the classroom without special equipment or extra space, and are easily integrated with academic class plans. We offer sample ideas for doing this on the activity sheets in our book, and our workshop participants are encouraged to devise and share their own methods for integrating Yoga Calm with academic lessons.

By integrating physical, mental/emotional and cognitive properties within each activity, Yoga Calm becomes a positive and comprehensive way to support children’s health and wellness, body and brain and mind.