On July 5, bicyclists in central Minnesota set out in an attempt to break the Guinness record for the world's largest bike parade. The event is being organized by BLEND (Better Living: Exercise and Nutrition Daily).

"Bicyclists gathered Saturday afternoon at Whitney Park in St. Cloud for a 2-mile ride. Organizers say they will document the attempt and have it submitted to Guinness World Records.... and it's all part of the effort to combat childhood obesity."

The current bike parade record is 2,152, set earlier this year in Taiwan. Organizers of the July 5 event are hoping for more than 2,500 participants. Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune

Labels: community, exercise

David Jones, a retired North Carolina state employee, wants to raise awareness about childhood obesity. And he's doing it one step at a time - literally.

"Jones.... plans to walk the 73 miles from Snow Hill to Raleigh in October to take his message to state officials. 'I want to raise awareness that there needs to be more actions taken to defeat childhood obesity,' Jones said."

Three people are expected to join Jones in his walk. They will walk 15 miles a day for six days. Source: Kinston Free Press

Labels: awareness, childhood_health, prevention

Teaching children how to cook at an early age has many benefits, not the least of which is the ability of nutrition education to assist in the battle against obesity. The Kitchen Kapers studio in Moorestown, Pennsylvania has begun putting this theory into practice.

"Though nutrition can be stealthily baked into chocolate cake in the form of a beet puree, as Jessica Seinfeld has demonstrated with her Deceptively Delicious recipes, these instructors reason that children stand a better chance of developing healthier habits when they can recognize a beet, and, better yet, learn how to roast and peel it."

Cooking classes can also teach portion control, as well as introduce young eaters to new foods. As an added benefit, instructors believe that families that cook together are more likely to develop a habit of eating together - and, in addition to reinforcing positive nutrition concepts, shared meals have also been shown to promote emotional well-being. Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Labels: cooking, healthy_eating, nutrition

While it may be true that interactive games like those made for Nintendo's Wii console encourage players to get up and move, a study has determined that these games don't keep children active enough to keep them healthy. One example of research that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine was the discovery that real tennis is 77 percent more physically demanding than the video version.

"The study authors calculated that in a typical week, a child who played Wii sports would use about 2% more energy than one playing sedentary computer games. They said the increase was 'trivial', and the activity was not intense enough to be counted in the recommended daily amount of physical activity."

Though Wii-like gaming may offer some benefit to a child's metabolic health, the research is inconclusive in this area. The bottom line, experts say, is that virtual tennis or boxing are no substitute for the real thing. Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Labels: exercise, sports, video_games

A study by researchers in British Columbia, Canada, has found that increased physical education classes don't improve body mass index (BMI) for schoolchildren.

"[Dr. Kevin] Harris said researchers looked at 13 trials of six months to three years in which pre- and post-BMI measurements were taken. In studies involving nearly 10,000 children, primarily in elementary schools, none demonstrated a reduction in BMI with those who were assigned to the most phys-ed time, compared to those who didn't have as much."

The information, which was presented at the Canadian Pediatric Society conference in Victoria, is expected to diminish hopes that more school-based phys-ed classes would have been a cure-all for childhood obesity. While increased physical activity in school does have tremendous health benefits for children, it appears weight loss may not be one of them. Source: The Vancouver Sun

Labels: body_mass_index, physical_education, schools