Dr. Mehmet Oz and Rachael Ray. Photo: Jennifer Lawinski

Even presidents know it's hard to get kids to eat their vegetables.

Former President Bill Clinton told parents a gymnasium full of parents in Harlem Saturday that he shared their struggles with finding and committing to healthy eating. Getting kids to eat fruits and vegetables is hard, he said. "Especially in Harlem, where I can say we have a lot of other options and they all taste good."

The talk was part of the the New York City Wine and Food Festival's Weight Watcher's Fun and Fit in the City event, targeted at combating childhood obesity and promoting healthy eating for the city's kids. The ex-president's foundation is headquartered in Harlem, and its top priority in the U.S. is the fight against childhood obesity.

"Hey, your kids are obese!"

Out of politeness, we normally don't point and scream such obvious statements to the people around us, but we just might have to. It seems that many parents are in total denial about their own children's obesity.

Research firm Knowledge Networks conducted a survey of 2,060 adults then collected height and weight measurements on the children from their parents to calculate body mass index. The comparison of what parents said about their children's weight -- "about right," "slightly overweight," "very overweight" -- was different from what the research firm calculated.

That's slightly alarming, given that obese children are susceptible to diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol problems. Overweight children are likely to grow up to be overweight adults with the same issues. What's more alarming is that children are open to changing their dietary habits to improve, but if their parents don't help them because they can't even see a problem, well, then, that's a problem.

Now that we are facing all kinds of bans on junk foods from schools, a new product has come to take the place of sodas, long blamed for childhood obesity: good old milk.

In October of this year, Bravo Foods International Corporation will begin shipping a new drink called Slammers. These 8 oz. "snowman-shaped" bottles are manufactured so that fit into the same slot that currently holds a 12 oz. can of soda in vending machines. Slammers are 99% fat free milk, have no preservatives, do not need to be refrigerated (which I can't figure out since the product is milk), and have a shelf-life of 6 months.

Hopefully,the different flavors will be cool enough to help kids forget about sodas: 3 Musketeers flavored chocolate milk, Coco Puffs,Trix, Vanilla, Hard Chocolate, and Scrochin' Strawberry.

With childhood obesity at the front of everyone's minds, schools are under a great deal of pressure to be part of the solution. A charter school in Chicago is getting special attention for what they're doing to fight chidlhood obesity; and they're not just air-baking their French fries.

The Namaste school, located in a Chicago neighborhood that is dominated by minority students, faces obesity rates in children that are three to four times the national average. The school was conceived to address two of the most difficult educational and public health issues facing today's low-income, minority urban children -- lack of access to high-quality public education and childhood obesity. The word "namaste" is a common yoga term that is Hindu for "my inner light salutes your inner light." The school seeks to provide an environment that nourishes both the mind and the body of children.

Namaste uses a complete immersion approach. Training in health and nutrition and regular physical activity are integral components of the entire academic curriculum. The following are just some examples of what the school is doing:

• Walking School Buses - human-powered train that safely walks children to school
• Nutritious breakfasts
• Morning Movement exercises include stretches and yoga poses
• Students get a full hour of gym as well as outside reces
• Teachers build physical activity into lessons on reading, writing and arithmetic
• Nutrition is taught in the classroom
• In the cafeteria, a "creation station" at lunch is stocked with fresh fruit, vegetables and whole grains
• Parents get involved by receiving training in nutrition and having access to a weekly farmers market that Namaste sets up in the school.

It seems like their approach is working.

So you cut down on sodas because everyone is telling everyone that America's obesity problem stems from drinking too much soda. In its place, you're drinking fruit juice, because it's juice, and we all know that juice from fruit is good for you, right?

Well, maybe not, according to Dr. Robert H. Lustig, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco and director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Clinic.

Lustig says that people misunderstand juice - they believe juice is good for health and that it's natural. However, Lustig believes that these perceptions are not only incorrect, but, like soda, are contributing to childhood obesity. "Drinking juice - even if it says "100% natural" - is no better than drinking soda" and in fact, he believes that juice is actually worse than soda because there are more calories per ounce in juice, about 170 calories in a 12 oz. serving, than in soda, about 150 calories for the same serving size.

Hm. I guess that means we're back to water.

Following yesterday's story that plans are afoot to ban toys as a food promotion and celebrity endorsements the Sydney Morning Herald reports that campaigners are still not happy.

Activities are pressing for a total ban on junk food advertising and say that industry is 'playing around the edges'.

A spokesman a national pressure group (Parent's Jury) with more than 1000 members, said: "It's a positive move but it is not going to alleviate the concerns of parents. We believe that the only effective intervention in reducing childhood obesity levels is a total ban on advertising to children on television".

So the debate continues. I don't have any kids so maybe these concerns are more relevant today (I don't watch children's TV to see the ads or eat breakfast cereals aimed at children) but are there not wider considerations rather than a ban such as encouraging more exercise and nutrition education?

 

Tonight TLC will begin airing a new series entitled, Honey, We're Killing the Kids!. The show will focus on 13 families from across the nation who's children's eating habits have become seriously unhealthy. A constant intake consisting of over sized portions of sugary, fat laden, low fiber foods has left these children inactive and at high risks for diabetes and heart disease.

Dr. Lisa Hark, who hosts the series, focuses on the cause of this epidemic in our country. She helps educate the families about how to make healthier food and activity choices that will benefit their lives for the longterm. She also uses a computer imaging program that takes a current picture of their child and fast forwards it into young adulthood to give the parents a frightening look at how obesity will shape their children.