Obese children's parents say kids are 'about the right weight,' likely comparing them to other kids instead of growth standards

Most parents of overweight children consider them to be "about the right weight," which poses a real concern because parents aren't likely to help their children change their behaviors toward weight reduction if they don't recognize there is a problem, according to a study from the NYU Langone Medical Center.

Photo: nydailynews.com

"Parental recognition of their child's overweight status is paramount in childhood obesity prevention efforts," says the report. "Previous research has shown that parents with accurate perceptions have a greater readiness to make weight-related changes in health-related behaviors and are more effective in doing so.

Kentucky ranks sixth among the states for obesity among preschoolers, with 15.5 percent of 2-to 4-year-olds from low-income families considered obese, according to the "States of Obesity" report. This percentage has remained consistent for several years, but it's worth noting that in 1989, only 9.4 percent of of this population was considered obese. "Children who are overweight or obese as preschoolers are five times as likely as normal-weight children to be overweight or obese as adults," says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study, published in the journal Childhood Obesity, analyzed data from two groups of children over two time periods from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, one between 1988 and 1994 and the other between 2007 and 2012, both samples had over 3,000 children. The survey asked parents whether they considered their child, ages 2–5-years-old, to be overweight, underweight, or just about the right weight.

Nearly 97 percent of parents of overweight boys in the earlier group identified their sons as "just about the right weight," compared to 95 percent in the second group; 88 percent of parents of overweight girls thought they were "just about the right weight" in the first group, compared to 93 percent in the later group. Experts have dubbed this misperception "The Goldilocks syndrome."

Notably, the researchers said that "the children in the second study group were significantly more overweight than the children in the first study group, yet the parents’ perception of their children remained relatively unchanged." In fact, "the misperception became more prevalent in the recent survey given that an estimated 30 percent reduction in correct perception was observed, compared to the earlier survey," says the report.

"It shows that essentially we're more obese as a society and we're not recognizing our obesity as a society, in this case in children," Dustin Duncan, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone, told Lisa Flam on NBC's "Today" show. "Obesity is a well-known medical condition associated with immediate and long-term health risks for children. This is an alarming finding."

The study also found that these misperceptions were more pronounced among the African-American families. "This was especially concerning because African-American and low-income children in the U.S. have the highest rates of obesity," Duncan said in the release.

One reason given for these misperceptions is that parents often compare their own child to other kids in deciding if their child is overweight instead of using science-backed growth charts. The authors also noted that poor communication between parents and their pediatricians could also contribute to these misperceptions.

“We need effective strategies to encourage clinician discussions with parents about appropriate weight for their child. This will be critical for childhood weight management and obesity prevention," Jian Zhang, senior author of the study, said in the release.

New license plate would promote outdoor recreation, support environmental education programs; 900 buyers needed to start

A new "Let's Go Outside" license plate is being offered to give Kentucky motorists the opportunity to promote the health and environmental benefits of outdoor recreation.

First Lady Jane Beshear unveiled the license plate June 10. She said that encouraging children to play outside will help improve their health and noted that "Kentucky has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in the nation," reports to The Lane Report.

Proceeds from the specialty plate will support the work of the Kentucky Environmental Education Council, including coordinating the Kentucky Green and Healthy Schools program and certifying professional environmental educators.

“Kentuckians have said in surveys that children not spending enough time outside is a major concern,” KEEC Executive Director Elizabeth Schmitz said. “One of our goals is to encourage children to embrace the outdoors and to teach them the importance of a clean environment for our health and preservation."

The Kentucky Environmental Education Council needs 900 applications, each accompanied by a $25 donation, before any plates will be manufactured.

Submitting the application does not obligate you to purchase the plate, but your donation will be credited toward the purchase of a plate once they are in production. If not enough applications are received, your $25 will be considered a tax-deductible donation.

A link to download the application is available at www.keec.ky.gov/LetsGoOutside.

Clay County 4th and 5th graders participate in UK research of circadian rhythms and obesity, little studied in children

The University of Kentucky recently partnered with over 100 fourth and fifth grade students in two Clay County schools to study the relationship between circadian rhythms and weight in children.

Sydney Sester, a fifth grade student at Manchester Elementary School, said in a UK news release that in addition to learning more about science and helping others by contributing to research, participating in the study showed her the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and eating well.

"It made me want to be more responsible with food and be patient with what I eat and only eat when I'm hungry," she said.

The project, "Circadian Rhythm Parameters and Metabolic Syndrome Associated Factors in Young Children," also known as the Clay County Clock Study, is led by Dr. Jody Clasey, associate professor of kinesiology and health promotion, and Dr. Karyn Esser, professor of physiology.

The research team says it hopes to learn about the relationship between circadian rhythms, eating, and activity behaviors and the incidence of overweight and obesity in children.

And while the team is in the process of analyzing the data, Esser told a group at the 10th annual Center for Clinical and Translational Science conference in March that early data show 33 percent of the students in the study are considered obese, their initial blood pressure measurements are on the high end of normal, and the students are less active on weekends and nights than during the school week.

The data was gathered through electronic devices that the students wore for seven days to measure activity, heart rate and skin temperature. The students also kept a daily journal to record their sleep and eating activities each day.

Previous studies have shown that disrupting an adult's circadian rhythm is associated with increased risk for metabolic disease, which is a combination of chronic health conditions that puts a person at a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes. Similar research with children has been limited.

Esser noted that "Clay County and many of the counties in Appalachia have a much higher rate of these chronic diseases."

She also said that while it is known that light exposure affects the body clock, recent findings show that the time that we do activities, like exercising and eating, also contribute to circadian health, and that this is also likely true in children.

This research "could not only influence an individual, but school start times, activity intervention, just so many different areas from personal practice or behavioral choices to public policy, all for the metabolic or physiological good of the individual or collective body," Clasey said.

School nutritionists' lobbying group, freshly funded by grocery makers, wants more funding and flexibility with school-lunch rules

School nutrition officials want more flexibility with new school lunch rules to cut down on the waste of unwanted food, Spencer Chase reports for Agri-Pulse, a Washington newsletter. Julia Bauscher, president of the School Nutrition Association, told the House Education and Workforce Committee that the organization supports the rules, but needs more funding to enforce them  and more flexbility to serve foods students will eat. (USDA graphic)

"SNA is requesting 35 cents more in federal funding for each lunch and breakfast that is served in the school lunch program, up from the additional six cents the government provided when the new standards were put in place," Chase writes. Bauscher told the committee, “That will help school food authorities afford the foods that we must serve, but unfortunately that won't make students consume it.”

Bauscher, who said SNA wants Congress "to soften the bill's target levels for more whole grains and less sodium in school meals," said that "in many cases, the new requirements have forced school lunch programs outside of budgetary constraints, forcing them to ask school districts to make up the difference. According to SNA, school districts will absorb $1.2 billion in new food and labor costs in 2010," Agri-Pulse reports. SNA has drawn major funding from some food manufacturers.

Chase writes that 51 percent of students qualify for free or reduced lunches, the first time the number has topped 50 percent in at least 50 years.

Researchers discuss physical activity as a way of maintaining or improving health; daily walking is still the best exercise

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Obesity worsens the damage that arthritis does to joints, but simply telling patients to go home and diet and exercise is not working, and health care providers must proactively monitor their patients and help them find affordable solutions to succeed. And daily walking is still the best exercise.

Those were examples of research findings discussed at the 10th annual Center for Clinical and Translational Science conference sponsored by the University of Kentucky on March 25. More than 700 researchers, students, policymakers and guests discussed research with a focus on physical activity across the lifespan.

Stephen Messier, professor and director of a biomechanics laboratory at Wake Forest University, said obesity has a significant effect on joint health, particularly osteoarthritis, which he said is quite painful. He called for closer attention to obese patients with arthritis.

He said a study found that a combination of diet and exercise over an extended period of time offers the best results for less pain and less disability. He said that a separate study found those who lost 10 percent of their body weight had the most "significant outcomes" related to function, which included walking speed.

The conference featured 31 oral presentations and 270 poster presentations, addressing a vast array of topics including physical inactivity in children, physical inactivity in chronic disease and biomedical informatics.

"The conference was designed to raise awareness of the science behind the benefits of exercise and the dangers of physical inactivity," Charlotte Petterson, professor and associate dean of research in the College of Health Sciences, who chaired this year's conference, said in a UK press release.

The keynote speaker, Duke University medicine professor William E. Kraus, encouraged walking as a proven and simple activity that can improve health and actually extend life. "Fitness always trumps fatness," he said, noting that a "culture of convenience" and conditions of built environments, such as absence of sidewalks, deter people from physical activity.

Research on fourth and fifth graders in two Clay County schools, while in the early stages of analysis, found that obesity and inactivity begins early.

Karyn Esser, professor of physiology at the UK College of Medicine, said her research was examining the circadian rhythms and physical activities of students because changes in natural circadian rhythms "can create pre-cursors to disease" in just seven days, even in healthy young people. She said her study is intended to help schools improve students' health by adjusting meal times and offering physical activities to best coincide with circadian rhythms.

The data for Esser's study was gathered through electronic devices that the 136 students wore for seven days to measure activity, heart rate and skin temperature. The students also kept a daily journal to record their activities. So far, Esser said, the data show 33 percent of the students are considered obese, their initial blood pressure measurements are on the high end of normal, and the students are less active on weekends and nights than during the school week.

Another UK study found that students who are more active during the school day do better in mathematics.

Alicia Fedewa and Heather Erwin of the College of Education said they found that increased physical activity levels "significantly improved" math scores and slightly improved reading scores of the students who got an extra 20 minutes of movement on each school day. They recommended two short 15-minute recesses per day, rather than one long one. They also said that classroom "energizers" and stability balls also help students with these behaviors.

The researchers said many studies show that students who participate in recess and physical education during the school day are more focused and less fidgety, show less listlessness, and have better overall classroom behavior. They said more controlled studies need to be conducted, but said most studies to date have found that fit kids have less anxiety and better overall well-being. Also, a regimen of consistent physical activity is best for kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Poll: Ky. parents think children's school lunches are very or somewhat nutritious, but they want more scratch-made options

Kentucky Health News

Most Kentucky parents think school lunches are nutritious, but should offer more made from-scratch options, according to the latest Kentucky Health Issues Poll.

The poll, taken Oct.8 through Nov. 6, found that 67 percent of Kentucky parents said their oldest child's school lunch was very or somewhat nutritious, while 23 percent said it was "not that nutritious"or not nutritious at all.

Opinions about the nutrition of school lunches varied across the state with 80 percent of parents in Northern Kentucky, 73 percent in greater Lexington, and 70 percent in Western Kentucky saying their child's lunch was very or somewhat nutritious, and 63 percent of parents from greater Louisville and 57 percent of parents from Eastern Kentucky saying so.

Asked if their school needed more made-from-scratch options, 69 percent of parents said it did, while 20 percent said their child's school offered enough of this option. Most parents in each region said they wanted to see more made from-scratch options, topping out at 82 percent in Eastern Kentucky.

Kentucky is first in the nation for high-school obesity, eighth in obesity of children 10 to 17, and sixth among 1-to-4-year-olds from low-income families, according to the "States of Obesity" report.

“School nutrition is one element of overall strategies to reduce childhood obesity and improve health,” said Susan Zepeda, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which sponsors the poll with Interact for Health, formerly the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

The Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati surveyed a random sample of 1,597 adults via land line and cell phone. The margin of error for the "parents" subgroup, adults with school-aged children living in the household, is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

Study: American children's diets will cause early heart disease; Kentucky kids seem to be on the same track

Kentucky Health News

A study shows that American kids are eating themselves toward early heart disease.

The study, published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, looked at a nationally representative group of children and found that "American kids eat too much sugar and salt, they don't eat enough fruits and vegetables, and far too many are overweight," , Maggie Fox reports for NBC News. And of the 8,900 children aged 2 to 11 surveyed, "most were not meeting the goal on three out of four measures of healthy living."

"Our findings indicate that, in general, children start with pretty good blood pressure," Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who oversaw the study, told Fox. "But if they have a horrible diet, it will drive a worsening body mass index and cholesterol levels."

The research found that fewer than 1 percent of the children in the study had four or five of the main components of a healthy diet; only 3 percent of boys and 2 percent of girls ate enough whole grains daily; more than half of the children drank too much sugar-sweetened beverages; and fewer than 10 percent ate the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables. The study also found that 30 percent of the children surveyed were overweight or obese, Fox reports.

This poor diet could "put many on the road to heart disease," Fox writes.

And Kentucky's children, who rank eighth in the nation for child obesity, are likely walking down this road to poor health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013 State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables found that only 50 percent of Kentucky adolescents reported eating fruit and 43 percent reported eating vegetables with a median intake of one time per day for both.

As for sugar-sweetened beverages, the 2013 Kentucky High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that in the seven days prior to the the survey: 33 percent of high school students drank a sugared soda one or more times a day; 25 percent drank a sugared soda two or more times per day; and 15 percent drank a sugared soda three or more times per day.

"It seems that children in the United States are losing their ideal cardiovascular health status," the researchers wrote, Fox reports. The study found about "40 percent of the kids already had poor to worrying cholesterol levels."

The main components of a healthy diet, according to the study, are: eating four and a half cups or more of fruits and vegetables each day; three servings of whole grains a day; two servings of fish a week; minimal amounts of sugar; and below 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day.

NBC has previously reported that many studies have found that children who have risk factors for heart disease show signs of clogged arteries that are typically found in middle-aged adults.

But another study found that that eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables, low in saturated fats and low on fatty meat "dramatically cuts the risk of heart disease and stroke," Fox writes.

Research indicates that students throw away less food since new, healthier lunch rules were put in place

One of the most consistent complaints about the healthier school-lunch standards is that more food ends up in the garbage can, but a three-year study at urban middle schools says the opposite is true.

"Overall, the revised meal standards and policies appear to have significantly lowered plate waste in school cafeterias," says the report of the study, conducted by the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at the University of Connecticut and published in Childhood Obesity. It found that since the new standards have been in place, students have "consumed more fruit, threw away less of the entrees and vegetables and consumed the same amount of milk."

The researchers tracked students at 12 urban, low-income middle schools in an unidentified "urban school district" for three years, from spring 2012 to spring 2014. They analyzed students' food selection and consumption by photographing and weighing students' lunch trays.

The 2010 Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, which requires schools to reduce salt and fat; use more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains; and limit calories by age, was implemented in fall 2012.

The standards were put into place as an effort to combat child obesity. Kentucky is the first in the nation for high-school obesity, eighth in obesity of children 10-17, and sixth among 1-to 4-year-olds from low-income families, according to the "States of Obesity" report.

The study found that students ate more of their lunch entrees after the new standards went into effect, with 84 percent of students eating an entree in 2014, compared to 71 percent in 2012.

"Despite concerns that students do not like the new entrees that meet the whole grain and meat/meat alternate regulations, our data show that more students are selecting the entree and they are wasting significantly less because consumption is up to 84 percent," says the report.

It also found the share of students choosing vegetables dropped to 52 percent from 68 percent, but the students who chose vegetables ate nearly 20 percent more of them, "effectively lowering vegetable waste," says the report. The percentage of students choosing fruit "significantly increased" to 66 percent from 54 percent, with 74 percent of all students eating fruit.

Marlene Schwartz, the study's lead author and director of the Rudd Center, told Politico's Morning Agriculture that she expects the findings to be attacked, but said they are supported by solid data.

“I know that food directors have a really difficult job,” she told Morning Agriculture.“It’s hard to please all of the children all of the time, while keeping a tight budget … But I think [the shift to new standards] is the right thing to do."

The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Anderson schools' lunch profit is down nearly 10 percent; officials blame new federal nutrition standards; students object to food

Anderson County school officials say new federal nutrition standards are costing them money and hurting poor students because the students don't like how the food tastes are opting out of school meals, Editor Ben Carlson reports for The Anderson News in Lawrenceburg.

The school-lunch program's profits dropped nearly 10 percent. From August through December, the schools saw a year-to-year decline of 8 percent in the number of meals served, and 54 percent of that reduction came from students who receive free or reduced lunches, Carlson writes.

Schools in Clark County reported only a 1 percent decrease in participation in their school lunch and breakfast programs since the 2013-14 school year, despite similar complaints about the new federal nutrition standards.

Schools that take money from the federal government for their meal programs are required to follow the nutrition guidelines of the 2010 Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act, which requires schools to reduce salt and fat; use more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains; and limit calories by age. The law targets child obesity, in which Kentucky ranks high.

Kentucky is first in the nation for high-school obesity, eighth in obesity of children 10-17, and sixth among 2- to 4-year-olds from low-income families, according to the "States of Obesity" report.

Anderson County Supt. Sheila Mitchell and Ronnie Fields, the district's director of operations, told Carlson that with 48 percent of their students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch plans, they could not afford to drop out of the program like the wealthy Fort Thomas Independent School District did. Nationally, about 150 school districts had withdrawn as of August, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported.

Students and parents told Carlson that students aren't buying school meals because "the food simply doesn't taste good" and school officials told him that they too are frustrated and recognize that many students are "coming to school hungry and going home hungry."

Students told Carlson "The food is gross," and "The food is getting progressively worse." One said, "You only get three things on your plate" and if it doesn't taste good, they don't eat it and go home hungry. One parent who had eaten a school lunch said, "I would not feed that to my dogs."

The district says it is working to improve food quality by surveying students, trying to serve foods they like, experimenting with new recipes, offering samples of new menu items and seeking temporary waivers that will allow them to continue using only 50 percent whole grains.

Another challenge faced by school cafeterias is that they are designed to be "self-sufficient," Fields told Carlson. They must "generate enough revenue to cover all expenses, including labor," And in years past, he said, they functioned with a "healthy surplus," even using this surplus to replace older equipment if the amount of surplus became more than they were allowed to have on hand. But now, because profits are down 9.5 percent since the start of the year, he said, “We’re basically trying to break even."

Spending bill allows schools that show 'hardship' to vary from requirement to serve 100 percent whole grains

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

The massive 2015 spending bill signed by President Obama Dec. 16 includes a provision to help schools struggling with the whole-grain and sodium requirements that are part of the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act. It did not allow, as House Republicans had hoped, schools to opt out of the healthier school meal standards if they lost money on meal programs over a six-month period.

Beginning with the 2014 school year, schools had to serve 100 percent whole grains in their meals and snacks, and also follow the first restrictions on sodium, or salt. The sodium restrictions were scheduled to get progressively stricter over the years, with the next move set for 2017.

The law allows schools that demonstrate the rule is a "hardship" to continue serving 50 percent whole grains. It also says sodium standards cannot be tightened until the "latest scientific research establishes the reduction is beneficial for children," Mary Clare Jalonick reports for The Associated Press.

Some schools say they have had trouble complying with these requirements because many of the affordable whole grain pastas have proven difficult to cook en masse and the whole-grain versions of many foods, like biscuits and tortillas, simply don't taste the same.

On salt, schools say budgeting the allowed amounts among meals, snacks and a la carte items is often a challenge. The issue hit Anderson County schools earlier this year when they couldn't find a low-sodium ketchup; their solution was to not offer ketchup. Parent and student complaints prompted a reversal of that move, but to do that, sodium had to be removed elsewhere in the menu.

The new law won't have much effect on Fayette County Schools, Director of School Nutrition Michelle Coker said in a telephone interview. "Basically, we use 100 percent whole grains in everything," she said. "But there are products, like tortilla shells, that aren't as flavorful and this gives us some flexibility."

Fayette County has transitioned slowly to whole grains over the last five to six years to help students adjust to them, Coker said, and as whole-grain products have become "tastier" the transition has not been an issue.

"Whole grain pasta products have come a long way," Coker said. "Three to four years ago they were dark, but now it is difficult to tell the difference. Kentucky has really good vendors."

Coker, a registered dietitian, welcomed the possible delay in lower salt limits, saying most students are active and involved in sports and shouldn't need such low sodium restrictions. "These kids are growing and need electrolytes," she said.

The School Nutrition Association, a group that represents both school nutrition directors and the food companies that produce foods for schools, wanted even deeper rollbacks than the spending bill included, but said it "strongly supports" the budget-bill language.

Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees nutrition issues, said the whole-grains waiver is "the best bill that we are going to get" as long as Democrats are in control the Senate, Jalonick reports.

Republicans will control both houses of Congress next year, so the battle is far from over, and the overall law governing child nutrition policy, including school lunches, expires next year and will require legislation to be renewed, Jalonick notes.

First Lady Michelle Obama, champion for improving school's nutrition and decreasing child obesity, said this summer that she would fight "to the bitter end" to make sure kids have good nutrition in schools.

#ThanksMichelleObama: Students use social media to voice their unhappiness with revamped school lunches

School kids around the country are tweeting pictures of their unappetizing school lunches and blaming the most prominent advocate for healthier school meals for their "bowls of mush and mystery proteins," Roberto A. Ferdman reports for The Washington Post.

The tweets use the hashtag #ThanksMichelleObama, which dates back to 2012. They were "being sent out at a rate of 40 per minute last week, but started to gain momentum some 10 days back," Ferdman writes.

The tweets and pictures vary, with some presenting a "mealy substance" or mystery food that is supposed to pass for the entree while others poke fun at how pitiful the presentation is.

"We've seen the photos being tweeted," said Sam Kass, executive director of Let's Move!, the organization Obama founded to fight childhood obesity. "But we don't dictate the food that schools serve—school districts do." He added, "We’ve seen thousands of examples of healthy, delicious school lunches that meet the new standards being made across the country by talented school chefs."

Obama has been a key player in the implementation of the new health standards in schools, which mandate an increase in fruits, vegetables and whole grains and place restrictions on calories,sodium, sugar and fat served in a school day. These restrictions were also added to snacks and beverages this year.

Several studies have reported great success with these new requirements. In Virginia, a recent study found that school lunches were "significantly healthier" than home packed lunches and a study in Massachusetts concluded the same thing.

But others say that this healthy food is not being eaten, but instead thrown away. A Harvard School of Public Health study in Massachusetts supports this conclusion, finding that "some 60 percent of vegetables and 40 percent of fresh fruit are thrown away (for good measure, even more vegetables—some 75 percent—were thrown out before the USDA school meal standards went into effect)," Ferdman reports.

Complaining about cafeteria food in certainly not a new phenomena, what is new is that "everyone has a camera on their phone and a public platform to share pictures," Ferdman writes.

As school-lunch debate puts attention on rejected meals, we might consider a bigger problem: food wasted at home

The new nutrition rules for school meals have led some students to throw away food they're served. Schools across the country are estimated to waste $1.2 billion worth of food every year, based on extrapolations from a study the National Institutes of Health conducted in Boston schools. That's a lot of wasted food and money, but students and their families waste even more food at home, George Jones writes for WFIE-TV in Evansville.

According to the U.S. Department of Education approximately 49.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade students will attend public schools this year. Each student is estimated to waste about $33 worth of federally funded lunches per year. "The average person in the general population wastes almost that much in total meals during one month," Jones reports.

Americans threw away $161 billion worth of food in 2010—nearly one-third of the available food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That means the average person discards $372 worth of food each year, or four times as much as students.

"Sometimes people say it's the family and parents making choices, but it's the larger system we're in that making this problem," aid Pamela Koch, director of the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy at Columbia University. "They're working so many hours they think they don't have time to shop and cook healthy. And the most inexpensive foods are the ones that are not the most healthy for them."

Rising obesity rates and fast food consumption show that adults aren't eating well-balanced meals, much less school-aged individuals. The School Nutrition Association supports the rules requiring reduced-fat and fat-free milk and more fruits and vegetables, but "feels serving only whole grain breads and requiring children to take food they don't otherwise each is burdensome for schools," Jones reports.

"You're never going to be able to promote healthy diets for kids if they don't get healthy options across the board," SNA spokeswoman Diane Pratt-Heavner said. "It's the students who are unfamiliar with those healthier choices who are not responding well."

Students part of the Montgomery, Ala., group called E.A.T. (Education, Act Transform) were much more receptive to trying new foods—such as radishes—when they went through the process of planting and harvesting them. "They come here, and now they have an understanding," E.A.T. South Executive Director Denise Blake Green said. "They've seen the cycle—planting, harvesting, cooking, composting. When they leave here, food looks different to them." (Read more)

Most Kentucky schools adapting well to new federal nutrition rules, USDA official with Kentucky background says

While one Kentucky school district has ditched the federal school-meals program and the money that comes with it, an official of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services says that most Kentucky schools are creatively and successfully implementing the required nutritional requirements.

Fort Thomas Independent Schools dropped out of the program, saying new nutrition rules caused more students to pack lunches or eat off campus. Fort Thomas Highlands High School is the only public school in Kentucky to allow students to leave for lunch, Chris Mayhew reports for the Community Press & Recorder in Campbell County.

Most schools in Kentucky are adapting well to the new rules, Deputy USDA Undersecretary Janey Thornton, former school nutrition director at Hardin County Schools, told the Kentucky School Board Association's Kentucky School Advocate.

Thornton praised Kentucky schools for their efforts in implementing the new nutrition standards in school meals, saying that many, like Hardin County, had already been moving toward healthier meals before the guidelines were put in place. She said the food service director in Hardin County told her that they had not seen any decrease in meal participation at all.

She said the Harlan County director told her that they had had a rough start, but after engaging the students in the process, like developing the menus and taking them to food shows, students had been more receptive to the changes.

"I’m hearing this all over the country – when kids are engaged, when they feel it is their cafeteria, it makes a huge difference," Thornton said.

Thornton said introducing fruits and vegetables that students, cooks and managers may have never seen has been a challenge for some districts, but many schools are creatively facing the challenge by offering samples, using high-school students as peer nutrition mentors, working with the Cooperative Extension Service to offer after-school programs and offering smaller portions.

Thornton said "recent studies show there is not greater food waste than previously," but that doesn't mean that directors don't always need to work on decreasing waste. She suggested that maybe a half-cup portion of vegetables could be broken into small bites of three vegetables or fruits to equal one-half cup, not just all of one thing the student doesn't like.

Asked about the complaints that some students, particularly high schoolers, are going hungry, Thornton said that if the students are eating what is available to them, "the calorie count now is more than the recommended calorie count before this went into effect."

Thornton noted that a nonpartisan national-security organization of 450 retired admirals and generals has said “We have to do something about how America eats. It is affecting (negatively) those who are trying to get into the military.”

One of the biggest challenges reported across the country is that students don't have enough time to eat their lunch; it takes longer to eat fresh fruit and vegetables than it does to eat processed food.

"We don’t want to teach kids to inhale foods because that is part of our problem," Thornton said in the interview. "When you eat so fast, you don’t realize when you are full. This is a challenge not just in Kentucky but nationwide."

KET series to explore how chemistry, technology, fast food, "supersizing," marketing, and lobbying have made us fat

KET will air a three-part series, "Men Who Made Us Fat," in which Jacques Peretti blames American obesity on high-fructose corn syrup, fast food, "supersizing," marketing, and lobbying.

In the first episode Jacques Peretti looks at how decisions made in America 40 years ago influence how we eat today. He looks closely at high-fructose corn syrup, which interferes with leptin, the hormone that controls appetite. He also explores the role of fast-food chains in making a society fatter. It will air Monday, Sept. 8 at 10 p.m. EDT.

The second episode explores supersizing's role in how the U.S., once a nation of moderate eaters, started to want more. It will also examine how advertising directed at children has contributed to child obesity. It will air on KET2 Tuesday, Sept. 9 at 8 p.m. and on KET Sept. 11 at 4 a.m. and Sept. 15 at 10 p.m. EDT.

The third episode targets how marketing influences food buying, as well as government initiatives and health campaigns and how food manufacturers and related interests have lobbied hard against these efforts. It will air on KET Thursday, Sept. 18 at 4 a.m. and Monday, Sept. 22 at 10 p.m. EDT.

Appalachian Kentucky has much of what it needs to improve its poor health status, key federal officials agree

By Al Cross
Kentucky Health News

Appalachian Kentucky has the enthusiasm, creativity, people and facilities needed to greatly improve its dismal health status, two high-ranking federal officials said after looking at the problem on a recent tour.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, Rep. Hal Rogers

"I want to stir up our people to get involved in a grass-roots effort," U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, R-Somerset, who hosted Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on a four-stop tour of his Fifth Congressional District in early August.

Rogers and Frieden were guests on KET's "One to One" Sunday afternoon, in a program recorded right after they returned from their trip, where Frieden said he saw much creativity and enthusiasm.

Using one of Rogers's favorite sayings, Frieden said, "If you plan your work and work your plan, you may very well have tremendous success."

Rogers said what struck him most about the trip was "the infrastructure we already have in place," including hospitals, health departments, doctors and other health providers, and he wants to "talk about enhancing them.

Rogers is in a position to do that with federal money, because he is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He is also co-founder, with Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, of Shaping Our Appalachian Region, an initiative to improve the economy of Eastern Kentucky.

Asked by "One to One" moderator Bill Goodman where the role of government begins and personal responsibility for health begins, Frieden said, in an apparent reference to smoking bans, "You don't want to go to your job and get cancer as a result."

"We don't tell people what to do" at the CDC, he said, but offer communities choices from a list of proven programs. Earlier, he said smoke-free laws not only reduce smoking, but heart attacks among non-smokers.

Rogers said he asked Frieden what one thing he would recommend for improving personal health in the region, and the doctor replied, "Walk."

Frieden said walking is an especially good option for Kentuckians because they have such a beautiful state. However, many rural areas in the state lack sidewalks or other easily accessible places to walk.

"Physical activity is the closest thing we have to a wonder drug" for all sorts of ailments, Frieden said, "but you have to do something you love to do" in order to stick with it. He said it also helps children be good students: "The more physical activity they get, the better their minds will work."

That point was made a few days before the two men's trip, at the Kentucky Summit on Childhood Obesity and Physical Activity at the University of Kentucky.
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School nutrition beat keeps busy: Ketchup returns to Anderson County, more students eating at school in Allen County

School meal programs continue to make news, as schools, students and parents adjust to the latest round of federal guidelines to combat childhood obesity and make sure no child goes hungry.

The second and third Kentucky counties in the alphabetical list were two of the latest in the news.
In Allen County, expansion of a free-meals program means that almost all children are getting breakfast at school.

Following parental complaints in Anderson County, the schools are again offering ketchup, which had been removed because of its high salt content, Shelley Spillman reports for The Anderson News.

The problem, Food Service Director Ronnie Fields told Spillman, was the unavailability of low-sodium ketchup. All the cafeteria offerings had been configured with it, but there wasn't any available. Regular ketchup pushed the allowable sodium limits too high, so it was removed.

Signs were posted to explain, but this didn't set too well with the parents, who "flooded the Anderson County Schools' office and The Anderson News with questions," Spillman writes.

“They’re micromanaging our children,” Paul Coffey, who has grandchildren in the schools, told Spillman. “A parent knows what’s good for their child and ketchup is not going to hurt them.”

Low-sodium ketchup packets are 10 calories and contain 25 mg of sodium. Regular ketchup packets are 11 calories and 85 mg of sodium, Spillman reports.A teaspoon of salt has 2,300 mg. of sodium, according to the American Heart Association. It adds up quickly, with all the added salt in processed foods, so lunches and breakfasts for middle-school students are supposed to have less than 1,360 mg and 600 mg, respectively. Limits for elementary- and high-school students are slightly lower and higher, respectively.

“A lot people don’t realize how it’s this complicated to feed kids,” Fields told Spillman. There were rumors that the schools wouldn't let students bring their own lunches or condiments. “We’d never ban that,” Fields said. “Kids are always welcome to bring their own lunches and condiments.”

Meanwhile, Allen County reports "promising statistics" in after its elementary and middle schools joined the free-meal program offered by U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rachel Herrington reports for The Citizen-Times of Scottsville.

Of the 1,600 students enrolled in both centers, 95 percent are eating breakfast this year, compared to around 60 percent last year, Food Services Director Mary Hobdy told Herrington.

Hobdy said unclaimed breakfast food does not go to waste. Non-perishable foods are kept in elementary classrooms for students to eat during breaks, and are placed in the Family Resource Center for middle-school students who need extra food during the day. Leftover food is donated to the center's backpack program, which sends easy-to-prepare food home with needy kids on Fridays.

Students in Allen County are allowed to refuse meals if they have eaten breakfast or have brought their lunch.

Hopkinsville paper gives detailed description of federally mandated changes in Christian County school lunches

Five years ago Christian County Public Schools served a dessert with every meal, white rolls, and vegetables with plenty of salt, Margarita Cambest reports for the Kentucky New Era in Hopkinsville.

Shift to 2014: Dessert is considered an occasional treat, fruit is a staple, the rolls are whole grain and there are vegetables galore, with a lot less salt.  Students are adjusting to these changes as school meal programs shift to comply with new federal guidelines, Cambest reports.

“They want to be healthy, but they don’t always want to eat healthy,” Sandra McIntosh, the schools' food service coordinator, told Cambest. “This makes it easier.”

The Healthy, Hunger-free Kids Act, which passed in 2010, initially required schools in the federal meal program to decrease fat and sodium and increase whole grains. This year, strict sodium and calorie limits have taken effect. McIntosh told Cambest that this was the first major change in the program's law in 30 years.

Specifically, fruits and vegetables must be offered, with a choice between two meats, two vegetables and two fruits at each meal, Cambest writes. Whole grains have replaced white bread, and only fat-free or low-fat milk may be served, including chocolate milk. Calorie limits vary between grades, but all students must take at least one serving of fruit or vegetable at breakfast and one of each at lunch.

So what does a typical meal look like?  The New Era sampled lunch at Hopkinsville Middle School and reported a menu of breaded and baked chicken (with or without barbecue sauce), a cheeseburger on a whole-grain bun, or a chef's salad. Green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, or veggies with low-fat ranch dressing were served on the side, and a choice of a banana or mandarin orange slices rounded out the meal.

“A lot of times, kids aren’t offered this kind of variety at home,” schools spokeswoman Heather Lancaster told Cambest.

This year, all Christian County public-school students are eligible for free meals under the federal Community Eligibility Program, which applies to schools that serve mostly low-income students. The middle school and the district's two high schools were the last in the district to be added to the program, Cambest reports. In the first 10 days of school, the three schools served 1,690 more breakfasts and 595 more lunches than in the same period last year. (Read more; this article is behind a paywall)

Leaders in health care and education meet on child obesity and what can be done about it, and not just in the schools

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

Children who are physically active are likely to be better learners, but not enough Kentucky schools seem to put that knowledge into practice, speakers suggested at last week's Kentucky Summit on Childhood Obesity and Physical Activity at the University of Kentucky.

Kentucky ranks eighth in child obesity, and nationally, adult obesity is expected to grow from 30 percent of the population now to 60 percent by 2030.

"Many of the adults who will be obese in 2030 are the children in Kentucky schools today," said Dr. Mary Lynne Capilouto, the wife of UK President Eli Caiplouto. The couple hosted an opening brunch for the conference, and at one small-group session.

The conference was an unusual gathering of people from education and health care, who don't discuss common interests enough, said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which staffed the conference. "Our intent is to put together a guiding coalition . . . and make something happen in 2015-16."

That would probably include legislation, but "We can't legislate ourselves out of this problem," educator Leon Mooneyhan told the group. "We need to change the mindset of our society," with multifaceted solutions. Mooneyhan, a former superintendent in Shelby County, is CEO of the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, which assists school districts.

He said each district needs a strong "wellness committee" to focus on health, nutrition and physical activity and promote such measures as integrating physical activity into the classroom and not using denial of recess as punishment for misbehavior. "We really need to focus at the elementary schools," he said. "That's where it starts."

The biggest obstacle may be the educational system itself.

An example of classroom-based physical activity,
from Dr. Heather Erwin's PowerPoint presentation

Some schools are reluctant to carve out time for physical activity because of pressure to spend time preparing students for annual achievement tests, but research shows that more physical-activity time "does not appear to to adversely impact academic performance," said Heather Erwin, Ph.D., a UK specialist in kinesiology, the study of human movement.

Erwin said some schools have started intensive math instruction lasting 90 minutes, and students could benefit from two of three physical-activity breaks in such a long classroom session. She said, "So many teachers will say after implementing physical activity, why haven't we been doing this all along?"

"If your butt is numb, your brain is, too," said Jamie Sparks, director of the School Health and Physical Education Network for the state Department of Education.

Sparks said it's unfortunate that some schools are using recess as extra study time before achievement tests. Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, said research has shown that students do better on achievement tests on days that they have physical activity.

"There is an achievement gap related to obesity," but many teachers don't see the connection, Silberman said. When students take part practical, in-class programs like those Erwin mentioned, "it becomes a habit for the rest of their lives. . . . Frankfort's not the answer on this.

Tom Shelton, who succeeded Silberman as superintendent in Fayette County, said asking teachers "to do one more thing is almost criminal," they are so busy, but nations such as India and China emphasize physical activity, and "It's amazing to me that we're going the other way. . . . We know for a fact that healthy students are better learners."

Shelton said "Poverty is the number-one barrier to student achievement," and part of that is "lack of good food options."

The face of poverty has changed to one of obesity, said David Jones Jr., a member of the Jefferson County school board and a Louisville venture capitalist. Poor people often eat poor food and don't get enough exercise. "The problem is, we don't know how to eat. We don't know how to deal with calorie-rich environments," Jones said.

Jones was among those who said the solution to child obesity lies in the community at large, not just in its schools.

"It has to be parents and schools and the community and legislators," said Susan Zepeda, president of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which funded the conference. "This challenge is about nutrition policies, physical-activity policies and building our environment with health in mind."