Promoting Healthy Lifestyles for Students (and teachers)

[Jess]

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've sat around the fire...
I've been volunteering with my local farmer's market in the kids' section. We recently did a session on recognizing what you eat where the kids were able to pick a wrapper of some of their favorite foods from one area, and bring it to another where we helped them decipher the nutrition facts label to find the amounts of fat, sugar and salt. We then used real lard, sugar and salt on a scale to give them a visual example of the amount they are putting in their bodies. Hopefully this got them to think twice about what they eat and spark healthier eating habits. We then had them take clipboards and sheets around the farmer's market to find foods in as many different colors as they could that were low in fat, sugar and salt. Finally, we gave them a seed planted in a cup and taught them how a plant needs the right amounts of water and sunshine to grow, just like their bodies needed the proper foods to grow. They had to take care of their bodies as if they were growing plants. We also had books available for parents to read on nutrition facts of popular kids' meals at fast food places. Overall, it was educational and fun for the kids (as well as the adults!)

All this nutrition emphasis these last few weeks got me thinking (as usual!) I am an avid supporter of leading a healthy lifestyle and setting a good example. The obesity epidemic is growing amongst our nation, especially in youth. Now more than ever it is important for educators/mentors to address the issue of a healthy lifestyle. But as an educator, how do you combat student's home lives (be it lack of parental interest or ability to provide sufficient nutrition due to poverty) and the emphasis society places on fast now, and laziness (think Wall-E if you've seen it)? How do you combat this generation where most of daily life is spent in front of a screen indoors for entertainment or work purposes? What do you do when you see a child consistently come with nothing but junk food and pop in his/her lunch? How do you combat the unhealthy lunch options the school itself provides?
What effects have you seen unhealthy lifestyles have in the classroom and academic life and performance (in students AND teachers)?
I've worked at an inner-city school where the teacher provided a healthy mid-morning snack every day (like apples) since many of the children came with nothing or junk food (she would not allow them to eat their junk food). However, she still had to combat their lack of sleep. She'd ask them every morning who went to bed last night because they would be dead-tired, yawning, and falling asleep. They come from homes where bed time is nonexistent, and even though she stresses the importance of a good night's sleep on one's own accord, she obviously cannot enforce it. I've thought about holding an open house where parents can learn about the importance of leading healthy lifestyles and ways to do so, but what do you do when no one comes?

Feel free to expand off of this or go in any direction it gets you thinking!

[Connie Weber]

Hi Jess,

Here are some things that come to mind. I love what you did at the farmer's market--could you think of a way to do that at the grocery store? I wonder how we could get a group of kids to coach on grocery store shopping. How did you get them at the farmer's market? Do parents leave them with you while they shop? Was it a class kids dropped in on? Anyhow, I'm thinking that almost everything at the farmer's market would be healthy... But how do we get students to safely and healthfully navigate the grocery store, which is much more complicated?

Wouldn't that be a great unit for class? Oooo... you're giving me ideas. What if nutritional analysis was part of the study, along with sustainability awareness, along with exercise/caloric-intake knowledge? What if a study of advertising and how it influences us was part of the study? I think kids would love it. Hook it all up to a final project of a problem-based cooperative study with a small group of peers, then a class presentation, then posting the project online for reactions and reflections, make the study ongoing...

We should write a grant for this curriculum design, Jess!

[Jess]

That would be incredible! It would be quite actively physically and mentally involved which always makes for the best learning and EXCITEMENT!
You could do a field trip at a grocery store, especially if you talked first to a local grocery store to ask for their participation and involvement (but I'm sure there'd be a lot of red tape to get around there). The bigger the grocery store, the larger the selection. However the smaller ones sometimes have a more unique selection.
My local farmer's market is a lot of veggies and fruits, but there are also fatty meats like sausages and heavy breads like cream cheese twists and cinnamon sugar streusel. The kids at the farmer's market either are already there with their parents or are brought by nannies to the activities for something to do. Sometimes parents leave them with us, but more often than not, they sit in and learn with their children (which is great to see them bonding and taking such an interest in learning new things together!)

[Janet Navarro]

love what you are doing at the market, Jess. Very cool. I've seen something along these lines done. A 4th grade teacher/friend of mine started on his healthy lifestyle journey by watching the movie "super size me" a few years back -- which (he's a lot like you, Jess) got him THINKING! And, he contacted a local health food store (businesses are often looking for outreach projects) and formed a partnership with his class. As mentioned above, there were presentations made to the kids, there were field trips to the store, but probably most importantly, there were opportunities, over the course of the year, to sample different foods. Like the teacher you mentioned who brought in healthy snacks -- this 4th grade class had healthy snacks everyday after recess. The kids managed it. They decided what to serve and why, put on their gloves and served out the food. They served in on coffee filters and put left overs in the compost bin which was also started, for the garden they planted in the school yard. Lessons about nutrition, etc., were a natural outgrowth of the partnership. The project has now expanded into the school. There's so much that can be done. I think what made this work is the commitment of this teacher to model a healthy lifestyle himself. I mean, he wasn't having the kids eat sunflower seeds and rice cakes for snake and then going into the teacher's lounge for cake and diet coke.

[Ellen Pham]

It seems like one of the challenges is to connect a healthy food supply with your students, whose parents are probably not shopping at farmer's markets or Whole Foods.

How about getting the kids involved with Gleaners in the fall? Here's the definition from an Oregon-based web site:

What is gleaning?

The basic principle is simple. Gleaners—low-income, able-bodied volunteers--organize themselves into gleaning groups.

They share half the crops they gather, surplus and salvaged foods, and firewood with adoptees. Adoptees are low-income people who are unable to gather food themselves because they are elderly or disabled. Gleaners also share with their gleaning group, food banks and group meal sites.

Also in our state, the Oregon Food Bank provides a six-week course on nutrition education (the classes can be targeted to kids) and two learning gardens... maybe Michigan has programs like these?

One thing I very much respect and appreciate about the food bank programs is that they are experts in providing nutritional education and food sources without demonizing the habits of other people. There has to be, in my humble opinion : ), a generous live-and-let live understanding, or emotional basis, to these programs or they run the risk of doing more harm than good. For example, there is a fine line between teaching that overeating is unhealthy and having the message be that fat people are inferior to people who are normal-sized. Same danger with evaluating family eating habits.

I think one of the reasons the food bank programs are so successful is that many of the people who run the bank have been food insecure themselves. It really does help to have walked a mile in someone else's shoes.

This reminds me of one spiritual take on it all- what goes into your mouth will not defile you; rather, it's what comes out of your mouth that will defile you.

I think what it comes down to is that, in order to do no harm one must first look at his/her own attitudes and prejudices. Deep inside, do you really think that someone who is fit is better than someone who isn't? Do you feel more respect for a family with set bedtimes than a family without them? It's ok to have these thoughts, but you have to be aware of them and when you think them, to stop and take all the power out of the thought, meaning remove all emotion from the thought. Then you can see it for just the empty container it is, nothing but a little thought that came and passed. And then you're a safe person to be involved in the personal lives of children.

A few other issues... From what I have experienced, very few parents have a lack of interest in their children, and when that does happen it is usually due to addiction. In some ways, if you haven't been through the same kind of stresses as they have as parents, you have very little to offer them in the way of advice, unless you first are willing to accept and acknowledge that they have wisdom beyond your experience. Come from a standpoint of humility and compassion, and you will be able to do good. Come from an even slightly judgmental or superior place, and you won't connect, because you are not really offering anything- you are trying to take esteem from the other person and give it to yourself.

[Maria Fleyshgakker]

Hi Ellen, thank you for this thought. I absolutely share your concern about some attempts to apply the same "standards" to everybody. "Standards" when related to individual's health, do not work. Yesterday I was rereading this book: "Nutritional Tests for Better Health" by Dr. Cass Ingram and ran into a very interesting information. I want to show you just one example of typical misunderstanding: "what typically is considered health food like raw cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, beets, peanuts, almonds, peaches, flax, legumes, beans, carrots, and spinach - all contain anti-thyroid components and should be avoided by people with sluggish thyroid". Those people should increase sea salt intake to taste. (pages 283-286). Over 20% of menopausal women in the US are diagnosed with thyroid dysfunction that mean millions of women suffer from low thyroid function (medically referred to as hypothyroidism). The doctor advice they get is usually synthetic hormone intake, not change of diet or life style.
This is just one example, I also researched Type 2 Diabetes and discussed it on my blog just wait a couple of minutes for the page to upload.

[Ellen Pham]

Hi Maria!

I woke up thinking about my post this morning... btw, great blog! A real thinker, at least for me ; ).

I'm worried I won't be able to communicate effectively on this one. I don't want to hurt feelings, and yet it brings out such a protective urge in me.

First I want to say if you haven't been obese (really fat, not 20-40 pounds overweight) yourself or loved someone who has been (close love, mother, sister, best friend, partner) chances are you don't understand the situation well enough to be truly helpful. If you find fat people distasteful in any way (be honest) and you don't examine those thoughts and take the power out of them, the best thing you can do for that person is to leave them alone in regards to health and weight.

In thinking about it a bit more, I mean not only love, but admire. Especially admire the insight and wisdom into the human condition we have gained (hard earned) through our experience. Do you know, really know, that that fat child has something to teach you about social acceptance and how deep that runs through our veins? The dilemma with being fat is you can't hide it- it is the first thing (along with gender and race, I guess) that people see and right up front the child is required to deal with however you are going to respond to that... she doesn't get a break. So if you are going to have a response to another's body size at all, please nurture that response into one of admiration and respect for his (had to give my fat brothers a shout out!) experience in this world. And, at least when dealing with adults, do not make yourself into an idiot by assuming that it is a problem of not knowing about proper nutrition! It is insulting, but also it is so divorced from the reality of our experience, it is laughable. Gee, you say this bag of doritos isn't good for me? No to the pint of Hagendaz too? Even if it's strawberry? :D Most fat people are well informed on nutrition and dietary issues. Very well informed.

Of course, there is nutritional education that is appropriate for children. It's pretty simple.... when my kids were very young, we called it "eat a rainbow". This is closest I can come to finding it online, but I am sure I used a simplified version with only four colors- I probably didn't worry about fats and oils (always get enough of those), and grouped dairy in with the other proteins.

-Orange is grains
-Green is vegetables
-Red is fruits
-Yellow is fats and oils
-Blue is milk and dairy products
-Purple is meat, beans, fish and nuts

For awhile we would call out, I ate a rainbow! whenever we had, and my kids really enjoyed that. If you have a preschooler or young elementary child, you know that just getting them to eat something from each food group is good enough :D

And there is a plethora of children's literature out there that does a great job of discussing nutrition in an interesting and emotionally safe way.

As kids get older, one of the most important lessons on nutrition you can give is on food additives, where they come from, why they are used, the economic reasons behind this and the biological repercussions, etc.

Well, I've got more, but I'm pooped. You might think gee, she is going off the deep end. But so often there are negative assumptions underneath... fat probably means lazy, ill-informed, you just don't care about yourself (or your kids). Children are so vulnerable to the destructive attitudes all fat people deal with everyday.

[Maria Fleyshgakker]

I tried to prove there that overweight is the first symptom of a different metabolism, not the reason for all kinds of disorders, which symptoms always appear later too. When my doctor tells me that I have to lose weight I laugh and say that my body loves my fat :) and doesn't want to let it go.
In reality the doctors don't know what to do with this kind of metabolism and with other hormones-related conditions, so they blame the patients for eating or other stuff. I think we have to learn more about ourselves and try different things, see what works for me and what does not, and only when I take the responsibility for my own health then I'll be healthy.

[Ken Messersmith]

Jess,
I think we also need to talk to kids about growing their minds. I do believe that all kids want to be competent and "smart" even though they may not want to let us know that. We need to convince them that we can build our mind just like body builders build their bodies. Body builders challenge their bodies with things they can't do yet but will be able to do if they keep pressing their body to get stronger.
We need to challenge our mind with problems that it cannot do right now but will be able to do after we train it some more. If we can convince them that they can grow their minds and that their mind must be in a healthy body, we might be able to get them to see a deep personal need to maintain a healthy lifestyle.