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Childhood Obesity Informational Brochure

As we have seen, childhood obesity is becoming a serious concern, an epidemic for many North American children and their parents.

Create a brochure that deals with the issue of childhood obesity and physical activity. The brochure should be aimed at parents and should include the following:

What is obesity? (define)

The dangers of obesity

Some reasons children might become obese

Role of physical activity and lifestyle in a healthy lifestyle

Ways parents can help children to develop healthy habits

Use the information we discussed in class (notes, articles, video clips) to create your brochure. You may want to conduct research outside of the class material, please provide a bibliography if you conduct independent research.

See rubric on how you will be evaluated.

Due Date:

Childhood Obesity Brochure Rubric

|Category |Level 4 |Level 3 |Level 2 |Level 1 |

|Knowledge/ |Student demonstrates thorough |Student demonstrates solid |Student demonstrates some |Student demonstrates |

|Understanding |and insightful understanding of |understanding of causes, |understanding of causes, |limited understanding of |

| |causes, effects and solutions to|effects and solutions to |effects and solutions to |causes, effects and |

| |childhood obesity |childhood obesity |childhood obesity |solutions to childhood |

| | | | |obesity |

|Thinking/Inquiry |Includes rich and detailed |Includes sufficient |Includes some information |Includes little information|

| |information from to support main|information to support main|to support main ideas |to support main ideas |

| |ideas related to childhood |ideas related to childhood |related to childhood |related to childhood |

| |obesity |obesity |obesity |obesity |

|Communication |Communicates facts and ideas |Communicates facts and |Communicates facts and |Communicates facts and |

| |with exceptional clarity and |ideas with considerable |ideas with some clarity and|ideas with limited clarity |

| |organization |clarity and organization |organization |and organization |

Causes of Overweight: Kids Health

A number of factors contribute to becoming overweight. Genetics, lifestyle habits, or a combination of both may be involved. In some instances, endocrine problems, genetic syndromes, and medications can be associated with excessive weight gain.

Much of what we eat is quick and easy — from fat-laden fast food to microwave and prepackaged meals. Daily schedules are so jam-packed that there's little time to prepare healthier meals or to squeeze in some exercise. Portion sizes, in the home and out, have grown greatly.

Plus, now more than ever life is sedentary — kids spend more time playing with electronic devices, from computers to handheld video game systems, than actively playing outside. Television is a major culprit.

Kids younger than 6 spend an average of 2 hours a day in front of a screen, mostly watching TV, DVDs, or videos. Older kids and teens spend almost 4 hours a day watching TV, DVDs, or videos. When computer use and video games are included, time spent in front of a screen increases to over 5½ hours a day! Kids who watch more than 4 hours a day are more likely to be overweight compared with kids who watch 2 hours or less.

Not surprisingly, TV in the bedroom is also linked to increased likelihood of being overweight. In other words, for many kids, once they get home from school, virtually all of their free time is spent in front of one screen or another.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) currently recommends limiting the time kids over 2 years of age spend in front of a screen to no more than 1-2 hours. The AAP also discourages any screen time for children younger than 2 years.

Many kids don't get enough physical activity. Although physical education (PE) in schools can help kids get up and moving, more and more schools are eliminating PE programs or cutting down the time spent on fitness-building activities. One study showed that gym classes offered third-graders just 25 minutes of vigorous activity each week.

Current guidelines recommend that kids over 2 years of age get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week.

Genetics also play a role — genes help determine body type and how your body stores and burns fat just like they help determine other traits. Genes alone, however, cannot explain the current obesity crisis. Because both genes and habits can be passed down from one generation to the next, multiple members of a family may struggle with weight.

People in the same family tend to have similar eating patterns, maintain the same levels of physical activity, and adopt the same attitudes toward being overweight. Studies have shown that a child's risk of obesity greatly increases if one or more parent is overweight or obese.

Help your kids be heart healthy: Heart and Stroke Foundation

As a parent, teacher or caregiver, you want your children to be the healthiest they can be. Encouraging your children to be physically active and eat nutritious food are the best steps you can take toward that goal. But in recent years, you may have become concerned about reports of children being overweight and obese.

In Canada, studies have shown children and youth are getting larger and less active. Over the past 30 years, obesity rates have tripled. One in four children and youth are either overweight or obese. Even more worrisome is the fact that less than 10% of children are meeting the recommended 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity each day.  

And yet regular physical activity is so important for any kid’s growth and development. The benefits include: improved social and learning skills, stronger friendships, improved concentration and memory skills, and a positive impact on self-esteem.

Without a balanced, nutritious diet and regular physical activity, children may gain weight and harm their heart health. Studies show that children or adolescents who are obese are more likely to remain obese as adults, leading to serious risk factors for heart disease and stroke. They may be prone to developing high blood pressure or Type 2 diabetes.

If your child’s lifestyle habits include eating too many unhealthy foods low in nutrients and high in calories such as doughnuts, potato chips, French fries, pop and candy and getting too little physical activity, we encourage you to speak to your healthcare provider for guidance.  

At the Heart and Stroke Foundation, we are committed to ensuring that all children and youth grow up healthy with access to physical activity and healthy eating where they live, learn and play through a variety of programs and initiatives.

• For more tips on our programs and initiatives, go to our Healthy Children and Youth section.

• Read more about the physical activity needs of children and youth.

• For information on nutritious, balanced diets, go to Eating well with Canada’s Food Guide.

• For exclusive, heart-healthy kid-friendly meals, go to our recipe section.

What you can do

Healthy habits begin at home. From the time they are born, children need our help to learn about healthy eating physical activity.  Peer pressure influences children and youth of all ages, but is particularly strong in the early teen years. As a parent, teacher or caregiver, you play an important role in helping your children stay healthy now and throughout their lives. To help your kids develop healthy eating and physical activity habits, you may wish to follow these easy tips:

▪ Encourage your children to eat three well-balanced meals a day at regular times. Choose one food from each of the four food groups from Canada’s Food Guide: 1) vegetables and fruit; 2) grain product; 3) meat and alternatives; 4) milk and alternatives.

▪ Provide them with at least four to six servings of vegetables and fruit a day (depending on their age). Five servings might look like this: a small apple, half of a banana, a handful of baby carrots, a small bowl of peas and a stalk of cooked broccoli.

▪ Offer them water, low-fat milk (1% or 2%) and 100% fruit juices instead of pop and other sugary drinks.

▪ Serve fresh fruit, veggie sticks and lower-fat yogurt after school and on the weekends instead of high-fat, high-calorie snack foods such as potato chips and doughnuts.

▪ Encourage free outdoor play such as a pick-up game of baseball or tobogganing while limiting their screen time in front of computers, video games and TV. Read the Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for children. 

▪ Help children get pleasure out of being active by encouraging them to choose activities they love – is it dancing, basketball, hockey, soccer, swimming, rollerblading, biking or jumping rope? Read about children's physical activity needs.

▪ Schedule active family outings such as hiking in a provincial park trail, swimming at the local community pool or snowshoeing in your neighbourhood.

▪ Get your kids cooking – they usually like to eat what they have fun making.

SCHOOLS AND NUTRITION

FACTS

• Rates of obesity amongst children and youth aged 2 to 17 in Canada are increasing. In 1978/79, 3% of Canadian children and youth were obese. By 2004, 8% or an estimated 500,000 were obese.1

• An additional 18% of Canadian children and youth are overweight. Combined, one quarter (26%) of Canadian children and youth are either overweight or obese.1

• Weight gain during adolescence and young adult life may be one of the most important determinants of future development of heart disease and stroke. Eating a healthy diet from a young age and continuing throughout life are important to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Unhealthy eating during childhood may interfere with optimal growth and development and contribute to poor eating habits during adolescence and adulthood.2

• Between the ages of six and twelve, children are learning to make decisions and beginning to make more choices on their own. They are developing eating habits and attitudes they may carry with them for the rest of their lives. Peer pressure influences children and youth of all ages and is particularly strong in the early teen years.3

• Schools are an ideal setting to establish and promote healthy eating amongst children and youth.4 Schools have an important influence on what children and youth eat. The school environment influences healthy eating in children and youth through the foods that are available, nutrition policies, school nutrition and the health curricula, and teacher and peer-modeling.5

Adopting food policies that promote healthy food choices at school (e.g. healthy menus for school meals and student stores, guidelines

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