A lesson in heart health

Updated 10:00 AM September 20, 2004

A lesson in heart health

By Krista Hopson
UMHS Public Relations

It's hard for many kids to resist the tasty temptations—cookies, shakes, French fries, soft drinks and pizza—offered at their school cafeterias, and even some not-so-healthy treats tucked away in their brown-bag lunches.

Those unhealthy eating habits, coupled with the rising rate of obesity among American children, have lead the Cardiovascular Center (CVC), the MFit Health Promotion Division of the U-M Health System, the School of Public Health (SPH) and Ann Arbor Public Schools to come together to teach students an important lesson: how to lead a heart-healthy lifestyle to reduce their future risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Their effort, Project Healthy Schools, will begin this fall in a pilot program at Clague Middle School. Its goal is to educate students on how to make better eating and lifestyle choices.

As part of the project, the school's vending machines will be updated to offer healthier snack and beverage choices, and lunchroom menu options will reflect a heart-healthier approach. Plus, the project will emphasize the importance of physical activity.

If Project Healthy Schools proves to be a success, Dr. Kim Eagle—clinical director of the CVC—hopes the program will become a prototype for other schools to follow across the country.

"We know that if students exercise and eat right, they perform better in school," he says. "They feel better, they have a better body image and they live longer, healthier lives."

Currently 22 percent of children in the United States are considered obese. These children may face a host of health concerns, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, often at a young age. And what's really alarming, Eagle says, is that as many as a third of new diabetics are children between the ages of 10 and 20, which increases their risk for cardiovascular disease later in life.

And obese children tend to grow up to be obese adults who are more likely to have high blood pressure and high cholesterol—all risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Project Healthy Schools focuses not only on children, but also on parents, so that children can have help in making healthy food and exercise choices at home.

At school, the project's goal is to encourage students to do at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise a week. This is done by working exercise into the students' normal curriculum.

"We hope to find ways to build cardiovascular prevention into the students' advisory time, health time and even science classes," Eagle says. "This can help the students learn those disciplines and recognize behaviors in their lives that are likely to be long-lasting."

A unique aspect of the project is the relationship it builds with food and beverage vending machine companies and the school's food management services to implement heart-healthy nutrition changes for student lunches, says Theresa Han-Markey, a registered dietician in the Human Nutrition Program at SPH. As a result, students will see improved vending options and healthier food offered in the a la carte line of the cafeteria.

"Food and beverage vending machines contribute to overweight and obesity when children eat or drink too much," she says. "So smaller portions, less frequency of eating these types of foods can help, and so can teaching children to eat in moderation or making better choices can improve their overall nutrition intake."

A lesson in heart health

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