News: Class teaches youngsters healthful nutrition, exercise habits
(Above) Amy Cahill (left), nutrition education specialist, listens to Maggie Tassone, 8, talk about the nutrition food label during a class, Lifelong Eating and Activity Patterns, April 11 at the OPT for Fit Kids classroom.
LAURIE KAVENAUGH - Staff Writer
During a break in class, Amy Cahill suggested everyone stand up from their work tables and make a circle in the room. She encouraged youngsters and adults to squat down and then "leap" up for a "little, quick energy."
Her suggestion worked as it brought the group to giggles and its energy level back to enthusiastic. It was a "leap" in more ways than one.
Another session of the Lifelong Eating and Activity Patterns, or LEAP, class was in full swing April 11. About a dozen students, youngsters ages 10 to 15 years, and their parents or grandparents, were in attendance in a classroom at 1311 Mangrove Ave.
Referred by pediatricians or school nurses, families taking LEAP class are dealing with their youngsters' health issues. They are struggling with too many calories and too few physical activities.
Families pay from $40 to $100 to attend the six-week classes that offer lessons about eating well and increasing physical activity with the idea to make life healthier for both generations. There's something yummy to eat during class and the more youngsters participate, the better chance they have of winning prizes at the end of each session.
Lifelong Eating and Activity Patterns classes are a segment of the Sierra Cascade and Activity Consortium that is overseen by the Center for Nutrition and Activity Program. Also under the Center for Nutrition and Activity Program is the Overweight Prevention and Treatment, or OPT for Kids program, which encourages lifestyle change; and Five A Day, a program that works through the schools to teach nutrition and fitness.
Karen Goodwin, a nutrition education specialist with OPT for Fit Kids, manages the classes along with students from Chico State University who are community nutrition assistants. Cahill is also a nutrition education specialist.
Goodwin, whose education is in nutrition and has also owned and operated a restaurant and company that supplied vegetarian tamales to stores, said this class was about halfway through the six-week session. Another will start at the end of May.
When students arrive, they weigh in first. Then, topics are taken from colorful workbooks written by OPT for Fit Kids staff.
Workbooks show students ways to determine which foods are best. One way is placing foods into red, yellow and green light categories. Red light foods are highest in fat and or sugar, such as chips and soda; yellow light foods are questionable with some fat or sugar, such as low fat milk, crackers and granola. Green light foods are the "go" foods that contain the least amount of fat and sugar, such as whole wheat cereals, non-fat cottage cheese and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Besides teaching students about the go, slow or stop method, psychological concepts are covered in understandable ways. Lessons show how to decide what real hunger is using a scale with a rating of 1, "very hungry" to 10, "stuffed"; how students can evaluate feelings when they eat and how advertising manipulates feelings about food.
Students are introduced to healthful foods through snacks the LEAP staff supplies during class and by trying at home recipes in the workbooks. On this night, tostadas with seasoned black beans, brown rice and low-fat cheese were a hit.
Parents and youngsters separate for a middle session, during which parents discuss how to entice picky eaters, introduce new foods to kids and motivate families to exercise. One parent discussed her concern at the lack of lunch choices for her daughter at school, adding she could watch her at home but not at school. A grandmother said the classes had saved her family by encouraging good choices for the adults and kids, and that her child had already lost 15 pounds.
Students learn to take a close look at nutrition labels, question advertising methods and look for healthful foods when eating at school or in fast food restaurants. Cahill drew a picture of a wheat nugget, showing the bran, germ and the wheat to illustrate how whole wheat foods are more filling.
When students and parents were together at the end of the 90 minutes, staff repeated the night's main points and had a drawing for prizes.
Patrick McCafferty, father of 15-year-old Sean, said the classes were a good refresher for him, after being in the food business for years. "I think it's helping him," he said of Sean, who was bouncing a Hacky Sack.
When asked how the classes have helped him, Sean said, "I've learned to read the nutrition labels."
To find out about the next LEAP class, call OPT for Fit Kids at 345-0678.
Staff writer Chris Gullick can be reached at 896-7760 or cgullick@chicoer.com.
This originally appeared in the April 22, 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record.
