Is there a really a pizza tree?

If the fact that Congress is pushing to have French fries and tomato sauce on pizza considered as “vegetables” wasn’t so scary, it would be funny. There was obviously no serious thought given to this, this is the result of our government being bought off by special interest groups. They attack efforts to give our kids healthier food choices at school and ridicule those, like Michelle Obama, who are making sincere efforts to make a difference at the expense of our kids.

There are too many agri-businesses and politicians who are willing to allow our childhood obesity epidemic to continue. They don't care that our military is telling us that young people are too fat to fight, with only one in four meeting the fitness requirements for military service. They don't care that one in three children under the age of 18 will develop Type II Diabetes within their lifetime. They don't care that the rate of childhood obesity has doubled since 1980.

Everyone complains about healthcare and there are few real solutions offered. Basic simple suggestions, like our kids’ diets, that should be obvious to even our challenged representatives are thrown under the bus. The fact that the US spends twice as much on healthcare as other countries while we rank much lower on our actual health should be a wake-up call to everyone. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

LouAnn Good
Fitness Together

A Warrior for Health

I’ve become a Warrior for Health!

Our world has become more complicated. Modern warfare and terrorism has taught us that foreign armies amassing at our borders will not be what invades our country and threatens our way of life. What If our country were threatened by an outside force, one that had the potential to bankrupt our economy, destroy our way of life and make our children so sick that children dying before their parents became commonplace. What if this threat was already within our borders, living amongst us? Would we surrender? Would we say we’re too tired to fight? Would we say we can’t change and deny the threat?

Our country’s health and the skyrocketing cost of healthcare is THE biggest threat to our economy, to our way of life and to the pursuit of happiness that is our birthright. Our country spends twice as much on healthcare as most other industrialized countries in the world. Our healthcare system, according to the World Health Organization in 2000, ranked 37th in the world (just after Costa Rica). Since we spend so much, shouldn’t we be healthier?

It is estimated that 70% of our illnesses are the result of our lifestyle and our habits. The Milken Institute estimates that chronic disease cost the US economy over one trillion dollars a year through healthcare costs and lost productivity, an amount that could rise to six trillion dollars a year by 2050.

According to the Center for Disease Control:
Chronic Diseases are the Leading Causes of Death and Disability in the U.S.
•7 out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases. Heart disease, cancer and stroke account for more than 50% of all deaths each year.
•In 2005, 133 million Americans – almost 1 out of every 2 adults – had at least one chronic illness.
•Obesity has become a major health concern. 1 in every 3 adults is obese and almost 1 in 5 youth between the ages of 6 and 19 is obese (BMI ≥ 95th percentile of the CDC growth chart).
•About one-fourth of people with chronic conditions have one or more daily activity limitations.
•Arthritis is the most common cause of disability, with nearly 19 million Americans reporting activity limitations.
•Diabetes continues to be the leading cause of kidney failure, non-traumatic lower-extremity amputations, and blindness among adults, aged 20-74.7
The four most common causes of chronic disease are a lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption.

So fellow warriors, who is the enemy? Do we blame Phillip Morris, McDonalds, too much TV , the beer industry? As Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and he is us!”

Forget expecting the government to rescue us, forget expecting our teachers to do for our kids what we haven’t done for ourselves, forget denial and forget hoping to just get “lucky”! It’s time to take action and take responsibility for our health, our kid’s health and our country’s health.

Get off the couch and go sweat somewhere! Man up and stop eating all that stuff you know you shouldn’t be eating! Take a look at the habits that you know, and we all know, are killing us and quit!

Modern marketing has convinced us that we’re weak (“bet you can’t eat just one!”). We are strong, we are powerful! Vote with your feet, vote with your dinner plate, and vote for the future of our country by becoming a Warrior for Health!

Exercise and Children's Intelligence

This is an excellent article on the positive effects of exercise on learning!


Exercise helps overweight children think better, do better in math
February 10, 2011
By Toni Baker
AUGUSTA, Ga. – Regular exercise improves the ability of overweight, previously inactive children to think, plan and even do math, Georgia Health Sciences University researchers report.

They hope the findings in 171 overweight 7- to 11-year-olds – all sedentary when the study started – gives educators the evidence they need to ensure that regular, vigorous physical activity is a part of every school day, said Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at GHSU’s Georgia Prevention Institute and corresponding author on the study in Health Psychology

“I hope these findings will help reestablish physical activity’s important place in the schools in helping kids stay physically well and mentally sharp,” Davis said. “For children to reach their potential, they need to be active.”

To measure cognition, researchers used the Cognitive Assessment System and Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement III that measure abilities such as planning and academic skills such as math and reading. A subset of the children received functional magnetic resonance imaging highlighting increased or decreased areas of brain activity.

MRIs showed those who exercised experienced increased brain activity in the prefrontal cortex – an area associated with complex thinking, decision making and correct social behavior – and decreased activity in an area of the brain that sits behind it. The shift forward appears consistent with more rapidly developing cognitive skills, Davis said.

And the more they exercised, the better the result. Intelligence scores increased an average 3.8 points in those exercising 40 minutes per day after school for three months with a smaller benefit in those exercising 20 minutes daily.

Activity in the part of their brain responsible for so-called executive function also increased in children who exercised. “In kids you just don’t know what impact you are going to have when you improve their ability to control their attention, to behave better in school, to make better choices,” Davis notes. “Maybe they will be more likely to stay in school and out of trouble.”

Similar improvements were seen in math skills; interestingly, no improvements were found in reading skill. Researchers note that improved math achievement was “remarkable” since no math lessons were given and suggests longer intervention could produce even better results.

Children in the exercise program played hard, with running games, hula hoops and jump ropes, raising their heart rates to 79 percent of maximum, which is considered vigorous.

Cognitive improvements likely resulted from the brain stimulation that came from movement rather than resulting cardiovascular improvements, such as increased blood and oxygen supplies, Davis said. “You cannot move your body without your brain.”

The researchers hypothesize that such vigorous physical activity promotes development of brain systems that underlie cognition and behavior. Animal studies have shown that aerobic activity increases growth factors so the brain gets more blood vessels, more neurons and more connections between neurons. Studies in older adults have shown exercise benefits the brain and Davis’s study extends the science to children and their ability to learn in school.

About one-third of U.S. children are overweight. Davis suspects exercise would have a similar impact on their leaner counterparts.

Co-authors include Dr. Jennifer E. McDowell, neuroscientist, and Dr. Phillip Dr. Tomporowski, exercise and cognition expert, at the University of Georgia.