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Sara Lee Center for Women's Health Launches Everyone has heard the statistics about obesity, and the numbers aren't good. Across the nation, more people are overweight or obese than ever before, and nowhere is this statistic truer than in North Carolina, where 62 percent of adults are overweight or obese. Obesity isn't just a problem for our state's adults, though. In North Carolina, roughly 17 percent of children ages 5 to 18 are also overweight, and overweight children have more than a 50-percent risk of becoming overweight adults. But now families in Forsyth County have an ally in the battle against the adolescent bulge. This spring, the Sara Lee Center for Women's Health at Forsyth Medical Center introduced its KidSmart nutrition and fitness education program. KidSmart is a multi-faceted initiative aimed at improving the health of our community's children by providing nutrition education, improving food choices and encouraging families to take an active role in bettering their own health. "Adolescent obesity is a global epidemic, as we've all been told, but it's also a local epidemic," says Elizabeth K. Rogers, adolescent wellness program coordinator at the Sara Lee Center for Women's Health. "Our community's children are battling a range of diseases that were once thought to affect only adults — from type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure to arthritis and even cardiovascular disease." Rogers says the only way that we can reverse the course we're on is to take action now. And that's where KidSmart comes in. One of the first campaigns in the KidSmart program, which is funded in part through a grant from the Wachovia Foundation and by the Sara Lee Center for Women's Health, is a collaboration with area restaurants to promote healthier eating. "The restaurant campaign encourages restaurants in Forsyth County to provide healthier food choices and a safe and healthy environment for all patrons," Rogers explains. "These restaurants receive decals, countertop posters and educational placemats for promoting the KidSmart program." To be part of KidSmart, restaurants need to alter their offerings to meet at least five of seven criteria:
Rogers says these criteria are great first steps toward promoting a healthy environment and healthy nutrition. However, no particular criteria are mandatory. That's because the goal is not to create a strict set of nutritional rules that must be followed by restaurants, or to tell children exactly what they can or cannot eat, she explains. Instead, KidSmart is working to give children the tools they need to make smart decisions now — and down the road. Restaurants participating in the KidSmart program include Applebee's, Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, The Loop Pizza Grill and Forsyth Medical Center's eateries. Additional restaurants will be added in the coming months. To encourage kids to participate in KidSmart, children are given a loyalty rewards card that is stamped each time they eat at a KidSmart-participating restaurant. Once full, the card can be sent, along with an essay on what being a healthy KidSmart kid means, to the Sara Lee Center for Women's Health. Kids will then receive a special KidSmart gift. Future KidSmart campaigns are in the works and may include healthy cooking classes, nutrition classes, physical activity programs, summer camp programs and even a KidSmart boutique. "The Sara Lee Center for Women's Health is committed to improving the health of children in our community," Rogers says. "KidSmart programs help increase awareness of good nutrition and the importance of physical activity and empower children of all ages to take an active role in their good health." For an updated list of KidSmart restaurants or to learn more about how to become a KidSmart restaurant, please call Kirsten Davis at (336) 718-3790. This article appeared in Forsyth Woman, August 2007. |
© 2008