Want to teach your kids about healthy eating? Reach for this book
TORONTO – Taking a bite out of childhood obesity is the goal of a children’s book that uses humour to make the connection between food and health.
In “Fartzee Shmartzee’s Fabulous Food Fest,” Adam Michael Segal uses an animated character to champion healthy eating.
Segal, a writer specializing in health and wellness, found himself increasingly disturbed at some of the food choices available to his two children, now eight and six. He noticed students are often rewarded with treats and many schools hold hotdog and pizza fundraisers.
Why health officials are relying on Elmo, Sesame Street friends to stop Zika virus
He’s been recruited to teach kids about sharing and eating vegetables, but now health officials are calling on Elmo and his friends on Sesame Street to warn kids about Zika virus.
As the mosquito-borne illness continues to spread across Latin America, the Pan American Health Organization – a regional arm of the World Health Organization – teamed up with Sesame Street to create an anti-Zika virus campaign.
So far, there are two 30-second clips along with three printouts the WHO is hoping parents and teachers will use around the home and classroom.
n the clips, Elmo and his friend, Raya, a new Muppet who was introduced two years ago to educate kids about hygiene and sanitation, teach kids about how standing water could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
In another video, they teach kids about wearing long sleeves and pants, while applying bug repellent before going outdoors.
“If the mosquito doesn’t bite, goodbye Zika!” Elmo tells kids in the videos.
So far, the ads are only in Spanish and Portuguese, with English coming soon. They’ve aired on “Plaza Sesamo” – the Latin American version of Sesame Street — since late March.
This isn’t the first time Sesame Street characters have been tapped to talk about controversial issues. One Muppet named Alex had a parent who was in prison, while another Muppet named Julia was created to talk about autism.
Kami, on the Nigerian series called “Sesame Square” is HIV-positive.
Like dengue, West Nile and yellow fever, Zika virus is a mosquito-borne tropical disease, meaning mosquitoes transmit the disease to humans.
Right now, more than 20 countries across South and Central America and the Caribbean are grappling with an epidemic of Zika virus.
Health officials in El Salvador, Brazil, Jamaica, Ecuador, Honduras and Colombia told residents to delay pregnancy until doctors better understand if the infection tampers with brain development in infants. So far, it’s been linked to a 20-fold increase in microcephaly in babies.
One day his daughter brought home a jar from school filled with a sugary snack called “toxic waste.”
“What was concerning was that she thought it was the coolest thing ever. And to me that’s a problem. Kids think that this unhealthy food is so cool,” says the Thornhill, Ont., resident.
It got him thinking about characters associated with sugary foods that kids love — including some from his own childhood — such as the leprechaun from Lucky Charms cereal and the cartoon naval officer advertising Cap’n Crunch.
“There’s so many fun and cool characters that those cereals have,” says the 39-year-old. “When you’re a kid it’s just like watching a cartoon.”
3333 Rates of diabetes ‘staggering’ in First Nations communities
WATCH ABOVE: Abstract: The Canadian Diabetes Association is calling for policy changes that will help prevent diabetes in First Nations communities and assist those with the disease in managing it. Rebecca Lau has more.
The Canadian Diabetes Association is hoping World Health Day will shine a light on a disease they say has reached “epidemic proportions.”
Not only does Atlantic Canada have among the highest rates of diabetes in the country, but statistics show aboriginal communities are disproportionately affected.
“When we start looking at First Nations peoples, then those numbers are really getting into a category that’s quite staggering,” said Lisa Matte, the association’s Maritimes regional director.
In March, a new provincial health registry called First Nations Client Linkage Registry was launched in Nova Scotia. It found rates of diabetes among Mi’kmaq people were two times higher than the general population.
For those aged 29 to 39, the prevalence is five times higher.
READ MORE: Cancer, diabetes rates higher in First Nations communities in Nova Scotia
Charlotte Bernard, a wholistic family worker at the Mi’kmaq Child Development Centre, knows the struggles of diabetes firsthand.
Diabetes has always been in the back of her mind because she has a family history and her doctor told her she was borderline for the disease. But it wasn’t until her Type 2 diabetes symptoms worsened that she did something about it.
“It was affecting me. I was tired, I was thirsty, my eyes would blur so I realized that I needed to do something with my life,” Bernard said.
She and her co-workers started a weight loss challenge by eating healthier and keeping each other accountable. They also invited the Canadian Diabetes Association to visit their workplace and give a presentation on healthy living.
In five weeks, Bernard lost 12 lbs and gained a better quality of life. It’s a feat she’s proud to share.
“We do know that natives are at higher risk for diabetes but people just generally don’t talk about it so I think we need to get the word out and start talking about,” she said.
As a physician who works at the Sipekne’katik Health Centre in Indian Brook, Dr. Aruna Dhara has noticed the alarming rates of diabetes in the community. In her practice, she has also seen increasingly younger patients coming in with signs of the disease.
“First Nations people develop diabetes sooner than other people in the population,” she said.
“So it’s not your 85-year-old grandmother, it’s your 35-year-old neighbour and that’s a significant issue because that means people are developing the complications of diabetes sooner than they otherwise would.”
The high rates of diabetes in First Nations communities is often attributed to genetics and social factors — ranging from income to access to healthy and affordable food.
“If you go see a diabetes educator, and they say, ‘you need to eat more fruits and vegetables’ … if you don’t have a vehicle in Sipekne’katik where it takes 25 minutes in a car to get fresh produce, you’re not going to be able to do that,” Dhara said.
That’s why the Canadian Diabetes Association is calling for policy changes that will help prevent diabetes in First Nations communities and assist those with the disease in managing it.
“We need to ensure our First Nations communities have access to equitable access to medications, programs, services, education and all of that needs to be culturally appropriate,” said Matte.
Matte says she was encouraged to see the federal government permanently fund the Aboriginal Diabetes Initiative and hopes to see more programming down the road.
He wrote the book, then a high school friend and animator, Daniel Abramovici, provided the illustrations.
“I said I wanted to create a character that is just as cool and fun as these ones that they’re using for unhealthy ingredients, basically use the same thing but for a good reason,” Segal says.
“The sooner we can get children to realize the benefits of healthy food and make it enjoyable for them the greater the chance they’re going to be able to carry on that habit of eating healthy the rest of their lives.”
The World Health Organization says childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Globally in 2013, the number of overweight children under age five was estimated to be more than 42 million, up from 32 million in 1990.
Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age, the WHO says.
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