A health assessment battery was developed to screen elementary school children in Clovis (California) for factors that might lead to heart disease. Students' height, blood pressure, flexibility, weight, and body fatness (by skin-fold tests) were measured. Plans call for future development of longitudinal student profiles. (Authors/PP)

Concepts, such as nutrition density, that teachers need to understand to teach children good nutrition are explained. Teachers can use food diaries, protein picture charts, and class discussions about health problems related to excessive sugar and fats to instill healthy eating habits in their students. (PP)

A weight reduction and control program was developed for 11 obese trainable mentally retarded (TMR) students (11-21 years old) by the school counselor. The gradual reduction of weight over time demonstrated that it is possible for TMR students to learn self-help skills related to diet. (Author/SBH)

Presents an update on the Year 2000 objectives for the nation that establish targets in 22 priority areas. The article offers information from a study on exercise by the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, reviews Healthy People 2000 data, and lists Year 2000 physical activity and fitness objectives. (SM)

Attempts to support the parental prejudice hypothesis by having students report on their parents' attitudes. Results from two studies indicate that heavyweight women were more likely to pay their own way through college, irrespective of their parents' income. The selection bias against fat women was strongest for daughters of political…

Individuals are bombarded every day with data on obesity and its health consequences, with information on weight loss treatments and their successes and failures, and with tips on how to reduce caloric intake and increase physical activity. Obesity has become a global epidemic, termed globesity (World Health Organization, 2003), and seen by many…

In Louisiana, it is estimated that almost 33% of school-age children are at risk for becoming overweight or are already overweight (Louisiana Office of Public Health, 2004). Studies have shown that poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and weight problems often associated with being overweight adversely affect academic performance in school…

Children and adolescents live in a world where thin is "in" and the pressure to conform to society's view of the ideal body, when combined with other life factors, can set the stage for an eating disorder, a psychiatric illness characterized by an extreme desire to be thin and an intense fear of weight gain. Clinical eating disorders and…

The current state of physical fitness in American youth is unknown. While evidence exists that obesity levels are increasing in children and youth, data on declines in physical fitness measures (i.e., cardiorespiratory and musculoskeletal fitness) are lacking. Tracking of physical fitness components has been poorly done. Surveillance of behaviors…

As the obesity epidemic gains a stronger foothold in today's society--as evidenced by the recently revamped U.S. dietary guidelines--it is clear that young people are not adequately educated on the necessity of physical activity and good nutrition in their daily lives. The reality is that these students' families are not adequately educating them…

Recent evidence indicates that the near-epidemic growth rate of adult obesity in the United States has spread its pernicious tentacles to our youths. The overweight rate among school-age children in the United States tripled from about five percent to more than 15 percent between 1980 and 2002 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002).…

Obesity stereotypes and anti fat attitudes influence the social behavior of middle school students according to a study presented last June at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Using a series of questionnaires and fat and thin silhouette figures, the researchers quizzed 176 boys and 141 girls between the ages of…

Phil Gainous is in a sticky spot. The board of education in Montgomery County, Md., decided this was the year when sugary sodas and non-nutritious snacks must disappear from high school vending machines, replaced by healthier options. Gainous isn't against promoting healthy habits. But as the veteran principal of Montgomery Blair High School, the…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate the relationship between emotional eating and spiritual well-being. It was found that among college women lower levels of spiritual well-being correlated with higher levels of emotional eating (r = -0.22, p = 0.0015). In other studies emotional eating has been found to contribute to higher…

A data set contained in the "Journal of Statistical Education's" data archive provides a way of exploring regression analysis at a variety of teaching levels. An appropriate functional form for the relationship between percentage body fat and the BMI is shown to be the semi-logarithmic, with variation in the BMI accounting for a little over half…