FITNESS: Food fight

March 10, 2008 09:32 am

— Kids are not to blame. Yes, there’s a national crisis of childhood obesity, but children are not responsible for fast food restaurants on every corner, or the hypnotic images that tease from electronic screens, or even the fact that they don’t want to play outside anymore.
Kids are kids. They are drawn to bright colors. They tend to not want to deprive themselves of goodies or push themselves if they don’t have to, largely because they are children.
When adult business people set out nets to catch children’s attention and their appetites, many parents get captured in the lines. That’s because inside many parent are the remnants of a child that doesn’t like to be deprived, either.
The good news is that in the Niagara region and throughout the country, grown-ups are turning their attention toward the unsavory fact that they have been unsuccessful at teaching children about good health.
Fitness programs are being created to lure children to gyms, calling them out with a drum beat of loud music and hip hop rhythms. Schools cafeterias are relegating white breads and pastas, along with their empty calories, to the back of the line in their food presentations, and whole grains, fresh fruits and veggies are being offered in positions of honor.
Those efforts are being fortified by a new state-funded program in the Niagara region which will impact the lives of thousands of children by educating them about food choices and the benefits of exercise.
“The number one thing is you have to find is what kids will enjoy,” said Gail Vizzi, owner of Summit Fitness in Wheatfield, which offers a trendy class for kids and their parents Saturday mornings called “Hip Hop and Healthy.”
Created in response to requests from her fitness clients, the class practices moves like the “Britney Spears” or the “Charlie Chaplin,” and the result is a jiving cross-generational moving jam session.
“I was overwhelmed by the response,” said Vizzi, who is now working on “a little boot camp thing” and maybe some Latin dance classes to lure more parent/child teams to her gym.
A more classroom-based effort called “Shapedown,” also directed at parents and their children, is being led by Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, with help from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Services of Niagara County. “Shapedown” offers a 10-week class that “talks about bigger issues than counting calories,” said Susan Keegan, senior director of rehabilitation services at St. Mary’s.
“It’s not so much putting them on a diet,” Keegan said. “A lot of it is family dynamics and coping. This is more of an interactive counseling program.”
The program, currently in session with 7- to 12- year-olds and parents, costs $50 but may be covered by some health insurances. Scholarships are also available, Keegan added.
Parents who don’t seek help for their overweight children may be assisted anyway through a new five-year, state-funded program that is eventually going to impact public school children throughout the region.
Beginning this month, children in the Niagara Falls School District, and those in the city’s 21st Century after-school programs, as well as those involved with the Center for Joy, the Boys and Girls Clubs and Boy Scout of America programs, will be tested for physical fitness and body fat and trained in making healthy choices.
The program, administered by the Health Association of Niagara County Inc., will expand one community at a time each year — including Lockport, North Tonawanda, Newfane and Barker school districts — over the next five years.
The state funded the $625,000 program after a recent assessment in the Lockport School District found 19.3 percent of the students were overweight or obese, which is slightly higher than the most recent national statistics of the Center for Disease Control, which found 17.4 percent of teens overweight nationwide. Lockport students also proved to be alarmingly unfit. More than two-thirds of the students failed the core strength tests.
The HANCI program is expected to impact more than 22,000 children in this region who, once healthier, may stay that way longer into their adulthood.
“The intent is to come together in a very intentional and strategic manner to change the landscape for children who are potentially overweight and obese,” said Jimmy Rowe, the project director at HANCI. An added benefit is that “we can postpone the onset of adult chronic diseases,” he said.
In all the kid-parent programs, parents will also learn about healthy choices for themselves, but it is the children who are most important in these outreach efforts, Rowe said.
“Children should not be a negotiable commodity,” he said. “They are first and foremost our next potential leaders in America. If they become unhealthy, how can they intentionally seek out those roles?
“We need to take care of them now so they can be productive, healthy, good citizens and be our next leaders.”
Contact reporter Michele DeLucaat 693-1000, ext. 157.

GETTING KIDS FIT
• WHAT: “Hip Hop and Healthy,” a dance/fitness class for children battling obesity and their parents
• WHEN: Noon Saturdays
• WHERE: Summit Fitness Center, 6930 Williams Road, Wheatfield
• CONTACT: Owner instructor Gail Vizzi, 297-4300
•••
• WHAT: Shapedown, a class for children and parents addressing issues surrounding obesity, sponsored by Mount St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston with the Cornell Cooperative Extension Service of Niagara County and the Center for Joy in Niagara Falls.
• WHEN: Continuing program of 10-week classes
• WHERE: Niagara County Community College, 3111 Saunders Settlement Road, Sanborn
• CONTACT: Susan Keegan of Mount St. Mary’s in Lewiston, 297-4800
•••
• WHAT: The state Department of Health Obesity Prevention Program
• WHEN: Beginning this month in Niagara Falls and moving into one new school district each year for five years
• WHERE: The Niagara Falls, Lockport, North Tonawanda, Barker and Newfane school districts
• CONTACT: Jimmy Rowe of the Health Association of Niagara County Inc., 285-8224

Photos

Gail Vizzi, owner and fitness instructor at Summit Fitness in Wheatfield, leads children and parents in a class called “Hip Hop and Healthy,” designed to combat childhood obesity at the Williams Road fitness center. Dan Cappellazzo