Mark’s Daily Apple

Gym Class Chronicles18

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High school gym class. It’s the stuff of comic nostalgia and adolescent nightmares. (Anybody watch The Wonder Years?) The gym teacher personalities, the locker room air, the laps, the team picking, the annoying whistle. Maybe you were one of the jocks, automatic buddy of the instructor, who got away with doing very little because it was your season and you already worked hard. Or maybe you were among those who just tried to stay under the radar and do just enough so gym wouldn’t ruin your gradepoint. Or perhaps you were truly an earnest participant, athlete or not, who found gym a refreshing break from textbook lectures and worksheets.

Whatever our respective roles in high school gym, it was somehow a universal, albeit at times absurd, bonding experience. (Of course, everything seems absurd to a 15-year-old.) We all had to do the drills, and it got us up and off our duffs for a while if nothing else. If we were lucky, we got a gym teacher who was kind of nice and didn’t yell at us too much. Once in a while, it was kind of fun.

But what’s the deal these days with more high schools dropping gym as a requirement? According to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, “little more than half of students nationwide are enrolled in a physical education class, and by high school only a third take gym class daily.�

The following video out of Canada (the neighbors to the north are having problems as well), while it isn’t particularly flashy or clever, highlights the increasing educational trend in making gym optional, particularly at the high school level. While a few of our adolescent selves might be jealous as all heck, in the back of our minds we know something isn’t right about this trend.

via YouTube via Healthy Living Niagara

And it gets worse. According to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 30% of states don’t mandate physical education for elementary and middle school students. Mississippi, ranked the fattest state in the nation, is only now trying to reverse the policy of “optional� gym in its districts, including for grades K-8!

As much as we might joke about our gym class experiences, don’t we agree that they were important? In a time when childhood obesity is at an all time high, can’t we find a way to make sure kids get some activity? It kinda seems like an important lesson to teach.

We agree that gym classes need some work. And we acknowledge that it’s not easy trying to keep 25 children or adolescents in line and vaguely amused enough that they stay out of trouble. But what can a good, affordable physical education program look like? And why do so many states say they can’t make it happen?

And what will come of this hole in the curriculum that won’t allow students enough exploration to find physical activities and outlets that they can enjoy into adulthood? Why can’t we give more than lip service to kids’ health?

Send us your thoughts, answers, arguments and questions.

Further Reading:

Raise Healthy Seedlings!

Posted: Fitness, Health, Raise Healthy Seedlings, Videos

School Menu Trends - ‘A’ For Effort?9

via Healing Quest

You’ve got to hand it to Barbara Stitt and the administrators of Appleton Central High School – they sure are trying. And while we’ll be the first to admit that the improvements in cafeteria fare are certainly admirable, to stick with the schooling theme, they’re far from earning top grades.

So lets look at the positives: It is good news that some schools are now offering salad bars and that they’re contracting with local farmers to ensure that students have access to fresh, wholesome foods. And it is admirable that students are being taught about the importance of a healthy, balanced diet.

But here’s where we have the problem: Much of the menu profiled in this excerpt is extremely carbohydrate heavy – with the school profiled in this video accepting guidance from a bread company no less! Donuts and toast have to go. But pale looking bagels, a slew of muffins and granola is their answer!

Perhaps the most glaring issue in the video is that they say that the changes implemented by the schools bring them into line with the National School Lunch Act made in 1946. Uhhh…1946? Wasn’t there more recent data available? I mean, even the U.S. Department of Agriculture has updated its food pyramid since 1946 (but please, don’t even get us started on those changes!)

The bottom line here? The changes profiled in the video are certainly an improvement over soda machines and fast foods, but there is just so much more we can and should be doing to set our children on the path to a lifetime of healthy eating.

What do you think of their attempts to make school lunches healthy?

Further Reading:

More Videos for your viewing pleasure

How to Make Your Kid’s Lunch “Untradeable”

Posted: Diet, Health, Nutrition, Raise Healthy Seedlings, Videos

You Are What You Eat… Kinda11

I know, I know. You hear the soothing songs of Enya and all of a sudden carrots really do look like eyes and it is sort of weird that avocados are important for reproductive health and take nine months to mature (plus, it was kind of cute when they superimposed those little avocado babies, right?)

But the whole theory is well…a little gimmicky, don’t you think? Because really, if you sat there long enough, you could probably make any food resemble a part of the body. Tic-Tacs, for instance, look just like teeth, you consume them using your mouth and they freshen breath. Genius! And hamburger buns…they look like butts and when you eat them (hundreds of them), they make your butt gain weight. Coincidence? We think not.

The bottom line is that you (well, not you, but the general public) don’t need these gimmicks to know that eating vegetables is important for overall health, nor is it sensible to silo vegetables based on their one main purpose or health benefit. After all, we all know that a healthy heart can only function effectively – and therefore be classified as healthy – if the other organs of the body are happy, healthy and functioning.

But that little Enya ditty sure was relaxing!

Further Reading:

If you are what you eat this is a good place to start becoming a healthier person.

More Videos

Technorati Tags: Enya, vegetables, video, youtube

Posted: Health, Humor, Hype, Videos

Big Bucks, Big Pharma Documentary: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs10

No, it’s not our rant this time. Instead, we’re serving up someone else’s argument for your enjoyment and discussion. You’ll find the voices of a whole host of folks closer to the core than we (thankfully) ever get: physicians, a former pharma sales representative, and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.

(And the timing is apt, we thought. Just two weeks ago the British Medical Journal published research that illuminates (too positive a word, yes) the “invisible influence� that the pharmaceutical industry has on physician education. We invite you to read up on the strategy of silent sponsorship of and input into conference sessions that doctors believe are independent presentations.)

And now for our feature presentation:

via YouTube via Media Education Foundation

We have to say that even we were blown away by the montage of ad clips. We knew every single one, and it’s not just because we eat and breathe this stuff. Anyone know if Jay Leno has ever used pharma ads for Jay Walking? We bet our bottom dollar that people would be more familiar with the arsenal of drugs than they are with their elected officials or basic biological concepts. How could they not be? As the video illustrates, this stuff is in our face every day. You sit down to watch even the nightly news, and pharmaceutical options for ED and cholesterol are as much of the experience as the real news stories themselves.

The subtitle of the video, “Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs,� is all too fitting. This new medical “age� we’re in is crafted to make us feel that it’s normal to be taking medication. It’s the rational, common, proactive thing to “ask your doctor.� And the faces of celebrities, former football stars, heck, even a presidential candidate suggest to us that if those larger than life people take it, why shouldn’t we consider it?

As one of the physicians states in the video, this cultivated message has, of course, resulted in people coming into their doctors’ offices with list in hand of what they want to try. And even if we’re not one of the ones running to see our doctors about the latest magical pill, the string of ad material hits home the idea that we can’t possibly be entirely unaffected by this kind of media. It’s an insidious shift in mindset and health culture that these companies are selling as much as a particular drug itself.

Most of us are undoubtedly old enough to remember the time when drugs (other than over the counter remedies) weren’t advertised on television. Seems like a different age when you look back, doesn’t it? It was.

Further Reading:

Strivor can help you with Motivational Deficiency Disorder.

Big Pharma: Bad Science and Bad Business

PharmaGossip: Things People Don’t Know About Big Pharma

Technorati Tags: big pharma, marketing, commercials, pharmaceuticals, drugs

Posted: Big Pharma, Hype, Marketing, Videos

Get a Life: Second Life Game to Teach Nutrition Habits7

Recognizing the growing role of fast food in our culture, researchers at the VITAL Lab at Ohio University developed Nutrition Game, a simulation game that exists in the online virtual world of Second Life that allows users to virtually experience the effects that fast food can have on their short- and long-term health.

Before we dig any deeper, perhaps now is a good time to talk a little bit about Second Life. Launched in 2003, Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely created by its Residents (and, if you watch lots of Law and Order, featured relatively frequently in their story lines!). When in this virtual world, users can socialize, connect and communicate – either by voice or through instant chats - as well as purchase, trade and sell items with other residents (which can then be converted from the Second Life’s Linden Dollar system to actual U.S. dollars).

Sound confusing? Well, umm, it is! But since its launch, it has attracted million of “residents� from around the globe and is now being used by businesses to test new products or how to grow their company. In recent weeks, for example, Palomar West Medical Campus opened a version of its planned real life hospital in the Second Life, allowing visitors to get a sneak peak at what it would look like on opening day 2011 and affording physicians (both from the hospital and competing institutions) to try out some of the new state-of-the-art technology the new facility will house. In addition, Kraft Foods last year opened – what is believed to be the first – virtual supermarket in Second Life to test 70 new products, including a line of cheeses with probiotics and prebiotics.

Now check out VITAL Lab’s Nutrition Game:

Will explaining the concepts of Nutrition in a virtual world actually translate into a change in real life behaviors? On one hand, you could argue that showing someone a “personalized� – in that the effects are tailored to their age, gender, height, weight and other factors – view of what could happen to them if they make unhealthy food decisions would be better than simply telling them. In addition, the fact that the game makes the link between food choices and overall health may resonate among people who have never before made this association (because trust us, there really are people out there who have no idea!) However, the fact that these diets only cause damage to your avatar – or online version of yourself – could make it too easy to dismiss or somehow undermine the gravity of the situation.

The bottom line? Second Life might be a good tool for teaching fundamentals – especially among those with limited exposure to nutrition and health education – and there are a world of possibilities yet to be explored, but it’s probably not the solution we need to revolutionize the way America dines!

Further Reading:

More Mark’s Daily Apple Video Posts

Science Roll: Everything About Second Life and Medical Education

Technorati Tags: Second Life, Health 2.0, VITAL Lab, Nutrition Game

Posted: Health, Nutrition, Personal Improvement, Videos