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Those who completed more than half the sessions increased their levels of moderate/vigorous activity an average 22 minutes compared to a 66-minute decrease for the controls.

"Most of these children live in areas where they may have limited access to safe, affordable places to exercise, so we had them make their own suggestions for exercising," Frenn said. "They came up with ideas such as jumping jacks or push-ups while watching television or videos."

The percentage of dietary fat decreased from 30.7 to 29.9 percent of calories in students participating in half of the sessions. Those in the control group had 31.5 percent dietary fat on pre-test and 31.7 percent on post-test. The combination of increased activity and lower dietary fat should result in losing half a pound per week. Habits of students in the control group would lead to slow weight gain, Frenn said.

"We focused on kids becoming aware of what they were eating," she said. "The program encourages them to eat a balanced diet every day. Most kids just need help evaluating what they are eating as compared with recommended amounts.

"By the end, they know how many calories they should eat and the percentage of those calories that should come from fat, she said. "They learn that eating fast food more than once a week increases their chances of obesity." Frenn said the Milwaukee school cafeteria program was low-fat and healthy. But many students skipped breakfast so they could sleep later or bought sodas and chips on the way to school and skipped lunch. "We encouraged them to at least drink low-fat milk and have a granola bar for breakfast."

Researchers also encouraged students to ask parents for a favorite fruit or vegetable at the store instead of junk food. Students received recipes online for low-fat snacks and breakfast foods.

The study showed that low-income students generally had less family support for diet and exercise. They als
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Contact: Carole Bullock
carole.bullock@heart.org
214-706-1279
American Heart Association
4-Mar-2004