Healthy Lifestyles

Healthy Lifestyles

A core belief of 4-H is Health, as evidenced by the four H’s in the 4-H clover: Head, Heart, Hands and Health. 4-H is committed to the physical, mental and emotional health of our nation’s youth so they may lead healthy and productive lives into adulthood. 4-H has become a national leader in health-related educational issues, including chemical health, mental and emotional health, foods and nutrition, physical health and safety.

Healthy Lifestyles in New York State

Experts predict that if something doesn’t change, nearly a quarter of American children will be obese by 2015. The root causes of obesity, poor nutrition and physical inactivity, will become the leading underlying causes of preventable deaths in the United States. Today’s society doesn’t make it easy to live a healthy lifestyle. With an abundance of unhealthy food choices and an increase in sedentary activities, like television and video games, it comes as no surprise that childhood obesity is skyrocketing.

The 4-H Choose Health initiative takes a proactive approach, emphasizing physical activity, healthy eating and changes in the home, school, and community environments as the best chance for success at reducing the incidence of childhood obesity. The program builds on numerous tested research-based curricular and other resources at county, state and federal levels to promote healthy eating and active living among children, youth, families, and communities.

4-H Choose Health: Helping communities make healthy choices
Our efforts are focused on several fronts:
• Creating healthier environments at 4-H camps;
• Developing a core group of teen ambassadors and mentors to educate others about making healthy choices;
• Initiating a series of promotional efforts at statewide events like State Fair and Career Explorations;
• Training adults and youth involved in 4-H to spread the message to their communities.

The Choose Health message emphasizes healthy eating, physical activity and changes that can be made in the home, school and community to encourage health. In addition, the program incorporates the connection between choosing a healthy lifestyle for oneself and preserving natural resources, saving energy, and improving the environment. Choose Health for You and your World shows youth how sustainability efforts are good for personal and world health. For example, eating local fruits and vegetables helps meet requirements towards a healthy diet, and also cuts down on shipping and processing costs. Refilling a water bottle makes it easy to stay hydrated, and cuts down on the amount of plastic thrown away.

Research shows that when people develop healthy behaviors in their youth, they’re more likely to sustain them throughout their life. Changes can be as simple as parking farther away from the mall or choosing not to purchase sugar-added beverages. The Choose Health initiative also helps people learn how to:

• Work with community leaders to create walk-friendly spaces
• Sponsor local farmer’s markets and community gardens
• Make nutritious choices for snacks and beverages
• Find creative ways to include more movement in your day
• Include fruits and vegetables with every meal
• Eat local foods to improve personal health and the environment

Summer camps explore healthier options
One of the first areas of focus for the Choose Health program was 4-H summer camps, which operate throughout the state and host about 5,500 children each year.

In the summer of 2008, 4-H teen Counselors in Training were recruited to investigate the state of their camps. These teens learned about the availability of healthy food and beverage choices, measured, campers’ physical activity levels, kept track of the instruction offered related to health and nutrition and looked at whether counselors and directors acted as good role models.

What they found wasn’t surprising, said Wendy Wolfe, an extension associate in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and co-chair of the 4-H Healthy Lifestyles Program Work Team. “Camps are trying to find foods that kids like, that are also healthy and low-cost.” Wolfe said. “But it’s challenging to find foods that meet all three of these criteria.”

While many camps offered adequate time to eat meals and plenty of active play time each day, they also frequently served high-sugar beverages and didn’t always offer vegetables or fruit as part of the day’s snack. After researching a detailed list of 31 questions, the teen counselors reported and made recommendations to camp directors.

“Camp directors gave lots of positive feedback about the research done by teens,” Wolfe says. Some of the changes that have already started include:

• Adding salad bars to camp cafeterias
• Encouraging campers to bring along only healthy snacks
• Selling healthier snacks at the camp store
• Improving the availability and taste of water
• Offering low-fat salad dressings
• Offering more vegetarian options

These are simple choices that make choosing health an easier option.

Resources, events help promote Choose Health
From pedometers to GPS mapping, the Choose Health campaign is using a variety of tools to promote its message. At the 2008 New York State Fair, attendees could make healthier choices among all the delicious fair food by visiting the 4-H youth building. Teen 4-H members created a GPS map of restaurants offering healthier options, which visitors could search on a bank of computers. They were also invited to test their fitness by taking part in a fitness trail.

Also at the fair, as well as the annual Career Explorations conference at Cornell, youth participants were challenged to walk 10,000 steps or more each day. During the fair, 360 4-H members walked a total of
5,923 miles—roughly the equivalent of walking from Albany to Los Angeles and back.

The Choose Health Web site offers a number of resources for staff, parents, youth and teachers, including links to state 4-H programs like “Cooking Up Fun” and “Just Move.”

The site also contains healthy living fact cards, a sample fitness trail, counting charts for a walking challenge and book marks, as well as links to Cornell research related to healthy eating and childhood obesity. The Choose Health blog at the site, offers links to everything from Disney’s “Pass the Plate” show on healthy eating to games for youth based on healthy lifestyles.