The children changing for their health

By Jane Elliott Health reporter, BBC News

Ryan Ellis swapped chocolate for fruit flakes

Ryan Ellis set himself a goal last year to try to cut back on his chocolate bars and do more exercise.

Seven months on and 11-year-old Ryan, a pupil at Whipton Barton Junior School, in Exeter, Devon, is feeling fitter and justifiably proud of himself.

"I eat fruit flakes, which are as good as chocolate bars - well almost as good depending on what type of chocolate bars," he said.

"Things are going fine, but it was harder getting out to exercise in the winter."

Getting healthier

Classmate Isobel Sheldon, 10, has cut down her computer use from five 15-minute slots each day, to just one 10-minute stint.

She now uses her spare time to ride her bike and play on the swings.

It is predicted that by 2025 a third of our children are going to be overweight or obese Researcher Katrina Wyatt

And Lydia Taylor, 10, has swapped her chocolate bars for smoothies and increased exercise.

All three children are part of a healthy lifestyles pilot at their school, which encourages the whole of year five and their families to make small, realistic changes to their lives.

The key aim is to reduce levels of obesity - an increasing problem among children and young people throughout the developed world.

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School say the year-long initiative is already showing promising results.

Girls were found to have increased their activity levels by an average of six minutes a day after taking part in the programme.

Boys in the project also became more active, although the results were less marked.

The children also reported that they were watching over an hour less TV a day and had cut down on junk food.

Small steps

The results might appear to be modest, but research co-ordinator Jenny Lloyd said that was exactly what the initiative had set out to achieve.

She said the key to success was encouraging the children to make small, but sustainable steps.

Ryan, Isobel and Lydia set their own goals

Cutting out chocolate twice a week was something that a child could be reasonably expected to continue, whereas banning it from their diet completely was likely to be doomed to failure in the long term.

"This fits in with the project's over-arching healthy living message of '80/20', which suggests we should eat healthily and be active 80% of the time, allowing a little leeway for children to enjoy the odd treat, the TV or the computer for up to 20% of the time," she said.

"We had three key messages that the children focused their very specific goals around: reduce TV viewing, increase the proportion of healthy snacks consumed and reduce fizzy drink consumption."

A bigger trial, involving more than 30 schools, is being planned and will combine drama workshops and food-tasting sessions with parents' evenings to get the message across that healthy lives can be fun.

Local sports personalities have also been drafted in to reinforce the benefits of healthy living.

Ms Lloyd said: "Part of the programme involved an intensive week of education lessons in the morning and drama sessions in the afternoon, followed up with goal-setting at the end of the week to help children and their families change behaviours.

School-based initiative

"We weighed and measured the kids, asked them to wear activity monitors for a week and gave them questionnaires to complete about their TV viewing and diet before and after the programme.

"When we compared these results to a school which didn't receive the programme, it showed that we had been successful in changing some key behaviours."

Colleague Katrina Wyatt said although the early signs were encouraging, more work was needed before the project could be said with confidence to be truly effective.

However, she is convinced that school-based initiatives are the way forward.

They started to look at the packets and by the end of the project they were saying 'well if it is 5% real fruit juice, what is the other 95%?' Kate Vooght, Whipton Barton year five co-ordinator

"It is predicted that by 2025 a third of our children are going to be overweight or obese," she said.

"Whilst there is very little good evidence about how we can attempt to halt this increase, what evidence there is suggests school-based interventions, with simple messages around TV viewing and fizzy drinks may work.

"So what we have been trying to do is to develop a programme which is feasible and acceptable for schools, families and children and something that people want to take part in that will engage them."

Kate Vooght, year five co-ordinator at Whipton Barton, said it had been delighted with the scheme and had incorporated it into all areas of teaching, using it to educate the children not just about healthy foods but also about how advertisers target them.

"The children started to look at the packets and by the end of the project they were saying 'well if it is 5% real fruit juice, what is the other 95%?'," she said.

Head teacher Sandra Leggett said getting the parents onboard had been crucial and that the differences were now being noticed throughout the school, with healthy snacks such as fruit or dried fruit replacing chocolate and crisps.

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