Healthy Habits: Physical Activity and Learning

Note: This is a follow-up interview to a post I wrote a few days ago about Action for Healthy Kids and the recently-released report.

1) Many parents know that unhealthy nutrition and eating habits can affect a child's health, but may not know how it can affect their learning. What are some ways poor nutrition or lack of exercise affect learning?
This very question is at the heart of Action for Healthy Kids’ newly released report, The Learning Connection: What You Need to Know to Ensure Your Kids Are Healthy and Ready to Learn. The equation is simple: healthy children = better learners.
As the report documents, study after study shows that kids who get regular physical activity experience improvements not only in their fitness levels, but in their brain function. Just walking or biking to school, for example, can prime the brain for learning. It makes sense: Kids need to move more, and when they do, they’re better positioned to succeed in the classroom. It also turns out that Mom was on to something when she told you to eat your breakfast. A review of 50 studies points to growing research that reveals that skipping breakfast hurts kids’ overall cognitive performance, which has a negative impact on their levels of alertness, attention, memory, problem-solving and math skills. By contrast, students who eat school breakfast have been shown, on average, to attend 1.5 more days of school per year and score 17.5 percent higher on standardized math tests. What’s more, students who attend schools that integrate student wellness are likely to have fewer absences, higher academic achievement and self-esteem, and are more likely to graduate from high school.
I would say that’s incentive enough for adults to come together to ensure that all kids have in-school access to regular physical activity and nutritious foods – particularly since kids spend 1,000 hours a year and consume as many as half their daily calories at school.
 
2) How can parents advocate for things like regular physical activity for students?The first step to being an effective wellness advocate is being able to explain why it’s important to address health and wellness in schools. The “why” will get your school community behind you and will build support for everything that comes next. You have to sell the “why” before you can get into the “what” or the “how.” The Learning Connection is meant to be a roadmap for parents, educators, school administrators and school volunteers to create healthier school environments so the kids in their lives are better positioned to learn, and it’s a great place to start when making your case. Action for Healthy Kids’ Parent Leadership Series, which teaches parents how to work collaboratively within their school communities to improve policy and practices related to nutrition and physical activity, is also an incredibly valuable resource. It’s a nine-part series of webinars and related print materials that cover the basics of how school systems work, project planning, wellness policies and the most effective ways to advocate for change. The series also covers project areas related to the school food culture, school meals and physical activity. 
As an officer of my daughter’s PTO, and as a past Action for Healthy Kids volunteer and now six-year employee, I’ve seen time and again that passionate parents can truly be a positive force for change in their school communities, whether they’re starting off small by hosting a healthy taste test or effecting larger change by working with school administrators to introduce a universal breakfast program. Our website has some great success stories that demonstrate the range of things parents can accomplish. 
 
3) Some schools might make the claim that healthy foods, like fresh produce, cost more. How can parents argue against this, or how can schools offer healthy meals while staying on budget? There’s no doubt that budgeting for thousands of school meals on a daily basis is a daunting task – and that’s to say nothing about making those meals kid-friendly, appetizing and healthy. In order to be effective in advocating for change, parents must establish a friendly relationship with food service personnel and understand their concerns, such as wasting food because kids may not like healthier meals or, as you mentioned, being able to afford the cost of fresh produce. Schools need parents to take an active role in making healthier school meals a success, but it’s important that they do so in a positive, understanding way, keeping in mind that there are many factors involved. An installment of Action for Healthy Kids’ Parent Leadership Series, School Meals: Challenges and Opportunities, focuses on helping parents navigate these waters and providing them with actionable ideas to present to food service staff. To address concerns about cost, for example, schools can visit www.saladbars2schools.org to see if they qualify for a salad bar grant through a “Let’s Move” initiative. They can also look into the Department of Defense Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program, part of the USDA’s efforts to provide schools with a wider variety of fresh produce: www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/programs/dod/default.htm. Parents can also do a lot to influence the school food culture way beyond the cafeteria by making sure students and families get consistent messages about healthy eating across all aspects of the school, whether it’s in the classroom, during snack time, for a reward, at a celebration or sporting event, or in relation to a fundraiser. Another installment of our Parent Leadership Series, How to Create a Healthier School Food Culture, is dedicated to helping parents do just that, and it’s complete with tip sheets on everything from healthy non-food rewards to nutrition education and promotion.

4) What can parents do at home to encourage healthy eating and physical activity? As a mom of two girls, age 8 and 4, I know how hard it is to make time to reinforce these messages on school nights somewhere in between soccer, dance, dinner, homework and getting the kids to bed. But I also know how important it is. That’s why, first and foremost, my husband and I try to set a good example by leading healthy lifestyles ourselves. Because we’ve made eating healthy and staying active priorities and have integrated them into our daily lives, they’re no longer “extras” that we have to carve out time for. We regularly involve the girls in preparing meals with lots of fresh produce, and each time I bake with them, we experiment with substituting healthier ingredients, like using applesauce instead of oil or honey instead of sugar. We go for walks or bide rides as a family when we can and are active on the weekends. It all adds up.
Action for Healthy Kids offers a series of short presentations for parents and families that cover four simple health messages supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each one provides information and tips on why and how parents and families should and can make changes in the four areas. They’re ideal for handing out at family education events at school.  

5) How can AFHK help parents and schools?
We’ve already discussed a lot of the ways that Action for Healthy Kids can help parents and schools make healthy changes at home and in the classroom. The first step is to take the Every Kid Healthy Pledge on our website and join the movement to help make every kid healthy and ready to learn. When you do, Action for Healthy Kids will connect you to numerous free programs and resources, a variety of volunteer opportunities to help you create healthier environments so kids can thrive, and access to our School Grants for Healthy Kids, which provide funding to make changes happen in your school. The health crisis facing our kids didn’t happen overnight, and it’s going to take a nation of moms, dads and caring individuals to put our country’s 55 million schoolchildren on a healthier path.