Healthy Family Fun Planned at Interfaith Council Community Event

The Interfaith Council on Community Health and Wholeness is launching its “Our Whole Community”  project in a community event from 3-6 p.m. September 14 at Winter Park Presbyterian Church, 400 S. Lakemont Ave, Winter Park.

The family event will feature tours of a community garden, tips on planting vegetables from Tom McCubbin and Ed Thralls, as well as cooking demonstrations and fitness presentations. There also will be a food court setting with healthy food choices. Soil testing is available.

For more information, contact Council Coordinator Joann White, 407-998-5659.

Active Video Games Can Help Kids Get Fitter

New video games that get kids off the couch and moving help them burn about four times as many calories a minute as passive video games, according to a new study by the University of Hong Kong researchers.

“The children in this study had a lot of fun playing media games and burnt up calories, showing that making video game media active can certainly help in our efforts to get children active,” said Alison M. McManus, from the university’s Institute of Human Performance. “The challenge is for the industry to continue developing new and exciting games that integrate physical activity into the virtual game environment.”

Click here to read the complete HealthDay story.

Hungerford and Audubon Park Elementary Schools Are Governor’s Fitness Challenge Winners

Two Winter Park area schools were among the top winners in the eight-week Governor’s Fitness Challenge launched in March to inspire elementary school students and their schools to get more active.

Hungerford and Audubon Park elementary schools were among the winners and each received a $5,000 check from Gov. Charlie Crist on June 2 to spend on physical education equipment. (All eight public elementary schools in the Winter Park, Maitland and Eatonville area–Aloma, Audubon Park, Brookshire, Cheney, Dommerich, Hungerford, Lake Sybelia and Lakemont–participated in the challenge.)

Click here for more information on the Governor’s Fitness Challenge.

Hungerford and Audubon Park Elementaries Are Governor’s Fitness Challenge Winners

Two Winter Park area schools were among the top winners in the eight-week Governor’s Fitness Challenge launched in March to inspire elementary school students and their schools to get more active.

Hungerford and Audubon Park elementary schools –two of the eight Winter Park Consortium schools participating in the Challenge–each received a $5,000 check from Gov. Charlie Crist to spend on physical education equipment.

Schools, like Audubon Park and Hungerford, were eligible to win $5,000 in new equipment because they had more than half of the student body signed up for the challenge.

Click here for more information on the Fitness challenge.

Soccer’s a Winner for Building Bone Health in Girls

The sport of soccer gets an A plus when it comes to helping girls prevent low bone density when they get older.

Sports like soccer, which has a combination of weight-bearing exercise and repetitive “impact-loading” activities including jumping and running, help build bone density better than some other sports.

To read the complete HealthDay story and find out other things kids can do to build strong bones, go to the Medlineplus website.

TV Turnoff Week Good for the Whole Family

Too much TV isn’t good for anyone, especially children and teens who spend more than a couple of hours each day in front of TV and computer screens. That’s why organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are supporting national TV Turnoff Week, April 21-27.

“We know that the more time a child spends in front of the TV or computer, the more likely he or she is to be overweight,” said Acting U.S. Surgeon General Steven K. Galson, M.D., M.P.H. “Kids are spending more time sitting in front of screens every day than they do anything else except perhaps sleeping. For Turnoff Week, we are asking parents to turn off the scrreens and get active with their kids.”

Read more on the NIH website.

Girls Playing Sports in Record Numbers But Barriers Remain

A new report from the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport shows that girls are participating in sports in record numbers, but their participation in physical activity outside organized sports is declining, especially as they move from childhood into adolescence.

The report, “Developing Physically Active Girls: An Evidence-based Multidisciplinary Approach,” summarizes the most recent research on the physical, psychological, social and cultural benefits girls get from participating in sports and physical activity, the  barriers that prevent them from reaching their full potential and the kinds of environments in which girls learn how to develop and foster the best parts of themselves on and off playing fields.

Click here to read the complete story from the University of Minnesota.

Neighborhoods Have Big Impact on Resident Activity

Neighborhoods have a big impact on how much residents exercise, according to a Chicago study.

“We can’t encourage people to exercise more without looking at the neighborhood environment in which they live,” said study co-author Christopher Browning, an associate professor of sociology at Ohio State University. “Some people may have the personal resources and desire to exercise but don’t live in a neighborhood in which they feel comfortable to go outside for activities.”

Click hereto read more about this HealthDay story.

High Blood Pressure is a Family Affair

High blood pressure is the kind of inheritance you don’t want to leave to the kids, but researchers say a long-term study emphasizes the existence of that genetic link.

“What we found was that if parents have hypertension early, their children have a significantly higher risk of developing hypertension at an early age,” said Nae-Yuh Wang, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of a report in the March 24 issue of the “Archives of Internal Medicine.” “If the parents develop hypertension at the age of 55 or earlier, the lifetime risk for the children is seven-fold higher than normal.”

Read more by clicking on the Medlineplus website.

Gov. Crist Unveils Fitness Challenge for Elementary Schools

Gov. Charlie Crist has announced the 2007-2008 Governor’s Fitness Challenge for Elementary Schools to help schools and families boost the physical fitness of Florida students, and all eight Winter Park Consortium Schools already have signed up.

The Challenge is an eight-week event that encourages elementary students to join in physical activity and it focuses on five activities that can be completed during or after the school day.

Participating schools have the chance to win $10,000 or $5,000 worth of sports or fitness equipment or a visit from a Florida professional athlete or Olympian. The deadline for registration is March 7.

Click here to read more about the program.