The Good LiVe!
1 comment for this page [ View ]Tuesday, February 12, 2008
By JAMIE LAMPROS
Standard-Examiner correspondent
Living your life is message for Utah's students
SOUTH OGDEN -- If she were a real person, Barbie's measurements would be 33-17-30.
Barbie is an unrealistic expectation, two actors playing out a scene at South Ogden Junior High School recently told students. The actors are part of Food Play, an Emmy Award-winning company out of Boston, that focuses on nutrition and healthy lifestyles.
The company tours the nation's schools using live theater to get its point across.
This is the second year this type of message has been presented to Utah schools. This year, Intermountain Healthcare and SelectHealth hopped on board to expand efforts to combat childhood obesity.
"The high-energy show addresses adolescent obesity, eating disorders, body image and unhealthy media messages," said Chris Dallin, McKay-Dee Hospital Center public relations director.
The show, which is part of Intermountain Healthcare's ongoing LiVe public service campaign, will target 225 Utah schools and more than 30,000 students between now and the year 2010, Dallin said.
"The campaign's goal is to change attitudes of adolescents ages 11 to 15 by making it 'cool' to be more active, watch less TV, shorten video game play and make healthier food choices," Dallin said.
Food Play actors Angelica Barquero and Jack Diamond talked about the dangers of anorexia, false body image, obesity, unhealthy eating habits, smoking, osteoporosis and diabetes.
"We are bombarded by images," Barquero said. "You can't even watch a program on world peace without some girl coming across the screen in a bikini."
Barquero said many women who look like Barbie do so through plastic surgery.
"Most women in the real world don't look like that," she told the audience.
Diamond also said most guys don't look like the Ken doll, either, unless they are taking steroids.
"When you take steroids, you get really angry all the time. You get acne all over your body and cancerous tumors, which can kill you," he said.
The actors also got into a comical conversation over Diamond's lunch, which consisted of a double quarter-pounder burger, potato chips and a 32-ounce Mountain Dew. Diamond said he was getting his protein and required fluids. Barquero asked if there was any fruit in his lunch sack.
"Does ketchup count?" he said.
Barquero told Diamond his lunch consisted of nearly 2,000 calories and no nutrients. She also said his hamburger had 12 teaspoons of fat.
"They don't put that in their song," he said about the company's advertisement.
Another topic of the show was obesity.
According to Intermountain Healthcare, adolescent obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions in the United States with nearly 25 percent of teens classified as obese, overweight or at risk of becoming overweight. Being overweight puts young people at risk for all kinds of problems, including diabetes.
Dr. Jack Wahlen, director of the endocrine and diabetes clinic at McKay-Dee, said Type 2 diabetes, the kind you can acquire from being overweight, is now as common or perhaps even more common than the inherited diabetes Type 1.
"With this type of diabetes, most of the time, if you simply lose weight, the diabetes will disappear," Wahlen said.
"Kids need to develop healthy lifestyles. They need to eat a balanced diet without a lot of the simple carbs, and they need to exercise. If you want to stay out of the ICU, get active and decrease foods in your diet that can cause harm."
Seventh-grader John Urry said he enjoyed the assembly and thought the message was good.
"They told us how to eat healthy and not to eat so much," he said.
Kaleb Baird, also in seventh grade, said kids need to "slack down" on the soda.
"It's not good for you. I couldn't believe one soda is equal to six candy bars."
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That Jack Diamond sure knows his stuff!! :)