Gilroy
– If the first four months of the course had not convinced the
mothers and children that they should cut down on their fat intake,
the block of lard out of which they had to carve an equal amount of
spoonfuls as there were in their favorite fast food meal brought
the message home.
Gilroy – If the first four months of the course had not convinced the mothers and children that they should cut down on their fat intake, the block of lard out of which they had to carve an equal amount of spoonfuls as there were in their favorite fast food meal brought the message home.
“It was really gross,” said 9-year-old Cecilia Gonzalez.
She, her sister and mother, and four mother-cahild pairs scooped out lard onto a plate according to how many grams of fat were in the fast foods they most commonly eat. A McDonald’s quarterpounder with cheese might get seven scoops. A box of medium fries might get five. Even a salad could get a few depending on how much dressing went on it.
The exercise was part of a weekly Thursday evening pediatric weight loss class conducted in Spanish by the Gilroy Neighborhood Health Clinic – an initiative of School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County – to reduce the growing number of overweight children and adults in the area. Since the start of the meetings in October, all but one of the six children have lowered their body mass index – a measure of a person’s weight in relation to height – and are anomalies in a city where the rate of overweight fifth-, seventh- and ninth-grade public school students is 31 percent and is the highest in the county.
The clinic is one of the parties at play in an area where, despite efforts from a number of players, the health of children is in jeopardy due to county budget cuts.
red light, green light
The children bucked the trend of weight gain not only through visually assaulting lessons such as the one with the lard, but through discussions on eating habits, activity and even social interaction.
“The goal is really to incorporate healthy lifestyles,” said Pilar Furlong, the clinic’s director of development and communications.
The heart of the clinic’s message is a color-coded system that qualifies foods based on how often the clinic recommends eating them. Junk foods with little nutritional value are red and to be eaten sparingly. Yellow foods, such as nuts, high in both nutritional value and calories are to be eaten moderately. Low-calorie, high nutritional value foods, such as vegetables, are green and should be eaten plentifully.
Between meetings, kids and parents recorded foods they ate and the color group associated with them. Then, they discussed how they did and what troubles they encountered.
Parties, social visits and resisting the pressure applied by friends and relatives were an important topic for the Latino participants, said Adrian Espinosa, who runs the Gilroy program.
“Culturally for us, giving each other food is a nice gesture for us,” he said
Participants learned to acknowledge the gesture, but refuse the food, he said.
Kids and parents were split up during the classes. The result was not only lessons tailored for kids but also a forum where parents could receive nutritional advice, share tips on preparing and purchasing food, and recommend places for kids to exercise.
“That’s one of the good things about having the parents together,” said Furlong. “They’re a peer support for each other.”
From cheese to cauliflower
The success of the program is obvious to Cecilia and Liliana, who were both in the 95th percentile for body mass index when they started the program.
“Before, I wasn’t used to doing exercise, so I didn’t really like going to the park,” Cecilia said.
Now “instead of watching TV, we go the park from 7 to 8 almost every day,” Liliana finished for her.
In addition to increased stamina, they have gotten thinner and more active, said Maria Gonzalez, their mother. The kids agree, pointing out that through hard work their eating habits have changed.
“It was really hard to leave the junk food,” said Liliana. “But now when we come back from school my mom says to have fruits or vegetables.”
The kids, who eat smaller portions, have shared their eating habits with their father and two younger brothers.
“My bothers have learned lots of things, like to eat less (and to eat) more vegetables instead of Cheetos,” said Liliana. Her dad has “been eating healthier also.”
The clinic does not want kids to get fixated on weight loss. To discourage this mindset, kids are weighed in kilograms and encouraged to keep track of their progress through introspection. However, of 400 students handled in similar six-month programs, 80 percent of children lost weight, with an average weight loss of 10 percent. Similarly, 75 percent of mothers lost weight, with an average weight loss of 5 pounds.
“Long term, we don’t know what the effects of rapid weight loss is for kids,” said Lillian Castillo, a co-chair of the South County Collaborative’s health and nutrition committee.
Instead, weight loss programs for the kids look to sustain weight as they keep growing. This results lowered body mass indices as weight plateaus and height increases.
“We don’t want to make children feel badly about their weight,” she said. “We want them to learn healthy behavior.”
The Future is Scary
While the population of Gilroy is growing, resources to help them lose weight might become slimmer.
The clinic, which was given a start-up grant from Stanford University, does not have funding lined up for next year. A tight budget at the county level is also endangering the funding for similar programs.
The county has scheduled to cut the Women, Infants and Children office – which provides inexpensive, nutritional food and offers child-rearing advice to more than 3,000 clients each year – in its next budget on June 15.
The loss of this program, the clinic and similar programs could increase obesity and accelerate an unfortunate trend, said Elizabeth Mendoza.
“What I’m starting to see more of is kids between the ages of 10 to 13 with type 2 diabetes,” she said. “It used to be primarily adult onset.”
This disease – which occurs more often in overweight adults and children – can lead to health problems, including asthma, joint troubles, heart disease, problems with vision and circulation, hypertension and kidney problems, she said. People with diabetes typically die younger as a result of these complications.
A decrease in programs preventing and treating pediatric obesity could cause the medical system to be flooded with patients, she said.
Furthermore, the decreased support could add up to a grim prospect – that children in the generation growing up now, because of the early death associated with diabetes and heart disease, might be the first in a long time to not outlive their parents, she said.
“It’s a little scary.”
