CVD Action Plan

Pediatric Cardiovascular Disease - An Action Plan

Childhood obesity is considered an epidemic in the United States, with about 16 percent of children ages 2 to 19 considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Childhood obesity in the U.S is likely to result in heart disease, as it is becoming a pediatric illness. Studies discussed in recent NY Times and Guardian UK articles show that many children who are obese have hearts whose artery walls are as thick as that of a 45 year old.

When the heart is larger than average, it is forced to work

harder, resulting in high blood pressure and potential heart disease. Dr. Goldman, a co-author of a study published in December 2007 in The New England Journal of Medicine, predicts that by 2035 there will be an additional 100,000 cases of heart disease.

At this point in time, cardiovascular diseases will only increase

unless something is done to stop this epidemic. An action plan has been created to help relieve, and prevent pediatric CVD for those at risk.

School NutritionJuliette Minahan and Jason Moragas

+School District Programs:To begin each school day there should be a mandatory breakfast/study hall period placed

into the time slot where zero period is in New Providence’s day. In the class the entire school will come together and be offered several healthy options for breakfast. Delicious breakfast options could include Special K cereals, Cheerios, oatmeal with fruit, scrambled eggs with sprinkled pepper and parsley, yogurt and granola, grapefruits and other fruits, and more that accommodates the school’s price range.

To afford the new steps in creating a health conscious school money must be raised. Instead of having the typical bake sale to raise money for different school clubs, there should be an alternate way of raising money such as dance marathons, field day-type of events with admissions price, and car washes.

To be sure healthy vegetables fruits are served at the school New Providence School District should invest in a Green House for home grown vegetables and fruits. The green house would able the lowering of school lunch prices once a growing season has passed for the school wouldn’t have to buy vegetables and fruits from stores and other places. Clubs such as the Environmental Awareness Club and classes such as Environmental Science and other science classes will provide regular maintenance to the green house.

On the subject of classes, The foods class in high school is a very common course for students to take. At New Providence, Foods 1 is comprised of learning how to bake (cookies, biscuits, etc.). Instead of learning these unhealthy foods the students should learn how to make healthy snacks! Click Here to Play the Video

Music: How To Save a Life - The Fray

+ School Cafeteria:School Cafeterias often use fake chicken and other foods. Instead of these frozen foods

they should serve real food. If one keeps the example of chicken in mind, grilled chicken is very healthy. By making deals with local markets and meat suppliers this could become economically feasible. Also, the healthy fundraisers (dance marathons, car wash, etc.) could help in costs.

Moving on from chicken, a common school lunch is a cold cut sandwich. In moderation, these can be healthy (as long as good meat is served). However, when a sandwich is ordered, unless otherwise told so, the maker always reaches for a white roll first. To support healthy habits, the wheat roll should be the generic choice.

At any restaurant a salad is an option for a healthy appetizer or meal, why not at school too? Yes, many schools including New Providence have a salad bar, but do they look appetizing? They generally are small, with limited options, and unappealing contents. If the salad bar was supplied with better options and maybe a little more of a variety it could become something many students visit often.

Every cafeteria has drinks besides milk, but not all of them are healthy. In the cafeteria soda, milkshakes, and other unhealthy drinks should not be an option. Green tea, such as Lipton, Natural Snapple, water (Nirvana, Dasani, Poland Springs, etc.) and milk should be the options. When it comes to the milk, not all milk should be allowed. Chocolate and strawberry milk with added sugar does not help as much as plain white milk. That should be the only milk available.

Seafood is much healthier than animal meat, so why isn’t this served more? A membership or deal at super markets such as Costco, BJ’s, or A&P make this possible! Seafood has a lot of HDL, the good cholesterol, which helps in lowering LDL, the bad cholesterol.

Currently fries are the most common side dish at school cafeterias. If thin sweet potato fries are served in place of the thick greasy fries this will become much healthier.

When striking the aforementioned deals, allowing local markets and stores to compete for the spot will create lower prices.

School ExerciseDan Sullivan and Jenny Boyd

Exercise in schools all across America has simply become hugely ineffective. Let’s

face it, the students that get exercise are the ones that are actively participating, and that number is diminishing. All these problems start at an early age while in elementary school. Students in elementary school need to be taught to be active so that they can carry that trait throughout their lives. A good place to start with teaching them to be active is in physical education class, A.K.A. gym.

Students are given about 45 minutes everyday to exercise, be active, and have some fun. So you’d think that would be a sufficient amount of exercise for a toddler everyday right? Playing various games and activities like pins, basketball, speedball, hockey, touch football, soccer, volleyball, badminton, running, weight lifting, so forth and so on, but the problem is that not everyone participates like they should. So the actual problem is not creating time and activities for the kids, it’s getting the kids to be physically active.

1. One way to ensure that the kids become physically active is grade them on their efforts, not performances in gym. For example, you could tell the kids they have the entire class period to complete 4 laps around the track. They can do it in 7 minutes or 45; as long as they complete the activity they’ll receive an A for the day. Another thing you could do is while playing basketball in gym is tell the kids that each person

has to be on the court for at least half the game and touch the ball 5 times. This will stop one or two kids from dominating the game because other kids have to touch the ball, forcing them to participate. 2. Another good idea is to track every student’s heart rate. The school will have to purchase heart rate monitors that you can wear, which can be pricey, but they could definitely find grants from health organizations and other groups like PTA. The teacher’s would take every child’s heart rate before class and write it down. Then while they are playing during gym, stop kids periodically and take their heart rate. If the student’s heart rate has gone up a significant amount or is between a certain range of numbers, the student will get an A. If it is too low, then the student will get a lower grade. All the teacher has to do is take the student’s age, subtract it from 220, and that will be the maximum heart rate number that the student wants to achieve during physical education. Then give a 5 or 6 point range and if the student is in it, they receive an A. I think this is a very good idea because there is no way to cheat it. The students will be forced to be active if they want a good grade. Click Here to Play the Video

all music rights go to Sarah McLaughlin

Changes like these will have such a positive outcome for the students later on in life

because it will teach them that being active and exercising is a key part of leading a healthy live. Also, if the kids are being active at a young age, they have a better chance of being more active when they get older. Being active for them will be a normal part of their lives and they won’t know any different, which is what we want to accomplish. This also will help the kids down the road with obesity. If they are active their entire lives, then their risk of being overweight is greatly diminished. If these changes are made in elementary school, they will most likely carry over into middle school and high school.

“Roughly one-third of high school students in the U.S. drink two or more sodas,

sports drinks, or other sugary beverages per day, but only 15% get the one hour of daily aerobic exercise that health officials recommend” (Center For Disease Control and Prevention). Clearly there is either not enough exercise being included in the high school curriculum or the students are just choosing not to participate. It is also shown that girls participate in aerobic exercise a significantly less amount then the male students.

In order to give girls and less active males an area where they are motivated to participate, the school P.E classes should offer more activities for the students. Instead of just having everyone in the classes play six on six volleyball, with people standing in the back “running from the ball” or simply standing there and not participating, the teachers should offer other choices so the can have the opportunity to participate where they are comfortable. For example they could offer yoga (and watch to make sure that the students participate in the yoga exercise), they could offer different sports activities (small soccer or basketball games), or the students could go outside and walk the track while talking to their friends (it keeps them active while also letting them be comfortable). The teachers should just keep the students interested and willing to participate. If these kids starts to participate more in the phycical education classes, then they will bne more fit. And if they are more fit, then this active lifestyle will continue onto their lifestyle as an adult and keep them healthy.

Educating The ParentsSara Lowenstein and Nick DiBenedetto

Everyday children are becoming obese because of their eating habits, sleeping habits, and exercise habits. Parents do not realize how much junk food and fast food their children are in taking per week. For example when the parents have busy schedules three days per week and buy fast food for their children, this is tripling the child’s LDL level. Parents also do not see that their children are losing between 2-4 hours of sleep per day because children today watch television late at night, play video games, and are up late doing homework. As parents they should be educated on how to provide their children with a healthy life styles, making sure their children are not becoming obese which would reduce the chances of developing heart disease. Instead of reading the pointless rumors of the tabloids, readers should be able to pick up a magazine that provides information and ideas about helping their families become healthier. If you had a choice of “People” magazine or “Obesity: concerns and consequences” I’m sure more would be grabbing the obesity magazine rather then the tabloid. In these magazines it would have the concerns of other parents and pediatricians about obesity in the younger generation. It would state many things such as one in every three kids in the United States are overweight or obese that is thirty three percent of kids under the age of eighteen. If they put statistics as important as that, the magazine could outsell many others. Every parent is concerned for their child's health, some are just to busy to visit a doctor every so often. If the “Obesity” magazine was out on stands it would give Parents direct information, causes and cures about child obesity. This would limit the visits to the doctor but easily give you ideas to help your family. Each month if they came out with a different version it could help with new and creative ideas. There could be different sections of the magazine. It could start out with and introduction and then move on to statistics such as the number of minors obese. Next it could talk about the causes of

obesity such as unhealthy habits, lack of exercise, lack of knowledge about the topic, etc. Then go into the how to fix child obesity. Such as new eating habits, more exercise, etc. This magazine could be a short six to seven page magazine but be loaded with information. There could be a barrier of money to print all of these copies but if that is the case then they could set it up as a newsletter and send it to the parent’s email where you know they would see it because almost every parent checks their email regularly. This could be in effect relatively soon, maybe by September 2012 which is the new school year or if that’s to soon then January 2013. Click Here to Play the Video

all music rights go to Lee DeWyze In addition to the childbirth classes the clinics would develop a program that teaches pregnant women and their husbands on how to keep a healthy diet during their nine months of pregnancy. The clinics will hire nutritionist to join the childbirth classes to teach them what to eat and not to eat. The nutritionist would also help each couple come up with a plan to help organize the entire period of pregnancy. Not only will it teach the parents a healthy diet during pregnancy, this program would also educate parents on what to feed their child as he or she grows up. The nutritionist would focus on not feeding your children fast food, giving your children vitamins, making sure you keep your children physically active, and creating a plan for a healthy lifestyle. This program will start within the next three to nine months, once clinics find well-educated nutritionist. Parents should not only take classes on how to make sure their child is living a healthy life style, parents also have to be aware of their family history with heart disease. Parents should keep track and be mindful of when their child's annual physical appointment is. It is important to know the results of the various blood tests, and the number of your child's blood pressure. The blood test can help parents see it their child’s total cholesterol is less then 200, HDL level is greater then 40, LDL level is less then 130, and triglyceride level is 150. The blood pressure is important because you want to make sure you child has around 120/80mm Hg. If parents act now on regulating their child’s blood test and blood pressure this will reduce the chance of the child becoming obese and the chance of heart disease. Factors such as smoking, hypertension,blood/cholesterol levels,diabetes,obesity, lack of exercise,and stress parents can help their children control but parents have to act now before their child’s arteries get clogged with plaque. This can be effective right now, parents just have to grab the phone and dial the doctor to find out all this information from your child’s last test.

In each school when they have school orientation when entering elementary school, middle school, high school and college they should have a segment focusing on obesity in young people. When entering kindergarten they could focus on what the kids eat. Honestly, a good majority of children’s eating habits stay with them throughout their lives. If a parent would to let their kid eat candy and junk food from when their young, their going to eat the same food through their whole life. If the parent feeds the kids vegetables and fruits from when their young their going to be used to eating those foods on a daily basis so they get used to them and enjoy eating them. If they focused on their food habits during an orientation in kindergarten they could still change the eating habits. But once a kid gets as old as eight or nine their used to eating the same unhealthy food or the organic healthy food. For middle school assembly they could talk about to eat a substantial lunch. In middle school the cafeteria food is unhealthy so it would be better to bring lunch from home. In high school the assembly can talk about how when you get your license it’s much more tempting to drive to a fast food place. So instead of using your money on food eat at home and use the money for gas or something more important then fatty foods. For the assembly going into college they can talk about the “freshmen fifteen” and how to be more aware of what their eating when their away. When kids are in college their away from their parents so they have more freedom and eat whatever then can find. If there was an assembly before entering each school level, we believe it would keep parents aware.

Society ProgramsLucy Lavine and Jackie Pulviose

Thirty years ago, most people led lives that kept them at a healthy weight. Kids walked to and from school every day, ran around at recess, and played for hours after school before dinner. Meals were home-cooked with reasonable portion sizes and there was always a vegetable on the plate, while fast food was considered an occasional treat. Today, children experience a very different lifestyle. Walks to and from school have been replaced by car and bus rides. Afternoons are now spent with TV, video games, Internet, and parents are busier than ever resulting in fewer home-cooked meals. Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. If we don't solve this problem, one third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives. Many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. Society really ties each part of this action plan together. Everyone has a role to play in reducing childhood obesity including the responsibilities of the schools, parents, government, and communities. Everyones’ involvement is key to ensuring a healthy future for young children (letsmove.gov). The first step to solving this lethal issue is through education. A program called H.E.A.R.T will start in the elementary schools as a fun way to inform young children and broaden their minds. This acronym stands for health, early, arteries, research, and teaching. Nutritionists will visit the schools once a week and teach the children of the importance of health and the dangers of heart disease through games and fun activities. When the program ends each week, the advisor will pass out a free healthy snack obtaining a plentiful amount of OMEGA 3 fatty oils to increase HDL levels. These HDLs will help prevent the build up of plaque in their artery walls, promoting health at an early age. The board of education and the parents will carry this out. This program can go into effect by September 2012. Second, the government will increase sin tax on junk food whose servings have more than 8 grams of sugar, or 35% added high fructose corn syrup. This tax would increase by 1%, which would then go toward raising money for research and school awareness programs, such as H.E.A.R.T. The government would need to pass a law in order to increase this tax, which could take up until January 1st 2014. This step is important in discouraging parents from buying these kinds of harmful foods and snacks for their children. Eating too much of the wrong foods can lead to diseases such as diabetes because the body may stop responding to insulin, resulting in high blood sugar damaging blood vessels. Too much body fat puts people at risk for problems such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease. Another step in decreasing the risk of pediatric obesity in society, is creating a free event that everyone will want to attend. Athletes that play on a well known sports team will host an event in town. This event is informational for the parents and children, but also a way to get them to put down their video games, and out of the house, running around. This program will teach of the dangers of cardiovascular disease in pediatrics and inform everybody how they can prevent it while being healthy in a fun way. At this event, the athletes will engage in activity with the children, in attempt to increase their heart rates. Of course the children will

be interested in attending this event, but the parents would also look forward to it. It is a great way to get an entire family engaged, learning, and also having fun together. These programs will start in the fall of 2013, as a great way to kick off to a healthy year. The town’s board is responsible for finding a vicinity or park to hold this event in while managers and coach of the teams are responsible for organizing this program within the team. Click Here to Play the Video

Family history and ScreeningMatt Balog and Bianca DiNardo

Introduction-

Statistics up to 2009 show that more than 80 million Americans suffer from some form of cardiovascular disease (CVD). That number is more than 25% of the Americans living in the United States. Screening and Family history is one of the three uncontrollable factors to the development of Cardiovascular Disease. Genetics is one thing a civilian cannot control, someone who has diseases that run through his or her family should be aware of how his or her health could be affected in the future. Factors like Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Cholesterol and Obesity can all be past on through genetics. Smoking, diet and sedentary living are examples of factors that may cause CVD to develop quicker in people who inherit the genes.

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Family History:

Although most issues found in family history can not be changed, it can be detected early to educate the patient of what to maintain on a daily basis and what to lessen. History of Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Cholesterol and Obesity are the four main factors that cause CVD to develop earlier in life. High blood pressure (hypertension) can be controlled by having a healthy diet consisting of high HDL levels. This also applies to high cholesterol levels. When a patients family history shows that high cholesterol levels are preson, doctors emphasize; diet, exercise, and weight loss to reduce cholesterol. Medications are another important option to lower heart disease risk. Obesity can be associated with high cholesterol because when high cholesterol is present it usually means that the patient is overweight due to lack of exercise and poor diet. The most important fact to Obesity is to buy the healthier foods instead of the cheap unhealthy foods because later on when your child becomes obese the cost for one to loose weight is in the hundred billions per year. Lastly, Diabetes affects about 215,000 people younger than 20 years had diabetes, type 1 or type 2, in the United States in 2010. Screening:

Compared to Family History, Screening has a better chance of preventing CVD in people under

18. Things like Smoking, diet and sedentary living can cause problems found in family history to have a greater chance of developing CVD when found in screening. Studies show that 80% of smokers in the United States begin smoking before the age of 18. This statistic is even higher for 21 year old’s, 90% of people start at an early age. Smoking is the most dangerous thing you can do to your body because it cause artery walls to weaken and it causes plaque build up which adds on to the scare of high cholesterol levels. Diet and sedentary living go together by the fact that if you are a lazy person, you most nearly will have a bad diet. Having a healthy diet takes away the risk of High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol and Obesity. Sedentary Living hints at an unhealthy diet because one with a healthy diet will most likely be physically active.

Medical ResearchRosie Coppola and Jose Quesada

Click Here to Play the Video

Parents account for much if not allthe physiological beings we are. Manytimes children are carriers of mutations thatthey don’t even know of. That said, the more mutations researchers find interms of heart health, the greatermeasure a doctor and parent can take to prevent the child’s predisposition from becoming actual heart disease or other heart problems.Inflammation is arteries has been found to increases chances

Research of possible heart disease treatment have been conducted and are as follows:

● Garlic has been found to act like a blood thinner and also contains an active compound known as ajoene, which helps prevent the formation of blood clots. It is recommended to help heart disease one should consume two to four cloves a day.

of heart problem and increase the need for stents.The medical field should look into doing a clinical trial on a range of people who have heart disease. For example, African American men are one of the greatest groups suffering heart attack in the U.S. A study should be done on these adult men who’ve suffered heart attacks and survived and figure out just what it in in their DNA that may contribute to it. While this has been done, how many people really know to get checked for these genetic mutations?The medical field, which is based primarily through private companies, sometimes has difficulty getting simple and straightforward information out. Along with researching more genetic mutations, the entire medical field should create a site that sent out alerts of new found mutations and advise people of a certain background, age, gender, etc. to get checked.The main barrier to this step is the excessive time it would take to genetically code each person then find the common mutation if there is one. But over the course of years the medical field can produce an entire list of major genetic mutations to be screened for. This way, if someone is trying to calculate their risk they can get a better understanding of their mutations andwhat that means to their heart health.

● Cat’s Claw, an herb, has a medical compound that prevents the formation of blood clots and can increase circulation. A recommended ¼ tsp. to ½ tsp taken twice a day is recommended to prevent serious complications such as stoke or a heart attack.

● Ginger has been found if consumed daily to prevent platelet aggregation allowing blood to flow more smoothly and protecting the body from atherosclerosis.

● Northwestern University scientists have created a synthetic high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the "good" cholesterol. That could help fight chronically high cholesterol levels and the deadly heart disease that often results. The researchers successfully designed synthetic HDL and show that their nanoparticle version is capable of irreversibly binding cholesterol. The synthetic HDL, based on gold nanoparticles, is similar in size to HDL and mimics HDL's general surface composition.

● Research has found that an inadequate level of intake of Omega 3 in children can place them, over time, at increased risk of asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), reduced vision and even at risk of heart disease. (increase children’s intake of fish)

● Omega 3 used in a new line of products heavily advertised for good heath, baby formula,

vitamins, fruit snacks, cereals, hummus and other more commonly eaten day snacks.

● HDL clinical trials taken in different forms, surgical placement, direct injection, pill/capsule form, and skin absorption ointments.

● Subtle use of garlic, omega 3, cats claw, and other natural heart healthy products regulated into commercial food chains

Advertisement: The Problem

Mariana Papaianni and Vincent Chen

There isn’t enough advertisement to raise awareness about the dangers of heart disease. Years ago, smoking agencies made commercials to try to get people to stop smoking, but recently they have stopped making those. If they created those commercials again and raised awareness as to their connection to early development of heart disease they could be very effective. The commercials could go two ways: scientific or attention grabbing. The companies could use science and statistics to warn against the dangers of heart disease and how many smokers are effected with heart disease. These statistics and figures would certainly scare people into quitting smoking. On the other hand, they could create an attention grabbing commercial. They could show a teenager smoking and coughing, suffering from lung problems, and next show her ten years later with severe heart disease. This dramatic commercial is also enough to scare kids into not smoking. There is also too much advertisement for unhealthy foods. Processed and junk foods are so popular among children because those companies have total control over advertising, They play commercials for McDonalds on every television channel, as well as constant ads on the internet. They’ve even went so far as to promote on children’s websites. By making fast food seem fun, kids think that it is a good thing and because they are constantly seeing it they want it all the time. There is too much going on in the world of advertisement attracting kids to unhealthy foods. The StatsThe government needs to step in and regulate fast food advertising. In general, the television as well as other distractions can cause health problems. Due to the invention of cell phones, video games, and TV, kids are becoming less active and spending most of their time at home on the couch. Studies have also shown that watching TV disturbs the quality of sleep as well as the sleep cycle. The lack of

exercise and sleep alone can lead to obesity in America, but commercials have added another factor: diet. Over 1/3 of teenage Americans are obese, and according to studies it is partially due to the television (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=146267). According to one study, about 98% of ads are fast food related (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=146267). Click Here to Play the Video

There are already advertisement bans in place (such as those for smoking) and adding fast food providers to the list is not a bad idea. Cigarettes were banned from advertising because of the health issues they caused. If fast food causes the same amount of health risk, then why not ban it from advertisement? If the government placed a ban on advertisements for fast food companies, it would reduce the risk of obesity for future generations. Children would be much healthier if not bombarded by these advertisements. Due to the level of influence these commercials seem to have on children, we should promote commercials that are health related. That way, we could attract children to eating healthy foods instead of processed ones. The SolutionOur first step towards preventing childhood heart disease is to decrease the amount of television watched by children. On study showed that a child who watched 5 hours a day was less healthy than a child who watched <2 hours. If parents could regulate the amount of TV their kids watched and helped them become more active, that would lead us in the right direction towards a healthier America. In addition, we should try to promote healthier foods. Most companies that sell healthier foods do not spend as much money on advertising because they don’t generate as much revenue.

For example, study group found that food, beverage, candy and restaurant advertising hit $11.26 billion in 2004, compared to a mere $9.55 million to advertise the Five a Day campaign, which promotes eating five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily. If more money was spent on advertising healthier companies and less on fast food ones, kids would be a little more inclined to try those foods. Luckily the most productive way of advertising is also one of the cheapest. E-mail and telephone produce the highest response rate at 2.60% and 2.45% for direct media channeling for generating new leads. E-mail and telephone is also affordable because it really doesn’t cost all that much to call and email people on a regular basis. People are using the internet today more than ever, and as a result of this companies now spend over 26 billion dollars a year on advertising on the internet. This gives a chance for healthy product companies to catch up because viral campaigning usually costs very little. In addition, roughly 71% of all computers in the US have pop up blockers and as a result most online advertisements are blocked. To get healthy products out there the US should regulate what type of ads can get by pop-up blockers. Companies that advertise healthy products should be allowed to bypass said pop-up blockers if they do not abuse their privileges. The US government can also aid healthy product companies by placing an advertisement tax on fast food and junk food companies because it would balanced out the amount of advertisements better without the government giving money directly to the healthier companies. Mobile advertising is another cheap and successful in enticing the younger generation to eat and live healthier because 58% of people ages 13 to 17 say that they sometimes look at mobile advertisements that are sent to them and 13% say that they look at them all the time. The Conclusion

Kids don’t realize what processed foods do to their body, and they have no idea of the repercussions that come along with it later. If we raise awareness against fast foods and smoking, the future generations would have a better chance of avoiding heart disease. If the government banned the advertisement of fast food products and promoted healthier food advertising, kids would be influenced by this and want to eat healthier foods. If kids see it being done, they’ll want to do it too. If teenagers saw the long term effects of smoking, they would quit or not even start smoking to begin with. Parents should urge their kids to watch less TV and to get active. If they spent less time on the television and played outside, they would not be faced with the advertisements and they would be getting exercise at the same time. There are many ways that advertisement can help beat juvenile heart disease.

Home DietSabrina Badgley and Scott Woodard

The nutritional value of everything we eat has an immense effect on our health. The fact

that the U.S. is the most obese country in the world is evidence that Americans are not getting the essential nourishment they need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Particularly, in Mississippi the obesity is especially high. the main possible reason for this might have to do with the fact that it is a poorer area of the country, and people may resort to cheaper food choices which are found in fast food restaurants. Vermont, on the other hand, is the healthiest state in the U.S. This might be because of its great health care system and higher number of physicians.

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Although there are many factors that can contribute to a person developing heart

disease, there are also a number of ways to prevent it. One of the ways it can be prevented is through paying close attention to a child’s home diet. Parents are the main factor in what children eat at home. In most households, children do not have control over what they eat for dinner. Parents need to be educated on what is healthy and what is not. It would be wise for parents to buy cookbooks and/ or catalogs to track what is being cooked at home each day. At times, children can be picky and grow tired of the typical healthy diet which includes vegetables, but, with a bit of research, parents can learn to cook a variety of healthy meals for dinner.

If parents can learn that cooking healthy meals at home is no difficult task, they might be more lenient towards cooking at home instead of going to fast food restaurants for dinner. For instance taco bell should not be a weekly place to eat for the family. Parents need to learn that going out to fast food joints shouldn’t be a routine, it shouldn’t even be once and awhile.

It would also be an effective idea to create a television network that could air programs on how to cook healthy at home. It would also be useful for the program to include where people could buy the best quality ingredients for the cheapest prices. The meals that this program would feature should not only be for dinner time but give parents ideas for meals that children could bring to school with them to avoid unhealthier choices that schools may sometimes offer.

A child’s diet is completely dependent on their parents. If they are always on the run and

constantly pick something up at McDonald's or at Burger King it will become a habit. Children may carry these habits on into adulthood seeing it as the “norm” and become accustomed to this unhealthy diet. This youth of this generation is becoming more and more obese as the years progress. Statistics show that America will become increasingly obese in the next ten to fifteen years. Since the 80’s the obesity rate has tripled. This is rather alarming. No parent wants their child to suffer from heart problems later in life.