Rye Y Targets Childhood Obesity

Kids involved in a pair of programs at the Rye YMCA are eating better and getting more involved in creating healthy meals as part of a new push to preempt childhood obesity.

Fruit smoothies, vegetables, whole grain foods and homemeade salsa are all on the menu for children in the Rye Y Kindertime and After School programs, according to a press release from the organization.

Scott Umbel, senior program director at the Rye Y, said Child Care Director Yanique Powell has already shown demonstrable results in how the kids behave. “Implementing our new healthy eating and physical activity standards has certainly been a challenge for our team, however, the impact that we have already seen in our students is profound,” Umbel said in the press release.

It’s an important program.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at last count about 17 percent of chidren and adolescents aged 2 to 19 are obese—and obesity became more prevalent from 1976 to 1980 and again from 1999 to 2000. (See attached PDF for more information.)

Here’s some data that breaks down obesity among ethnic groups:

Between 1988-1994 and 2007-2008 the prevalence of obesity increased:

• From 11.6% to 16.7% among non-Hispanic white boys.
• From 10.7% to 19.8% among non-Hispanic black boys.
• From 14.1% to 26.8% among Mexican-American boys.

“Among girls in the period 2007-2008, non-Hispanic black adolescents (29.2%) were significantly more likely to be obese compared with non-Hispanic white adolescents (14.5%),” the CDC says. “Similarly, non-Hispanic black adolescent girls (16.3%) were more likely to be obese compared with non-Hispanic white adolescent girls (8.9%) in the period 1988-1994.”

At the Rye Y, kids design their own healthy versions of popular foods such as pizza, and the program includes physical activity such as yoga and swimming.

“It is extremely gratifying to give the kids significant physical activity after they have been sitting at a desk all day. They really look forward to it,” Powell said in the press release.