Changing Childhood Obesity:
Health Story

Aired on Lifetime Television
Sunday, July 8 and August 26, 2007

Show 415

What should be a bright future for our children may be plagued by a prognosis of poor health and obesity. Dr. Arthur Agatston, author of The South Beach Diet, decided to tackle the issue with a pilot study developed through his non-profit Agatston Research Foundation. The program is called HOPS, Healthier Options for Public School children.

It begins with changing the school menus to incorporate healthier foods. "The foods that we're serving are low in fat, high in fiber and we're eliminating cereals and other foods that contain a lot of sugar," says Dr. Annette Weissman, principal of one of the HOPS schools. The HOPS program has also evolved into a comprehensive curriculum.

"We have newsletters that we create that focus on the HOPS foods of the month that are geared towards parents. We have activity packets for the children that go to all the classrooms, says Dr. Danielle Hollar, Director of Research at the Agatston Research Foundation.

Preliminary data is showing a significant difference between the body mass index of children in the HOPS study schools and children in controlled schools. The hope is that parents and school systems across the country will learn about HOPS and work to incorporate the program into their own schools in order to create a healthier future for our children.