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Books are the best. I could whittle away the rest of my days curled up with one. The benefits of starting read to your kids at their littlest go on and on. I just can't run out of good things to say about books.
Here's another one -- books can actually help overweight adolescent girls shed pounds.
A study in the journal Pediatrics tested this out on 81 obese girls.
Some girls were given a book featuring an overweight girl who, through her adventures, improves her self-esteem and learns about nutrition and physical activity.
Other girls were given a book with similar characters that did not address these issues. A third group of girls were not given a book as part of their counseling.
Two months after the intervention, the girls who read the book geared to nutrition and physical activity had reduced their BMI percentile significantly more than the other two groups.
The girls who read the alternate book reduced their BMI percentile more than the group with no book.
See what I mean! Books rule the world. Now I'm guessing it's none to easy to find young adult books with main characters struggling with a weight problem, but hey, I see a new market opportunity here. Maybe another Twilight series ... Even though Edward loves her for who she is, Bella Swan is determined to lose 40 pounds for the sake of her health ...
How much do the characters in books influence your children? Yeah, we know all about Twilight, but any others?
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Comments (7)
That's really cool. It makes sense, books can definitely change your life.
what is the name of the book?
Obesity has been identified as the leading cause of Type 2 diabetes in today overweight youth. African American and Latino children lead the statistics on rise of childhood obesity. With such perilous facts as these, it is vital that reading literature be created to help not only the obese girls but boys too.
As a physical education and dance specialist for over 30 years and the author my new children "healthy choice" book series I also use literacy as another vehicle to combat childhood obesity. The first book released in September, "Sweetie's Healthy Start", introduces the Portly family and their various health issues that include poor nutrition and fitness. The main character, Sweetie, and her very overweight family learn the lessons of the need for good nutrition, making better food choices and how fitness can be fun.
With obesity on the rise in both adults and children, we must be ever vigilant to advocate, educate and activate healthy living for all.
Terlene D. Terry-Todd, author
"Sweetie's Healthy Start"
www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/SweetiesHealthyStart.html
Blog: Creative Health and Fitness T. Terry-Todd - Wordpress
http://tterrytodd.aegauthorsblog.com
cynthia, thanks for this post. i have a 13 year old daughter who is 5'10" and 220 #. last summer, she lost 20 # by eliminating corn, rice and wheat which we discovered she is severely intolerant to. she chose to eat whatever was served at lunch at school and at other times and you guessed it, the weight is back.
i would love to know the titles of the books you are referring to and the authors. can you help me out?
I have personal experience no books will help you to reduce obesity only practical doing like excecise , walking , control on the food will help to reduce obesity otherwise forget about reducing.
http://www.fightobesity.net/
<p><span><a href="http://www.fightobesity.net/"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">http://www.fightobesity.net/</span></a></span></p>
Pretty cool. I think books have a huge impact on everyone. I love reading. I would consider letting my child read these books if they had issues.