- Do you worry about how much screen time your kids get and whether it's affecting their health?

The health and wellness of our children is a concern for every parent and caregiver.

Coming up, advice on eating healthy, staying active, and how technology could be part of the answer.

That's next on "iQ: Smartparent."

(instrumental music) (audience clapping) Hi, I'm Dr. Deborah Gilboa.

As a mom of four kids I'm definitely worried about their health, what they're eating, how much physical activity they're getting, and whether they're spending too much time sitting in front of a TV or computer screen.

This issue has become a nationwide concern and is a major focus of First Lady, Michelle Obama.

Her Let's Move!

initiative encourages us to learn the facts, eat healthy, get active, and take action.

Tonight we'll be focusing on each of these strategies and offering some great advice for families.

So first, let's learn the facts about junk food ads with Common Sense Media.

♪ Sugar ♪ ♪ Ah, honey, honey ♪ - [Man] We don't like to think about it, but it's a hard cold fact that today's kids are heavier than they used to be, bigger than they need to be, fatter than they should be.

In fact, more than one third of American children are obese or at risk of becoming obese.

It's not just a fact, it's a national epidemic.

♪ You make life so sweet, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ - [Man] So who's to blame?

There's no single culprit.

Life moves fast these days and parents, especially working parents, don't always have the luxury of whipping up a healthy home cooked meal, especially during the week.

- I want candy.

♪ I found me some junk food ♪ - [Man] Add to that, fast food franchises which merchandise their way into our kids' lives.

Television advertisers, who bombard kids with junk food messages around the clock and the sedentary lifestyle that accompanies endless hours of screen time.

The combination is toxic in terms of our kids' health.

In fact, it's a sure fire recipe for obesity.

- So this clip is great at showing how easy it is to buy junk food in place of healthy food.

It's packaged in bright enticing colors.

There are pictures of our kids' favorite characters on the wrapper.

It's at eye level in the supermarket or eye level for our kids in the supermarket.

It's really tough for kids and adults when food is everywhere.

It's a fact that since 1980, the obesity rate for kids and teens has almost tripled.

With me today is a family who struggled with this exact issue and a physician who specializes in weight management.

They're gonna help us sort through the facts and give us tips to help our families.

So with me tonight is Caitlyn and her mom, Michelle.

Caitlyn is 14 years old.

She's a patient of mine in my office and we met last summer.

Caitlyn, when we met you were 5'1" tall and 200 pounds.

Was that visit you had with me the first time that you thought, hey, my weight might be a health problem?

- [Caitlyn] Definitely not.

- [Deborah] Okay.

- You, I mean, you are yourself all the time.

So you're obviously aware of what you look like.

There's mirrors in my house.

(Deborah laughing) So I saw myself quite a lot and it's like I saw that I was fat.

I saw that I was definitely overweight, but I just didn't do anything about it.

I was too lazy to do it, or I'm big on procrastinating and I was just like, "Ugh, I can't do it today, I have a homework, ugh."

- So maybe it's not just about being lazy, but it was partly like I can get to that later, right?

- Yeah.

- Didn't seem like a pressing issue.

Okay.

Michelle, did it seem like a pressing issue to you?

And at what age with Caitlyn did you start to worry?

- I probably started to worry when she was about maybe eight or nine, but as she got older, definitely more.

I could see the weight piling on and- - Did you talk to her about it or make some changes you thought would be helpful?

- I started buying more food that I thought would be healthier.

- [Deborah] Okay.

- I didn't really talk to her.

I didn't- - [Deborah] It's hard to talk to our kids about their weight, right?

- It is, and I didn't want her to have low self-esteem.

People who tend to be overweight don't always have the best morale for themselves.

- Right, absolutely, it's true.

So you were looking mostly at her food, right?

And so Caitlyn, can you tell us a little bit about what, before you started to think about a healthier lifestyle, and being more fit, what you're eating.

- I was definitely eating almost at least double what I should be eating almost every single meal.

- [Deborah] Did you know those facts when you were doing it or have you learned that since then?

- [Deborah] Yeah, yeah, it's not like I'm stupid.

I saw, I saw- .

- [Deborah] I did not think you're stupid, I promise.

- I saw what I was eating.

I wasn't like unaware of what I was doing, I just didn't do anything about it.

- Okay, so you had given us a list and you talked about eating Pop-Tarts, and muffins, and snacks, and second helpings, and really liking carbs, which me too.

Absolutely, it tastes really good.

Always having dessert.

What was your weakness?

What was your kryptonite?

- [Caitlyn] My achilles heel was definitely Twix bars.

- [Deborah] Oh yeah.

- And it got really bad when my mom got a new boyfriend.

You know daughter is not really cool on that.

- [Deborah] Oh it's so much easier to blame it on your parents.

This is perfect.

(Caitlyn laughing) - And he tried to like buy my love with Twix bars.

So he'd like bring me one every day in hopes I'd be nice.

- Okay, but it kind of worked right?

I'm just kidding.

- No, it didn't work.

- I'm just teasing.

Okay, so you were making those choices and then you had some kind of epiphany, like a light went off for you, or you just finally decided it was time to stop procrastinating.

How did you decide to make a change?

- Well, when I went to see you, like, I didn't weigh myself.

So like I knew I was fat.

I know I was obese, but I didn't know how much.

And so it's like, so then when you told me how much I weighed, I was like, I don't think humans are supposed to weigh 200 pounds.

And so- - No, not 5'1" tall humans.

- Yeah, and so I was like, yeah, I need to do something about that.

- And you've really made tremendous changes and tremendous strides.

Does it feel to you like you've made huge changes or have you made really, use workable changes?

- I mean, well, it's been a while.

So like when I first started, it seemed like such a big deal to like cut out everything, but now it's like the norm.

Like eating seconds for dinner, but going back back for vegetables, and not like pasta or something.

That's normal for me now.

- [Deborah] So your new eating habits, you talk about having milk and cereal for breakfast instead of Pop-Tarts and muffins, having more fruits and vegetables, and healthy snacks and avoiding seconds on your carbs and maybe on the proteins too.

Can you talk about portion control and maybe what you learned or what you do now?

- Well, when I went to see the nutritionist at Children's Hospital, she told me that instead of the pyramid, they have like a plate, and so it was like half your plate should be like fruits and veggies.

And then like a 1/4 could be like protein.

And then like a 1/4 could be like carbs or whatever.

And so that's kind of how I based it on.

But like before it was like no vegetables and veggies, and like just carbs, like everywhere.

- [Deborah] 'Cause carbs are awesome.

- Yeah.

- So you, God, I'm just being honest.

So you got a lot of help in making these changes once you decided you were going to from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

They have a Weight Management and Wellness Center and I'd asked you and your mom to go see them.

With us tonight is Dr. Kara Hughan, she wasn't your pediatric endocrinologist there, but she's one of the pediatric endocrinologists who works as a part of that team, helping teens and kids who are overweight or obese to live healthier lifestyles.

Thank you very much for joining us, Dr. Hughan.

- Thank you for inviting me.

- So, I just wanted to ask to give us a sense of it.

I mentioned earlier that the obesity rates have tripled since 1980, but any kid who's watching this now is thinking 1980 was about 400 years ago.

So what's happening in the last five or 10 years?

Is this really a problem?

- Well, unfortunately we haven't fixed the problem, but I think the positive is that we've identified the problem, not only in the medical community, but our families and the general community.

See it and recognize it as a problem.

And have started doing things to get rid of it.

- I've noticed in my office, it's a lot easier to talk to parents about this.

They are a little bit less defensive than they were 10 years ago when I was in practice that they are thinking about it themselves.

That it's often not a shocker to a family.

When I say, "I'm concerned about weight," right?

So when you're working with kids and parents, where's your focus?

Do you focus on the kid?

Do you focus on talking to the parent about making healthier choices?

What if, if somebody comes a weight management center, what do they learn?

- Well, we ask that both the parent or parents and the children come to the appointment, no matter what the age is even if they're a year old.

'Cause we really want to engage the child who may be the only person having the struggle, but really engaging the whole family, so that it's a family approach.

- So this is a way of looking at focusing on healthy eating choices and not you have a disease, you have a problem.

We do recognize that obesity is a medical issue, but we're trying to encourage people to make lifestyle kind of changes, right?

- [Kara] Right.

- Is the lifestyle problem that we're just eating junk food all the time and sitting down all the time, or is it more than that?

- Well I think the clip that was previously shown, I think highlighted that it's not one thing.

It begins in the home with some of the choices that we make, but it's also our environment around us.

- So there are all kinds of ways that adults can make a difference in that.

But when we are talking about educating, you mentioned even one and two year olds, we really do wanna teach kids.

Caitlyn, you mentioned that we don't talk about the food pyramid anymore, which is something that your mom and I remember from when we were growing up.

We talk about choosing a healthy plate.

And this is a map, just like Caitlyn mentioned, getting a guide that we can think about that plate and what ought to be on how much of it.

And so what is a way for parents to fill a plate that is really actually only a quarter starch and the rest is protein and fruits and vegetables for kids that they perceive, or the kids themselves perceive, I just, I don't eat vegetables?

It's not my thing.

If it grows in the ground, I don't eat it.

- Well, I think there's ways to work with that.

And I think that's what we teach in our clinic.

If vegetables have not been a part of their diet, introducing it, repeatedly trying.

Sometimes it can be mixing it in with other things and things like meatballs to get your veggies and then really trying to follow as the plate shows to not load up on the carbs, which is hard.

Minimizing it to that area and making your plate colorful so that it's exciting for your children to eat.

- That's really cool.

I like that idea of making it colorful and visually appealing that that matters to us emotionally when we're trying to eat.

We have a question from our audience.

- Hi, my name is Destiny Colin.

My questions for Caitlyn.

And I'm a 13 year old girl.

And like when we're like with our friends and like at different parties and there's like junk food everywhere, and there are like all these temptations, how do you discipline yourself to not eat those things?

- Well, you're a girl, so you might carry a purse.

I don't, but if you do, you can like hide snacks in there that are good for you, or the people that you're hanging out with are probably your friends.

So maybe they know that you're not trying to eat like junk food, so maybe they'll have like carrots out.

I don't know.

But like, just anything that works for you.

Like I personally, just don't touch it.

Like I'll grab bottle water, fill up on water.

- So you don't make a big deal about it with your friends, but you're not willing to make that choice, even if other people are making it?

- Yeah, no.

- So that's a really powerful way to look at it.

I can understand Destiny's point, but that's a hard thing to do sometimes when you're with a group, because people can feel like you're judging their choices if you're making different ones.

- Yeah.

- Dr. Hughan, can you talk a little bit about the struggle for parents as our kids are making a lot of choices when we're not there.

When they get to the nine, or 12, or 14 years old, and a lot of their food choices are without us around, how can we encourage them to eat healthy?

- I think it has to start early and not when they're heading off to school, but really the practice that you bring in from the get-go.

When you're introducing solids to them , and teaching, teaching them, and cooking with them.

- Cooking with them, that's a nice idea.

- Allowing them to be involved in meal making from the start.

- So the Weight Management Center has kind of a recipe for parents to remember when we're thinking about what's okay and what isn't and how do we give our kids healthy guidelines?

Can you tell us about those?

- Sure, so we like to use the 5-2-1-0 guide or rule, and that begins with five fruits and vegetable servings each day.

Less than two hours of screen time a day, and that can be anything.

That can be your combined to computer, video games, movies, TVs.

- [Caitlyn] We've talked earlier on it.

- I've touched upon iPod.

- Right on episodes of "IQ: Smartparent" about how not all screen time is created equal.

So we definitely want to limit most the screen time where you're sitting down and just watching a screen or interacting with a screen without being active.

- [Kara] Absolutely.

- [Deborah] Okay.

- [Kara] And then one would be one hour of exercise a day, and that can be anything that you would want.

- [Deborah] Or your child talks about this, football players talk about right, the 60 day a day for the NFL.

- [Kara] And that doesn't mean it has to be all at one time, an hour straight.

You can break that up, 10 to 15 minutes segments.

- [Deborah] So what's the zero?

What can't we have at all?

- [Kara] Sugary beverages.

(Deborah vocalizing) (Deborah giggling) (Deborah vocalizing) - That's a really hard one, but it's really important, because we don't feel more satisfied when we drink calories as we do when we eat them.

- So we would have rather have a whole piece of fruit than have our patients drink a glass of juice.

- So Michelle, if you could say something to parents who are worried about their kids' weight, what would you advise them?

- Start with your shopping and what you buy at home.

- [Deborah] Okay, so really hearing from everybody that it's about the choices that you're making and using technology to be healthier, to get the information you need, rather than to put it back to just kind of eat what the commercials are telling us to eat.

- [Michelle] Right.

- Okay, so when we come back, we'll show you some foods you might think are healthy, but aren't.

And some good choices, even in fast foods, that might surprise you.

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- So let's talk more about how to make healthy food choices.

Here are two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

They're both tasty, but one is much healthier than the other.

Jacqueline Ely is here.

She is a registered dietician with the Wilfred Cameron Wellness Center in Washington, PA. Jacqueline, thank you so much for joining us.

- Well thank you for having me.

- Okay, so I'm pretty sure that studies show that the average kid in their lifetime eat three gajillion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

So tell me the secret of PB and J.

- Well, there are some, some changes that you can make to improve your typical peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Three easy changes actually.

And we'll start with the bread.

So using a whole wheat bread over a white bread, using a natural style peanut butter over your typical store-bought regular brand.

- There's something wrong with the store bought regular brand peanut butter?

- Well, you wanna go for a natural style peanut butter.

The only ingredient that you'll see on this label is peanuts.

- Huh, that's really revolutionary.

- [ That's it, that's it, that's all that it needs.

And there's one more.

That would be the jelly.

So going for an all fruit spread versus your typical spread.

- Okay, so what about if I get the regular brand peanut butter, but I get the reduced fat, that's much healthier?

- Not necessarily.

The reduced fat peanut butter, you're eliminating the good, healthy fats that are normally found in peanuts and often replacing that with a small amount of unhealthy fats and sometimes added sugar and salt.

- I really thought we were gonna get along.

- No.

(both laughing) - Okay, so tell me about the sugars, because this is something that I worry about a lot.

I feel like I'm probably giving my kids more sugar than I know I am.

So how much sugar should my kids have in, is it okay for them?

Not must they have, but is it okay for them to have in a day?

- It is okay to have sugar in the day.

The American Heart Association recommends for depending on the age of the child or the adult, anywhere from 12 to 23 grams of sugar in a day.

- Grams, and and I'm glad you put it that way, because that's what it says on the label.

- Exactly.

- So if I'm reading it, that's what I'm getting.

- Exactly.

- And I do know we have this amazing graphic that talks about how we were eating a certain amount of sugar 20 years ago.

26 pounds the average adult had in the course of a year.

And that already sounds like a lot of sugar to me, but it turns out that now the average adult is having 135 pounds of sugar a year.

So it doesn't seem like these are modest changes, and we're nitpicking, and just being difficult, this is gotta be a huge contributor to the obesity issue we're talking about.

- I definitely feel that it is, and sugar has addictive qualities, so we tend to crave.

- [Deborah] I know that to be true.

(both laughing) - The more sugar we have, the more sugar we crave.

So it's often added to various foods to increase the taste and the desire for that food.

There are hidden sugars found in many foods that maybe you thought were healthy foods, but the hidden sugars that are there, make them not so good.

- Okay, go ahead and make my parenting life a little harder.

What do I think is healthy, but isn't?

- Well, let's start with juice.

- Okay.

- So first off we have juice that has, this eight ounce box juice box has 18 grams of sugar.

And as I - - Wait, wait 18 Grams, so if I give this to my first grader, that's more than all the sugar they should've had that day.

- Exactly, exactly.

- That is very disappointing.

- So a better option would be the whole fruit.

To actually give them an apple.

- Give them an apple.

- Exactly.

And they will have more enjoyment out of eating the apple and satisfy- - I think my six year old might argue with you about that, but I do understand what you're saying.

So you're saying give the apple and give some water to drink.

- Exactly, so we should be drinking water and dairy as our main fluids.

- Another fluid that's usually consumed is soda.

- Ooh, I know this is gonna be bad.

- Okay, in this bottle of soda, we have 65 grams of sugar.

- 65 Grams.

So even for an adult that's almost three days worth of sugar.

- Exactly.

- In one bottle of soda.

- Yes.

- So we recommend that kids not have any soda at all in the medical field.

We don't want anybody who is 12 or under having soda ever, because not only the sugar, but also often caffeine, the phosphorus, there's a whole bunch of reasons that we want kids to avoid sugar, but I think that parents often feel like juice, well some kinds of juice, orange juice, apple juice, they're pretty healthy.

Those are good choices.

- And it is a better choice over soda, but the best choice would be water.

- [Deborah] Okay.

- Or you could have a zero calorie water.

- Like a flavored water.

- Exactly, a flavored water would be a great choice too.

- Okay, okay.

- So we have actually a question from our Facebook page.

- Wonderful.

- [Deborah] "What about milk?"

You mentioned dairy products and this parent wants to know, "I've heard a lot of different things about older kids and should they stop drinking it?"

She was saying, Vanessa is saying, she has a seven-year-old and a twelve-year-old.

So what kind of milk and how much?

- Well, I feel that this is definitely a preference for the family.

There are many different types of milk or dairy alternatives, if you will.

So if you are, or the family, or the child prefers almond milk or soy milk, those are great options as well.

They're great choices- - Okay, but we should stay away from the whole milk after age two.

- Exactly.

- And trying to get as close to skim or skim milk that we can.

- Yes, skim or 1%.

- Okay, we have a question from the audience.

- My name is Diane Moore, and I want to shop for organic foods, fruits, and vegetables as much as possible, because I know it's healthier, but it's also more expensive.

What would you say would be the top three organic foods that should always be in my shopping cart?

- Well, I would certainly start with strawberries or berries are great to have organic.

Pesticides are generally higher on those foods.

I would also go for apples, organic apples if you can.

And pears, again for the, for the pesticide use, if you can.

If you cannot afford the organic fruits or vegetables, simply washing them very well prior to consumption is gonna help to cut back on any pesticides or herbicides that are used.

- And I know that I've learned about organics, that you don't have to worry as much if you're not eating the skin, right.

If you're not eating the peel of the orange, then that's not something you have to be as concerned about being organic.

- Yeah, so oranges, bananas pineapple.

- Okay, absolutely.

- Where you remove the skin.

- And it can feel like it is very expensive to eat healthy.

It seems like it would be a luxury for a lot of people to find produce, or to, even find fresh produce, but then to afford it and those things.

So if you're not gonna be able to buy fresh for that week or not much of it, then what can you do to get healthier, better tasting fruits and vegetables into kids?

Like what about dried fruit?

We have some on the table and I'd like to ask about that, because that's something as a parent, I feel pretty good about putting on the table for my kids.

- Sure.

Well, dried fruit is better than juice.

(all laughing) - This is like our benchmark here.

It's terrible if it's like juice, but it's like.

- It's better than juice, but still the fresh fruit is the best choice.

And let me show you some reasons for that.

So in this bag of Craisins, if you were to consume this entire bag of Craisins, you have 76 grams of sugar.

- Wow, okay, four kids worth for a day.

- Exactly, and the mango.

For this bag of mangoes, 84 grams.

- [Deborah] So how many servings?

It says there's three servings in this bag?

- [Jacqueline] Three servings, yes.

- So even if you only had a serving of this, you still had, and this is dried mango.

This seems healthy to me as a parent.

You're still having way more sugar than you should have in that day.

- Yes.

And if you had three mangoes, it would be less sugar.

- Three whole mangoes is what.

- Three whole mangoes.

in the 80.

- Which yeah, probably we're not consuming in just one sitting.

- Okay, so what about other snack foods that I might reach for?

Can you talk to me about protein bars?

- Sure, so we think of protein bars, cereal bars, nutrition bars, what have you, as being a healthy option.

- [Deborah] That's cause they call them nutrition bars.

- Exactly.

So let's start with the cereal bar.

You see this bar, you think, oh, this is a great treat or a great snack.

Maybe even a breakfast option for my child.

- Right, especially for my tween or teen who did not get out of bed in time to have breakfast and get dressed.

And they have to be dressed or they can't go to school.

- Right, well it actually has 13 grams of sugar in one bar, one bar.

That is the same as our Pop-Tart.

- Oh, and the unfrosted Pop-Tart.

- It is the unfrosted Pop-Tart.

So if you were to compare the two and say, which one is the healthier option, just looking at the front of the box, I'm sure you would choose the Golden Graham.

- It's a cereal bar.

- Cereal bar.

- Okay, so it really does make a difference to compare things and say, what are my kids actually going to eat, but what's healthier.

So what's a better option?

- Well, a better option that still has the chocolatey flavor that you're looking for, would be this Fiber One bar, five grams of sugar and an even better option is the Cascadian Farm Organic Nutrition Bar with 3.5 grams of sugar.

- Okay, so that makes sense to me that you can look at the same kind of food and then find something that fits that category.

So there are times where if my kids don't eat fast food for dinner, they're not going to eat.

Our schedule with four kids just gets kind of crazy.

I didn't plan it that way, but that's the way it worked.

I don't mean the four kids, I mean, that night.

That's the way it's just going, and I recognize we are going to a fast food restaurant.

So if I'm gonna go, how do I make healthier choices while I'm there?

- Well there's some great options at fast food restaurants, and I think this is fantastic.

And this information is available to see on their website, or if you have a smartphone, you can certainly search that online.

- So stay in the parking lot in the car for a minute, get on their site, and get the actual information about what is gonna be okay to have while you're there.

- Exactly, so I have a few suggestions for you.

We'll start with this Subway six inch sandwich.

This is on whole wheat.

It has lean protein and veggies, mustard as the condiment, is going to help to cut the fat.

- I hear you saying not mayonnaise.

- Not mayonnaise, not mayonnaise.

- Got it, okay.

- We also have a Taco Fresco from Taco Bell, very tasty, has great lean chicken.

You can also find this with beef or steak, and it's very, very tasty and low in fat as well.

Over here, you'll see, is the Filet-O-Fish.

Fish, fish sounds healthy.

- You would think.

This is a deceptive food.

This Filet-O-Fish is very high in fat, much higher than your typical cheeseburger or hamburger at McDonald's.

- Wow.

- So a better option would be to go for the hamburger.

- And this is where you gotta get online and check because you're never gonna have memorized all, you might've memorized all these things, but most of us are not gonna have memorized all of these things, so we can use those kind of apps.

There's also an incredible app called Food Fight.

Well, while you're at the store, let's say your child really wants fruit roll ups.

You can say, okay, we're gonna stick this kind of fruit roll up that has the character you really love on it, and these simple fruit or only fruit, fruit roll-ups in the Food Fight.

And it's going to tell us, which is the winner for nutrition, and we're gonna take home the winner.

And that's a really good way, I think, with the technology to engage kids and get them kind of rooting for their one, but then accepting that we're gonna take home whichever one is healthier.

- Exactly, great, very good.

- So you have some tips for us to remember as parents, things that we can do, that we can, guidelines that we can keep in our heads.

- [Jacqueline] Yes.

- [Deborah] What are those tips?

- [Jacqueline] Well, first would be to cut back on the meals that are consumed away from the home.

Typically Americans consume 32% of their meals away from the home.

- [Deborah] So we're eating a third of our meals out.

- [Jacqueline] Exactly.

- [Deborah] Okay, you're telling me to cook more.

- [Jacqueline] Cook more, - [Deborah] Teach my kids to cook.

- [Jacqueline] Yeah, that's a better option.

- [Deborah] Okay, go ahead.

- [Jacqueline] Dine together as a family at home.

- [Deborah] And I know I recommend this for all kinds of risk reduction for kids and teens for parents, but you're saying it really also helps with their nutrition.

- [Jacqueline] Yes, definitely.

- [Deborah] So this is a place we wanna take technology away from, we don't want tech at the table while we're sitting together.

- Turn off the TV and turn off all electronic devices and really have that conversation during dinner.

Set goals each week for the family.

So this may be to incorporate more fruits and vegetables, and have a fun game with this where maybe the winner gets to pick the movie to rent that week, or maybe they get to pick the new food that to try when they, the next time you go grocery shopping.

- That's a cool idea.

Okay, so now if I don't have any actual healthy grab and go snacks, I have to tell you that the phrase I hear probably more than any other in a house of four boys is "I'm hungry."

So what can I do that I can make pretty easily at home as a snack for them?

- Well I have a great snack.

A yogurt parfait is very simple if you have the ingredients on hand, three simple ingredients that you need, and it's, it's quick.

- I'm gonna put you on the spot.

My two older kids are here today and I'm gonna bring them up and see if they can make it and if they like it.

- Wonderful.

- Okay, all right, Oren and Nadav, come on up guys.

- Hello?

- Hello.

(audience laughs) - [Deborah] Okay, so what do they do?

- All right, so we're gonna start with yogurt.

So we have about a cup of yogurt here.

You can use a vanilla yogurt.

You could use a strawberry yogurt, or you could go with a plain.

One of my favorite yogurts is the Chobani.

This is high, it's a Greek yogurt.

It's high in protein and very low in sugar.

So we're gonna start with this as our base.

Then we're going to add nice crunch.

And we have some Rice Krispies today for that crunch.

- [Deborah] Psst, add.

- Let's add a little to our, to our yogurt.

Wonderful, you can hear it snap, crackle, and pop.

And then last, we're going to top it with some fruit.

Now I believe this is your favorite fruit, is that correct?

- Yes.

- It's one of my favorites.

- [Jacqueline] So what do we have today?

- Blueberries.

- [Jacqueline] Some blueberries.

Wonderful.

- Put 'em in the cup.

- So let's add the blueberries.

Very healthy and high in antioxidants.

So are you ready to try this?

- All right, I'm gonna hold that microphone while you crunch.

- Is this your first time having a yogurt parfait?

- Yes.

- All right, let's see if it's kid approved.

- So this is the kind of thing that you can absolutely make from if you've got healthy choices in the house.

If you've read your labels and you know you've got a cereal, you can feel good about the yogurt, you can feel good about any fruit, they can put this together.

- [Jacqueline] Exactly.

- Okay, what do you think?

- I like it, it's good.

- Fabulous food.

- All right, excellent.

See, this is really good.

And what I'm really excited about is you guys know how to make it.

- Now you can make it on your own.

- So as we mentioned earlier, Michelle Obama, like many of us moms realized when her daughters were young, that living a healthy lifestyle was going to be a challenge for her family.

She worried about the abundance of fast food and the lack of exercise for kids and parents.

And she chose early on to make changes, changes we could all make.

And that's what we're talking about now.

The getting active and taking action parts of Mrs. Obama's Let's Move!

initiative.

- Let's Move!

is a nationwide initiative that basically focuses on four key components.

First, we wanna improve information and the tools that parents need to make the changes that are desired in their families.

The second is that we have to improve the quality of food in our schools.

That's where kids are eating many of their meals, and we have to do a better job of making sure that that food is quality.

Third, we need to improve access and affordability of healthy foods.

We have to eliminate food deserts in this country and we need to do it now.

And finally, we have to increase physical education for kids.

We need to get them moving, and we're gonna be relying a lot on major sports organizations to help us achieve that goal.

And we're very excited about that.

Let's Move!

is gonna take families out of their isolation and give them the nationwide support that they need in a whole range of industries to get their kids on track, to live healthier lives, to eat right, to get more exercisE, and to be ready to face the challenges of the future.

- And joining us today is Richard Piacentini who oversees the Let's Move!

initiative.

that's here in Pittsburgh.

Richard, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

- [Richard] Thank you for inviting me.

- So, okay what I understand from the clip that we just watched is just move more.

Is it really that simple?

- No, there's actually three major components to the whole program.

It's to eat healthier foods, to be a lot more active, and to reduce screen time.

- Okay, so eat healthier foods.

I feel like we've pretty much covered that tonight.

- Good job.

- We talked about that a whole lot.

And so to be more active.

So tell us about the Let's Move!

initiative here in Pittsburgh.

What are you do?

- Well our program here is based on looking at all three of those areas and really try to create opportunities for people to understand more about what's healthy and what they can do.

Try to identify some of the best practices in our community and bring lots of people together to really start a conversation about what they can do that's healthier.

- So when you start that conversation with families, how do you actually engage them?

Because if you're going to reduce screen time, you've got to replace it with some different kind of fun.

Right?

- We do.

And we have programs that we're, on our website.

We have a e-newsletter that we send out to people.

We alert them to different things going on in the community.

We also have a program called 10,000 Tables where we're encouraging families, as you mentioned earlier in the program, to eat together as a family.

When families prepare food together, cook together, and eat together, they're much happier and healthier.

- I love that idea of 10,000 Tables, feeling like your dinner table as a part of a bigger movement.

- We are trying to get 10,000 families in Pittsburgh to sign up for this and to really show the community, that this- - Just in the community.

That's a really cool idea because normally when somebody asks you to be part of something much larger, it feels like a lot more work than just making dinner, and eating it with your family.

- Right, and we also provide lots of tips, and healthy ideas and things that they can do to really make that work together.

- So when you're working with families and they are coming to say, okay, we saw you at an event or we are encountering you at your center, and they say, "I wanna get my kids more involved.

What activities specifically do you recommend that they try?"

- Well, we'd like to see them walk more, ride bicycles.

We like to have them just be a lot more active, in just their daily lives.

We're also interested in the whole idea with schools and trying to figure out, to encourage, to have more recess in schools.

We're also interested in trying to find ways to create healthy, safer ways for kids to walk and bike to school.

That's that could be really important for kids too.

- So some of this might be about involving our legislators, but some of it can be as simple as getting involved at our children's school and asking how much recess, how much gym, what are they doing during the day, how active are my kids?

- Exactly, this is a community issue.

And we have to come together as a community to solve it.

- That makes sense to me.

We have a quote from Mrs. Obama, that where she's talking about why this is important and the impact that we really wanna have on our kids.

She says, "The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake."

That seems like a huge claim.

- I think she's right.

We talked earlier about a third and in the last three decades, a kid, 1/3 of the kids are getting obese.

There's gonna be huge medical cost.

There's gonna be huge personal cost for people and economic cost for the country.

We're not, we're not producing the leaders that we're gonna need in the future if we go the way we're gone right now.

- So we're not just agitating for ourselves, we're agitating for our grandkids and future generations.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, we can all think of fun outdoor activities that families can do together, but did you know that technology offers a lot of new, great options for parents and kids?

Adriane Harrison, of Venture Outdoors, is here with some really excellent ideas.

Adriane, thank you very much for coming.

- Thanks for having me.

- So, okay.

We really wanna talk now about the being active part.

- [Adriane] That's right.

- So tell me what it is that I could do with my kids that actually uses tech, which my kids love and gadgets which they're really interested in, and uses that to motivate them and get them moving?

- Well the easiest way to get outside with young kids is to go for a walk or a hike through a local park or even in your neighborhood.

And one way to do that using technology, if your kids are tech savvy, is to download apps.

And there are many, many, many apps that will identify parks, they'll identify trails.

And they'll tell you exactly where you can go right outside your door and your community.

And you can plan your trip on your iPad or on your smartphone or on your computer, And then just go outside and do it.

You can use tech to enhance the outdoor experience by helping encourage you to get outside.

And then once you're outside, there's all sorts of cool things you can do with tech to make it fun while enhancing the experience and not taking away from the nature and the natural outdoor experience.

- So you're telling me I don't need a whole bunch of planning, or equipment, or to set aside time on my calendar.

I just need to download an app and walk outside with my kids.

- It can be that easy, yes.

- [Deborah] Okay, this seems actually more doable to me.

- Yay.

- So what is it that I've walked outside with my kids, what might I do to keep them engaged, to not have them be like, "All right, can we go back inside now and please watch, play a video game, and watch the screen."

- I think you have to connect with your kids and find out what they like to do.

And if your kids like art, then connect the outdoors with their favorite activity and take some paper out there or take your iPad that has drawing apps on it if they like technology and art and go walk down the path, and then draw a tree.

There are ways to enhance the experience.

You can do that.

Or if your kid likes photography, if your child's interested in images- - [Deborah] The camera on your phone, of course.

- Hand, hand them your phone and take pictures.

You can upload them to any number of websites.

There are tons and tons of apps that will make, allow them to play with the images and do cool things.

You can print out canvases with their images and post them on their walls.

It gets them outside and engages them.

The technology doesn't supplant the outdoor experience, but it enhances it and makes them maybe want to do it.

- Common Sense Media, which is a resource that we use a lot here.

They have a whole list of apps that parents can, if they can't remember all the wonderful things that you're mentioning now, that they can go to and download.

And that's really useful I think to know one place that you can go, that's a good clearing house.

- [Adriane] Absolutely.

- So as a mom of kids yourself, what do you do specifically that really, that has been really successful with your kids?

- Well my kids love pictures, so the camera was a huge draw.

So that was a big thing.

The other thing is I let them choose where they go.

Now, whether you wanna use an app for that, or you just want to say, "Well, where do you wanna go?

What do you wanna see today?"

- Right, we did choose places to go before apps, right?

- Yeah, yeah, right.

It can happen, believe it or not.

And my youngest daughter, who's eight.

Her favorite thing to do is ride her bike down the trail.

My ten-year-old likes to kayak.

And so we, simply allowing them to connect, and then they have to incorporate technology, they have email accounts.

And so they can post a picture on their Gmail and share it in their circles with their cousins who live far away and- - Great and we're actually gonna talk in a future episode of "iQ: Smartparent" about how to be savvy about the social media our kids are using, but they do love to share and let their friends know what they're doing.

So if there's a safe way to do that, this is a nice way to encourage that, to be more active.

- And that gets those kids to wanna go outside.

- Yeah, and there are great websites that we can use with kids to think about fitness and health, which is really where we wanna focus and not on weight.

- [Adriane] Absolutely.

- And so like FitWit is a really good one I know that we can use to engage kids.

- [Adriane] Absolutely, right.

- We have a question from the audience.

- [Adriane] All right.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- My name is Terry and I was interested in having you talk a little bit about how Venture Outdoors might do something with geocaching.

It's one of my favorite activities that I enjoy doing outdoors.

And I read in the brochure that maybe Venture Outdoors would have an opportunity for families to do geocaching.

- Oh yeah, Venture Outdoors has between five and 600 programs a year, and many of them are geocaching.

- [Deborah] Okay, what's geocaching?

- Geocaching, it's a treasure hunt.

It's a treasure hunt that's international.

There is a website called geocaching.com that you can go to, type in your zip code, and immediately, no matter where you live, I guarantee you, there are geo geocaches, many of them, a very short distance from your home.

- [Deborah] You're telling me somebody else made a scavenger hunt for my kids?

- Yeah, awesome.

- This is fantastic.

- Yes it is.

- I tried a scavenger hunt for them once, it was a ton of work.

- It is a ton of work, but it's a cool thing.

And they're everywhere.

And it's really cool.

And it used to be that you had to buy a GPS unit and it became very complicated.

But every single smartphone has a GPS unit in it.

And you can download a free app with a compass and you can go geocaching with your smartphone, and literally you can do it, like if you have a half hour window of time, you can jump outside, geocache for a half hour, and come back.

- And this is really nice actually if you're visiting family or someplace where you don't know too much about the area.

- Absolutely.

- You put in that zip code of that area, and your kids learned to use a compass, which seems to me like a pretty cool thing too.

- It's pretty cool.

It looks like a real compass, but it's on your phone.

- Okay, so we are gonna talk about another kind of very cool technology.

I want you to take a look at this.

This is cutting edge technology, BodyMedia armband.

It measures everything a person does all day, all night, what you eat, how many steps you take, how active you are, how long you sleep, it calculates how many calories you burn and how many you need to burn.

So let's see how this works.

- [Man] The BodyMedia Fit's new armband with Bluetooth technology and the BodyMedia application for your iPhone gives you immediate information that takes the guesswork out of your fitness routine.

So you know when you can basically stop running, or when you have to maybe do an additional lap or two.

Stopping already?

- [Woman] I burned 500 calories.

That's more than I thought I burned.

No need for another lap.

- [Man] What's great about the new app is that you can instantly know information like how many calories you burn and you get the information in real time.

The armband does the monitoring.

The Bluetooth technology sends the data to your iPhone, and there you can check out the info at any time, any place.

The BodyMedia Fit system, even lets you monitor your sleep, so you know when it's the right time to call it a day.

- [Woman] I'm exhausted, I only slept five hours.

I should definitely go to sleep.

- The new BodyMedia Fit 2.0 with app for your iPhone.

It's like listening to your own body language, so you can make better decisions when it comes to your health.

- And we're so happy to have with us today, Chris Robbins, who is the CEO of BodyMedia.

Thank you very much for joining us, Chris.

- Thanks for having me.

- Okay, so a lot of us are familiar with the chest straps and things that measure while we're actually exercising our heart rate and maybe a couple of other things, I'm not sure.

So can you talk about why the folks at BodyMedia felt like that wasn't enough?

- Yeah, I mean we've, the foundation of the company is around the fact that living a healthy life is about a 24/7 journey, if you will.

It's about the choice to park in the back of the parking lot, to go outside and play with your kids, to push that shopping cart a little bit harder, and those things all count.

And so if you've got some great sensors and great technology that can help capture all that in a very simple and personal manner, then you can start to affect change for both kids, adults, and families together.

- There's been a lot of medical research recently and actually over the course of the last few years that showed that it's not just about going to the gym and working out hard for 60 minutes in a row.

That you can, like you said, park at the back of the parking lot, take the stairs instead of the elevator, let the kids pile on the grocery cart while you push it around.

And that those kinds of small bursts of activity make a difference.

So this is a way of keeping track of all that.

- Absolutely, I mean, 10, 20 years ago, people used to log their activity.

Right, man, pen and paper.

- 'Cause there were two people I think who logged all their activity.

(all laughing) That's right, yes.

- Maybe that's why it won't- - We asked them too for sure.

- Yeah, but even today there's apps.

I mean, if you can't afford technology, 'cause there's some great sensor technologies out there like BodyMedia and others in the category, but if you have to actively do something, it's not gonna get done.

If you have to log in piece of paper or even on an app.

And so there's these great sensor technologies now that can capture all that stuff, because it all matters.

We're all busy, less than 10% of adults go to gyms.

For children especially.

I mean, most children don't go to fitness clubs.

It's, so getting outside and playing basketball.

I personally learned once I started wearing the BodyMedia device, that my weekends, even though I didn't consciously work out were my highest calorie burn days, because I was spending 20 minutes playing basketball with my daughter, I was pushing a shopping cart, I was running up and down the stairs with wash, six times during the course of Saturday.

And all those things count.

- Yeah, we perceive ourselves as very busy and very tired afterwards.

- Yeah.

- So is it measuring my heart rate?

Is that how it knows?

I mean, how does it know if I'm sleeping or just sitting and reading a book?

- We don't measure, with our technology, because it's a multi-sensor on body technology, We don't measure heart rate directly.

We measure basically the body's reaction, your metabolism, and your reaction to various things that you're doing throughout the course of the day.

Works for anybody over the age of 13.

So in teens, pre-teens.

No pre-teens, but teen yeah.

- Oh, this is pretty cool.

- So this is something you could encourage your family.

I mean, I know that when you're talking about, you guys talked about just walk, right?

Richard said earlier that walking makes a big difference and I'll often encourage families to get a pedometer for everybody in the family, because those are less expensive.

They're may be 16 or $18, it's possible, to get a decent one.

And compete a little bit, have the kids compete against each other, or if that's not a good idea in your family, then have a child compete against an adult, keep track, and whoever has the most calories burn, gets to pick the next outdoor, adventure outdoors activity that they're gonna go and take.

But what is it specifically for teens?

'Cause you said this is approved down to age 13.

What is it about this that's going to really appeal to a teenager.

- Well, there's a lot of really smart app developers out there today, and so companies like BodyMedia, we partner with them, and you can actually start to use your activity, your calorie burn, your steps, as game, gamification currency.

And so there's a lot of great apps that are being developed today to help promote health and get up, get active, and use that as basically your currency.

We actually beta tested some about a year ago here in Pittsburgh.

So there's a lot.

I mean that's kind of the frontier on where it's going.

- Sounds very cool, actually.

(Deborah giggling) - So when we use this and we engage in anything where we kind of keep track of what we're doing all the time, like a pedometer would keep track of our steps through the entire day, and not only when we, okay now I'm gonna go exercise and I'm gonna put on this chest strap, and measure my exercise.

Is that something that's going to encourage us in some way to eat healthier as well?

- Well, I think.

we believe that knowledge is power.

And if you have real knowledge, there's a lot of studies that talk about the fact that we overestimate what we actually do, and how active we really are, and we underestimate what we really eat.

And if you're trying to manage weight, regardless of what your age is.

- [Deborah] I can't possibly do that.

- It's a mathematical equation.

And so when you get more accurate and personal information, especially about the activity levels and the calorie burn, and you can get some sense of, what you're eating on a more regular basis, you can start to manage that gap.

- They're using it on the television show, "Biggest Loser" right?

- We are, yeah.

We partnered with NBC and the "Biggest Loser" this past season.

And what we really liked about the approach this past season was taking the family approach.

So they had three teenagers who were part of the show as well, and they talked about how childhood obesity is really not only a national problem, but a family problem.

And so we worked with those kids and their families, as well as the contestants, the adult contestants on the show.

So they could all, for the kids, it was about how can they get out and play baseball a little bit more?

How can they play soccer?

One girl's dream was to get on, back on the pompom squad at her school.

And so, we helped, or technology can help those types of things as well.

- We always encourage parents and kids to think about making lifestyle changes, not dieting.

And not having crazy busy exercise that you can't maintain or can't sustain.

We wanna make lifestyle changes that will work in the long run, build new patterns, and new habits.

So I wondered Adriane or Richard, do you think that this kind of gentle competition, gamification, maybe being able to share on social media, what you've accomplished, is this something that would, in the ways you've seen people interact with your programs, with Let's Move!

and Venture Outdoors, would encourage people to be more active?

- Oh, absolutely.

I mean, I know with just even within my own family, it's how far can you go?

And can you push mom a little further, and make me go.

We do that.

And within a community, Venture Outdoors, the, in our company, the trip leaders are such boosters that they, really as a community of people, encourage each other to get out and do more things more often.

- We agree with.

We think that getting people to do things together is gonna be a much better than just trying to do something by yourself.

- And I love the idea that like the 10,000 Tables where the whole community is eating together, we might try and encourage each other to, as a group, let's hit these markers, these milestones, how much can you contribute to our whole community walking a million miles, or something like that?

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- so we have a question from the audience.

- Okay.

- Hi, I'm Spencer.

I'm a graduate from Carnegie Mellon university.

And I recently started a company called App Certain, we want parents to be certain of their apps.

You guys have been talking a lot about smartphone apps and stuff like that.

One of the things we do is help parents understand what different apps in the app store do.

Should we be focusing more on some of the positive things like apps that provide exercise, or healthy eating choices, or physical exercise, and things like that in the types of notifications we're sending parents?

- Well I think in terms of what we see going on in the market, I mean the number of health apps in the app store the last three years I think has tripled, quadrupled.

I mean, the growth is phenomenal.

And so, but doing it in a fun and engaging way, is the secret, right?

So finding ways where, whether it's using, like I said the physical activity as the currency for a game to get that engagement, but at the same time, you're getting that secondary benefit of getting healthy, learning more about what leading healthy life is about.

- I think, I know that App Certain will tell a parent how educational a game is or if it's inappropriate content, but I know as a parent, it would make me much more engaged to know also what's the nutritional value basically of this app.

Is it something that's gonna encourage my kids to be healthier in some way, or encourage them to be less healthy?

So I think that would be added value for parents, for sure.

- [Chris] Absolutely.

- So as we're coming to the end of our show, I wanna ask you if there is a way that you feel like would really encourage families to get more involved in thinking about these things.

We often feel so busy as parents that we think, you know what, if my kids are fed and they're doing okay, and I'm not hearing from the doctor that they're terribly unhealthy, I just don't have the brainpower to spare for this.

So how can I make this a part of my life without feeling like I have to, it's a second job?

- Well, that's one of the reasons we started our program is to provide parents with resources, easy to understand ways of getting the information they need to make good choices.

- We as a family signed up for Richard's program, but.

- That is awesome.

- Yeah, it is really cool.

And, but also I mean, it really is as simple as, using technology to enhance, but not hold you back from the experience.

Turn off the TV and go outside.

Just do it.

Just go grab a basketball and play with your kid for 20 minutes.

I mean, why not?

It's awesome.

Or go boating.

If you live near a lake or a river, go boating.

It's fun, it's easy.

There are organizations, like Venture Outdoors that can help you find your way to that place.

- That makes sense to me.

- I think, from a, sensors are where the market's going, right, regardless of what shape or size they take.

And so I think even as parents, we can think about how we can role model things for our kids.

So even if your children aren't engaged or wearing some sort of sensors, talk out loud about what your learning.

If you are dealing with weight, dealing with health issues- - [Deborah] And focus on that healthiness.

- Going outside, yeah.

And talk out loud.

- And any gadget I own, my kids are instantly attracted to and wanna know more about it and when can they use it?

How can it be a part of their lives as well?

- Yep.

- Okay, so what I've taken away tonight from the show is that as a parent, I can just make healthy living a part of my family's life in the food choices we make in how we eat, but also in the conversations that we have, and talking about how fitness makes me feel better, how it makes me have more energy, how it helps me interact with my friends, and enjoy technology more.

I think that that conversation is the most useful thing that parents can do, is to show kids this is a lifelong thing.

This is something we always wanna be thinking about.

Like we're always learning.

We're always working to be fit and healthy and strong.

These are such great examples of how technology can actually help combat a rising obesity problem and help us keep our families healthier and fit.

Active video games are another option that I know many families enjoy, so let's take a look at this.

(upbeat music) - [Woman] If the thumb is the only muscle your kids tend to exercise, we have some great news.

(upbeat music) The video games, they love, games that we aren't always so sure about, are evolving.

This new generation of fun, get some off the couch and may even get them fit.

- You get really tired when you think that Wii Sports and the Wii Fit, because you're moving your body.

♪ No, no, running in the squash dust ♪ - [Woman] That's right.

These games make you move.

They're good for kids.

Good for adults, and.

- It's pretty fun to do it with your family.

- [Woman] You heard her.

These games are good entertainment for the whole family.

- When we have Wii family night, it's great because we all come together, and it's a video game system where we all play together as one, as opposed to, me in the den or Tammy doing something else, and the kids playing video games.

It's a an event.

(kid yelling) - [Woman] Clearly fun and fit are no longer mutually exclusive.

Kids love being active.

And new research shows that these stand up games burn four times as many calories per hour as the sit-down variety.

So why not pick the ones that pack a healthy punch?

- Kids are going to play what we buy for them.

So parents have much more power in choosing entertainment than they think.

- Today, we've discussed the facts about childhood obesity, how to eat healthier and many ways to stay active.

Often this feels like an uphill battle, but it doesn't have to be.

And for tech savvy kids and parents who enjoy using digital devices, I hope we've offered some new ways to use media to get moving.

Here are some tips to take away from our show today.

For parents, get your kids involved in meal planning and choose outdoor activities.

When our kids make choices, we know that they're a lot more engaged in what happens next.

Be a role model.

It is absolutely not enough for us to unfortunately sit and eat things that we would not let our kids eat while telling them to get up and move and not eat unhealthy foods.

Don't give up.

Let them try new foods and try new foods yourself.

Make that a part of your experience.

Say what's icky and what's good.

And take pictures of it and talk about it with family members.

We wanna teach healthy habits early if we can, but if your kids are past that stage and you're jumping in right now.

Say hey, we want to try something new.

We wanna give you the tools that you need, and we wanna get the tools we need so that we can all be healthier as a family.

The last thing we wanna say is that technology and the outdoors are not mutually exclusive.

There are lots of great opportunities that we can use to get our kids using tech and using gadgets that get them outside.

We're also giving away a Food for Thought Toolkit from Sesame Street to each audience member today, which includes great recipes and tips for how to eat healthy on a budget.

And for additional information on this topic, or to share your experience, we hope that you'll visit our website at www.wqed.org/smartparent.

I wanna thank our guests tonight.

We had so many people involved in our conversation and it's really been amazing learning for me and for our audience.

And thank you so much for joining us.

Bye, bye (audience clapping)