The program tested in North Carolina is easy and cheap enough that the National Institutes of Health hopes schools nationwide will quickly adopt it. This is an opportunity to reach children at an early age and positively influence their lives.
Doctors have increasing evidence that heart disease takes root in early childhood.
Autopsies of young children killed in accidents have found their arteries already clogging with the fat. For an adult at that level, doctors would prescribe serious diet and exercise changes and occasionally medication. More dangerous cholesterol levels are 200 in a child, equal to 240 in an adult. The children were divided into three groups. In one, teachers taught healthy nutrition habits during regular classes two days a week, plus gym class that kept kids moving for 20 full minutes, three times a week.