Entering the "mouth" of the exhibit.(Photos by Mark Claesgens)

Setting up the exhibit.

Children learn about the lungs and the other internal organs.

In August, the President signed a proclamation declaring September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month to call attention to this national problem. In Louisiana, the LSU AgCenter has an educational program established called Smart Bodies, which points the way to a solution.

As First Lady Michelle Obama has warned, childhood obesity is an epidemic. Childhood obesity rates range from 9.6 percent to 21.9 percent in states throughout the country. States with the highest adult and childhood obesity rates tend to be located in the South. Children who are overweight/obese are often overweight/obese as adults. As these children get older and more overweight, they tend to develop obesity-related diseases, including diabetes, strokes and heart ailments, whose care costs the nation nearly $150 billion a year.

This national epidemic is reaching catastrophic proportions here in Louisiana, which was listed as one of the five most overweight states in the report, “F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America’s Future 2011,” recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America’s Health. Sixty-three percent of Louisiana adults and 36 percent of Louisiana children are obese. When it comes to a crucial factor in children’s health – physical activity – Louisiana receives an overall grade of D from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, with more than 57 percent of our state’s young people watching more than two hours of television a day.

Responding to this crisis, the LSU AgCenter and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation (the charitable subsidiary of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana) are working together on an educational program appropriately named Smart Bodies. Focusing on healthy eating and exercise, it includes instruction and activities promoting physical activity and healthy diets.

As part of Smart Bodies, the AgCenter has developed a gymnasium-sized educational exhibit called Body Walk. Students stroll through the human body, pausing at learning stations representing the brain, mouth, small intestines, heart lungs, muscles, bones and skin. The participants take part in interactive activities focused on how food affects each organ.

Other educational programs within the Smart Bodies effort include classroom-based physical activity programs, including Wisercise and the 2Step 4 Kids, in which students engage in physical activities integrated with academic lessons in the classroom. In all the Wisercise activities, Organ Wise Guys characters entertain children about healthy habits in eating and exercising in puppet shows and in reading materials.

The thinking behind Smart Bodies is clear and compelling, and so are the results. As Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden explains: “It’s important to start with the children. When you start at that level, they begin to learn things, instead of trying to break a habit.”

Founded in 2005 with the goal of reaching at least 30,000 children in 50 schools, Smart Bodies has already exceeded the original objective. Last year alone, the AgCenter brought the program to more than 53,000 students in 80 schools. Follow-up research has found that students participating in the program increase their knowledge about the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables and exercise more than other children.

Spreading such efforts to other states and tailoring them to local needs largely depends upon the work of extension and research programs at land-grant universities across the country, similar to the LSU AgCenter. For more information about Smart Bodies, contact Denise Holston-West, the coordinator.

The LSU AgCenter is one of 11 institutions of higher education in the Louisiana State University System. Headquartered in Baton Rouge, it provides educational services in every parish and conducts research that contributes to the economic development of the state. The LSU AgCenter does not grant degrees nor benefit from tuition increases. The LSU AgCenter plays an integral role in supporting agricultural industries, protecting the environment, and improving the quality of life through its 4-H youth, family and community programs.