From Your Health Journal…..”A very good article from the Daytona Beach News Journal that I wanted to promote here, and bring some readers to their site. It is written by Denise O’Toole Kelly entitled Kids’ Health Starts In The Kitchen. Childhood obesity is on the rise, and many illnesses associated with it are also growing, including heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, weak joints, and asthma. On top of all this, many children have low self esteem and bullied at school. Education is the key. Members of the Junior League of Daytona Beach assembled local nutritionists and fitness experts once a year to teach kids and their parents some basics about the impacts of food choices and the benefits of physical activity. This is an amazing thing that I am happy to help promote here on Your Health Journal. Hopefully, other communities will read this or the article from the News Journal that I link to below and start this trend in their area. Please visit the News Journal web site to learn more about this. What a great idea!”

From the article…..

The local version of the Junior Leagues’ Kids in the Kitchen — an international effort to combat childhood obesity by promoting healthy eating and exercise — started small.

Members of the Junior League of Daytona Beach assembled local nutritionists and fitness experts once a year to teach kids and their parents some basics about the impacts of food choices and the benefits of physical activity.

The conference rooms at Florida Hospital DeLand where the annual sessions took place had room for just several dozen people. After the 2010 installment, amid growing public attention to the cause they were addressing, local leaguers decided to go bigger.

“We really wanted to be able to bring the message of healthy living and healthy eating to more than just 75 people,” Laura Reece, the group’s president-elect, explained about the decision to move the event to Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach and bring in a celebrity chef starting in 2011.

That first year, about 300 people showed up. The next year, it doubled to 600. And that’s about how many Reece and her Junior League cohorts are expecting Saturday, if the weather cooperates as it did in 2011 and 2012. The free event, targeted at families with children from preschool to middle school age, is scheduled from 9 a.m. till noon. It’s sponsored by Halifax Health.

To read the full article…..Click here