Oregon Diet

Some time ago, Oregon State University received a long term grant of nearly $5 million to develop an obesity prevention and healthy lifestyle program for teenagers. Unlike many programs that focus on treatment of children already at risk of obesity, this program targeted active high school-age teens involved in 4-H soccer programs in Oregon.

OSU project directors Siew Sun Wong, an assistant professor of nutrition and a specialist with the Extension Service, and Melinda Manore, a professor of nutrition, were awarded $4.7 million to start the program awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. I talked with Dr. Wong: “ Let’s say that I have a kid who is very active in sports. If I take the posture that because they are running around, it doesn’t matter what I feed them. They won’t get fat. Am I thinking correctly? Sometimes knowing that our children are active is very comforting but at the same time let us use the analogy of thinking of our children as an expensive sports car. You have to fuel that car with only premium gasoline in order to maximize its performance. This translates into filling children with only good nutrition such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains.” Good time to join the locavore movement and get yourself down to farmers markets where those commodities abound