The American Pediatrics Association released results of a study today that seems to indicate that when students are ostracized, they are less inclined to participate in physical activities.

The study included 19 children between the ages of 8 and 12 years old. The first part of the study involved a computer game called Cyberball. Each child was told that they were playing with two other children on the Internet, but the computer actually controlled the other two “players.” One group of students was tossed the ball regularly, but the other group of students was intentionally ignored and not thrown the ball.

After the Cyberball sessions, the children were given the option of using physical activity equipment or doing stationary activities like word searches and reading. The ostracized students spent 41 percent more time on the stationary activities, reports Education Week. In addition, these children reported greater negative feelings, less emotional-control, and without a sense of belonging.

When Los Angeles schools tried to go the healthy route with school lunches they hit a snag.

The students flipped--they stopped eating the food. Dennis Barret, L.A. Unified's food services director, told the LA Times that the introduction of the healthy meals was "a disaster." School lunch enlistments fell by 13 percent. Students who were part of the lunch program dropped the healthy food for junk they brought in their backpacks, like chips and soda.

As of last week, the Federal Government is raising nutrition standards for school meals. This new movement will try to ensure that students across the nation receive healthier meals in their cafeteria. But LA already tried this, without success.

LAUSD was off to a good start. They tried to turn the tables on unhealthy lunches and re-do the whole lunch menu, but the real issue is getting the students to enjoy the food, regardless of the health benefits.

I understand how hard it is to convert students into healthy eaters. I worked in the healthy foods department at Youth Radio for two years. My job was to cook for a group of high school students. Each meal I prepared had a healthy spin on it. If we were making Rice-A-Roni, we only used whole wheat rice and noodles. Students enjoyed our food and always asked questions about what they were eating.

Although some students have never eaten some of these dishes in their life, taking small steps helped them learn. Instead of introducing students to quinoa and black-eyed pea salads, L.A. schools should take surveys on what students enjoy eating. Encourage them to learn about healthy eating, and the benefits that come with it.

Hello my name is Juan Acevedo and I have rheumatoid arthritis. The symptoms i get from rheumatoid arthritis are swelling of the joints ,joints turning really red , and my whole body becomes warm and stiffens over time. R.A. prevents me from playing video games for over an hour and it makes playing sports very difficult. Read more...

Who are the “Opportunity Youth” of America? A new report classifies Opportunity Youth as those between the ages of 16 - 24 who are not pursuing education or employment. They have previously been classified as “disconnected” youth.

The report called, “The Economic Value of Opportunity Youth” attempts to quantify the fiscal and social burden of Opportunity Youth on society. According to the report, “Each year the average opportunity youth imposes a total fiscal burden of $13,890 and a total social burden of $37,440.”

This group of young people is divided between “chronic opportunity youth,” who have terminated their education and are unemployed, and the “under-attached opportunity youth,” who could be working or going to school part-time, but are spending some portion of their time doing neither. The report states, “We identify approximately 9% of youth (3.4 million) who have almost no formal schooling or employment between the ages of 16 and 24 – chronic opportunity youth. … 17% of youth are opportunity youth, but 8% are not in the chronic category; we refer to these 3.3 million youth as ‘under-attached.’”

One of the interesting sections of the report breaks down the immediate economic burden of opportunity youth on society, in areas such as earnings and taxes, crime, health, welfare and social supports, and education. In terms of health, opportunity youth are more likely to have received drug and alcohol treatment in the last year, as well as spent time in a mental hospital. They are also more likely to be uninsured.

The report estimates, “The average opportunity youth imposes a public health care burden of $3,490; by comparison, the average youth imposes a burden of $1,110. Therefore, each opportunity youth imposes a net burden of $2,380 for an aggregate burden of $16.0 billion."

By Rayana Godfrey

There’s no place for lead in the human body, plain and simple. Even the smallest amount of exposure to the element is toxic. Scientists estimate that before the Industrial Revolution, most people had about .01 micrograms of lead for every half cup of blood in their bodies. But we’ve put a lot of lead into the environment since then.

This past Sunday, July 10th, the Remix Your Life(RYL) Project (A Youth Radio Health Department Initiative) received the Oakland Innovators Award from Oaklandish and RYL participants performed an hour long set on the Oaklandish main stage at the Temescal Street fair. These youth artists had been working on hip-hop, R&B and spoken word pieces for the past 3-6 months in preparation for this “Remix Your Community Event” and were received with open and raised arms by the crowds of the Temescal Street Fair.

Obesity has been the biggest (no pun intended) word on the street these days. Good thing, because this is a serious topic. I was reading this one article that said in England, the British government wants to mandate exercise for children under five (even those who cant yet walk).
Read more...

By Sayre Quevedo, Turnstyle News

This story was broadcast on NPR's All Things Considered on 6/3/2011, and was originally published on Turnstyle News..

A lot has changed since the 80’s. Or so I’m told. I wasn’t born until 1991 – the same year Magic Johnson announced that he had HIV. I’m 19 now, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people joke that Magic Johnson discovered the cure to AIDS…money.

Katherine Hood knows the same joke. She’s a senior at UC Berkeley and has grown up knowing about the disease her whole life. Regardless of the jokes, we both know HIV is still deadly serious. “I think it’s interesting because while I don’t think it’s the same sort of death sentence mentality,” says Hood, “To me if I actually stop and think about it, it still seems like a horrifying thought.”

Hood and lots of kids we talked to say their school Sex Ed classes were pretty good. Thanks to my school’s health classes, I had seen a condom by the 7th grade and knew what it was for. My mom even bought me a book called Deal With It. I remember my friends coming over after school to giggle about stick figure illustrations of sexual positions.

The Native Health Initiative (NHI) youth presentation titled “Youth Leading the Way” at the New Mexico Public Health Association’s annual conference on April 27th, 2011.
High School students will presented on their efforts to create healthier, more sustainable communities.