In the interest of helping to tackle childhood obesity, two new studies recently released reaffirm that lifestyle choices are the culprit behind poor child nutrition and the lack of physical activity essential for good health.

According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 5-year-old girls that choose sugary beverages such as soda or Kool-Aid often are more likely to be overweight in the next 10 years of their life.

Libby Lovig, the vice president of the Nevada Dairy Council, said the research chose beverages as one variable of a study, which simply consisted of placing certain drinks in front of kids and letting them choose what they wanted to drink.

“We observed the kids that had more soda and Kool-Aid and those who had milk and fruit juices had better beginning choices in their very young years that continue into adulthood,” Lovig said. “There are other factors, but we went with beverage since that’s what indicative of is lifestyle. … Other things going on are picking energy-dense foods that have a lot of calories but not a lot of nutrition.”

The other study, found in the current issue of the Public Health Nutrition journal, cites low consumptions of foods rich in nutrients, such as low-fat and fat-free dairy foods, vegetables, fruits and whole grains, as a forerunner for obesity in young adults.

“I think what is so amazing is the habits the kids take into adulthood are formed even before we’re 5,” Lovig said. “Some people say intervention is too early at 4 or 5 or even 6. It’s not true.”

The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend children and adolescents between the ages of 9 and 18 need about four servings of dairy food a day to remain on par with calcium requirements and three servings for proper magnesium levels. Studies have shown dairy products, especially milk, helps with bone mass and lifelong bone health.

Robert Mitchell Elementary School Principal Eileen Rountree said her school has a program that exposes kids to new fruits and vegetables every Thursday. This week’s offering was grapes and radishes.

“We’re trying to teach them about the food pyramid,” she said. “It gives kids choices and helps them make the right choices. It gives them different taste experiences. They love it.”

But consumption of food isn’t the only factor to play into obesity.

Rountree was once a physical education teacher and says having the specific training to help kids stay healthy has a major influence on teaching kids to make better dietary and active lifestyle choices.

“Kids today are just more sedentary; life is more sedentary,” she said. “Only a few kids get to take advantage of organized sports like AYSO soccer.”

At Mitchell, the whole school jumps rope outside every Friday at 1:30 p.m., except in bad weather conditions. Rountree said music is played.

“The teachers are like DJs; we take requests,” she said with a laugh.

Jumping even five times a day, Rountree said, helps keeps bones strong and it provides cardiovascular workouts to keep kids active.

“Obesity is a huge national problem because it’s going to cost a lot of money (later in life),” she said.

Kids are also impacted by how much or how little activity they participate in at home.

“People are afraid to let their kids play outside,” she said. “Are parents active and do chores like they used to in the ‘50s? We have machines now. People don’t scrub their floors anymore. We have a lot of modern conveniences but we’re a lot less involved (physically).”

Even measuring obesity is complicated and needs to simplified. Locally, a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, George Fernandez, is contributing to the fight against childhood obesity by using advanced software to compute healthy and unhealthy weight limits as a means of better understanding a child’s body mass index (BMI), which is typically a complicated process of finding weight in pounds and dividing that by 703 and dividing that total by height in inches squared.

“This is way too complicated for the average person,” said Fernandez, who teaches applied statistics and is the director for the Center of Research Design and Analysis. “Even pediatricians, nurses and health officials often need special training.”

Lovig said the problem of obesity in kids is the inspiration for a new program being sponsored by the National Dairy Council and the National Football League called Fuel Up to Play 60. The initiative is an encouragement to schools to improve their offerings of nutritious foods and their physical activity levels.

“Kids use (the NFL) as a role model,” she said. “The NFL is trying to get active in their communities.”

Lovig said an hour of PE classes a day for kids, whether it’s a walking program or several breaks in classes where the kids stand up and stretch and move around, would greatly increase a child’s health.

“Some schools are very capable of setting up their own program,” she said. “Maybe it’s a teacher or a parent or a librarian or someone who has a vested interest to be an advisor, but the kids take responsibility for it. Unfortunately, nationwide, we don’t have that many physical educators and that’s a problem that needs to be addressed. … We need programs that get (kids) out and get them moving.”