Ongoing research

Background: Across cultures, breakfast habits vary widely. For this lesson, breakfast is defined as foods and/or beverages from at least one food group, consumed within 2-3 hours of waking after the longest period of sleep.

Background: In children and adults, sleep is important for memory and learning Getting enough sleep is also associated with healthy weight in children. Young people who get more sleep consume less calories, possibly due to fewer late night snacks, and gain weight more slowly.

Background: People who eat out more often, especially at fast food restaurants, are more likely to be overweight. Families can enjoy an occasional meal away from home but make healthy choices, such as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.

Background: In 2009, the fast food industry alone spent $4.2 billion on advertising through all media. Based on the 2010 Nielsen ratings, Latino children and youth (2-17 years) in the US viewed up to 12 food ads per day, most of which were for fast food restaurants.

Background: In farm worker communities, both parents may work in summer agricultural jobs. Children may be left at home, in care of older siblings or other relatives who have limited cooking skills. After work, adults are tired and have limited time to cook.

Background: Healthy, daily household routines help ensure family meals, active play time, enough sleep, and limits on time spent watching TV and other screen devices or playing video games. Healthy routines support childrens social, emotional, and cognitive development and reduce risk of obesity.

Background: Television and other screen devices, grab the attention of todays children.

Background: Walking to school is a great way to be physically active.

This section has 20 lesson plans for family education nights that include teaching tips for one-hour classes on preventing childhood obesity in a community setting. For good discussion, use learner-centered education and include 12 or fewer parents in the classes.

To promote healthy child growth and development (Daniels et.