Healthy Habits

Kris Sumey went to Temple University's Liacouras Center yesterday because, she said, "My whole family is overweight. " Sylvaneta Lewis' motivation was her 8-year-old daughter, who "is overweight for her age. " The two mothers were among 550 people registered for a conference run by Shaping America's Youth (SAY), a nonprofit group based in Portland, Ore., aimed at educating parents and other caregivers about childhood obesity. For years the medical community has urged overweight Americans to eat less, eat healthy and exercise.

Seniors a lot younger than W. James Cassels of Springfield, Delaware County, should envy his energy. At age 71, he jogs, plays basketball, swims, bikes, golfs and visits the gym regularly. Last summer, Jim, as he is known, participated in the Delaware County Senior Olympic Games for the first time and came home with seven medals in three sports. He presented one of them, a silver award for freestyle swimming, to a cardiologist "who gave me back my life. " Despite his lean and healthy appearance at 5 feet, 9 inches and 160 pounds, Cassels lives with a heart transplant and a pacemaker, and he knows that lots of exercise is more than a good health practice.

Healthy habits were the objective as a team of medical personnel visited St. Catherine of Siena School in Horsham last Thursday. Above, Giggles the clown, played by Patricia Slavin, checks the heartbeat of second grader Collin Schmidt, as Chris Bell (center) and John Blank watch. At right, X-ray technician Craig Lawson talks to a third-grade class.

The state Senate voted unanimously yesterday to require public school teachers to tell girls how to examine themselves for breast cancer, legislation that apparently would make New Jersey the first state in the country with such a statutory requirement, experts said. The bill, aimed at fostering healthy habits more than screening for actual cancer, still must be introduced and debated in the Assembly, and then signed by Gov. Whitman. It was hailed by the American Cancer Society and education officials, although some disagreed with the narrowness of the approach.

It's official - we're living in the City of Brotherly Love Handles. Philadelphia has been rated the fattest city in America, says Men's Fitness magazine. The survey blames among other things the proliferation here of pizza parlors and fast-food joints. "Home to the Liberty Bell and the eponymous cheesesteak sandwich, [Philadelphia] scores high in history but low in healthy habits," wrote Keith Griffiths in his cover story in the January issue of the magazine. But Philadelphia's once-portly mayor, who recently lost weight on the Atkin's diet, said he's living proof that it's possible to keep your weight down while living in the city where a TastyKake is finger food.

CHILDREN'S Hospital of Philadelphia is part of a national study called the Today trial, which is investigating ways to treat Type 2 diabetes in children and teens. One question being asked is whether intensive efforts to improve eating and exercise habits can help control young patients' blood sugar, and the hospital is pairing kids with "personal assistants to the lifestyle intervention" - PALs for short - to help make healthy habits stick. "It's very hands-on," says Dr. Lorraine Levitt Katz, a pediatric endocrinologist who's leading the Today study at CHOP.

To promote youth fitness, President John F. Kennedy commissioned a catchy exercise record for kids called "Chicken Fat," sung by Robert Preston of Music Man fame. Many kids who grew up in the '60s and '70s still feel the burn. "Touchdown, ev'ry morning - 10 times. Not just, now and then. Give that chicken fat back to the chicken, and don't be chicken again. No, don't be chicken again. " The idea was simple: Children needed more exercise, and daily calisthenics could make a difference.

IN THE MOOD If you're trying to relax, avoid records billed solely as "easy listening" and reach instead for the type of music you usually enjoy. "Mood music" can do more to put people on edge than silence can, two Penn State researchers found during seven years of work at the university's Altoona campus. ANIMAL RIGHTS The fur is still flying in the animal-rights debate. When 1,004 adults nationwide were surveyed for Parents magazine, 85 percent disapproved of killing animals to make fur coats and 81 percent disapproved of cosmetics research on animals.

Starting next week, the mayoral policy on fatty hoagies is changing. No more mayonnaise. No more oil. No more photo-ops with the city's mayor gorging himself on processed luncheon meats. After Mayor-elect John F. Street is sworn in Monday, the preferred sandwich of the Philadelphia Mayor's Office will be a vegetarian cheesesteak made with wheat gluten. No beef. And Street is encouraging Philadelphians to make it their favorite, too. At a news conference yesterday at Reading Terminal Market with the editor of Men's Fitness magazine, Street bit into a cheeseless wheat-gluten steak with gusto and announced that he would make healthy living and physical fitness a major part of his focus as mayor.

Friday, May 4 Five-course dinner prepared by executive chef J.C. Nunez, including oyster with mignonette aspic and herb-roasted filet of veal and more, with white wines from Robert Mondavi Winery; hosted by the winery's associate winemaker Rich Arnold. $95 includes museum admission. 6 p.m. at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Museum Restaurant, 26th Street and the Parkway. For further information or reservations visit www.philamuseum.org/dining or call 215-235-7469. Monday, May 7 Philadelphia Food: Past, Present and Future , book launch of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink , with discussion with editor Andrew F. Smith and others on the history of local foodways and the importance of food in shaping Philadelphia's identity today.

Sister Helen Thomas, the "hands-on" principal at St. Laurence Catholic School in Upper Darby, has brought technology to her school in a big way. Emilia Rastrick, a gym teacher at Lingelbach School in Philadelphia's Germantown section, launched a dragon-boat league to promote healthy lifestyles and cooperation among middle-school students. And Sherman Denby, a science teacher at the Cherry Street School in Bridgeton, N.J., quietly goes out of his way to help his low-income students and their families.

CHILDREN'S Hospital of Philadelphia is part of a national study called the Today trial, which is investigating ways to treat Type 2 diabetes in children and teens. One question being asked is whether intensive efforts to improve eating and exercise habits can help control young patients' blood sugar, and the hospital is pairing kids with "personal assistants to the lifestyle intervention" - PALs for short - to help make healthy habits stick. "It's very hands-on," says Dr. Lorraine Levitt Katz, a pediatric endocrinologist who's leading the Today study at CHOP.

Kelly Hough started dieting at 13. One at a time, she moved through a sea of options: Jenny Craig, NutriSystem, Slim.Fast, Herbalife, the Cabbage Soup Diet, and, most recently, Atkins. Last month at Whole Foods, her approach was different. Zipping up the produce aisle, Hough grabbed a plastic-wrapped package of precut cauliflower. That's OK, her shopping companion said. But don't forget that cut vegetables expose more surface area to oxygen, reducing their nutritional value. This was their third grocery store tour.

Friday, May 4 Five-course dinner prepared by executive chef J.C. Nunez, including oyster with mignonette aspic and herb-roasted filet of veal and more, with white wines from Robert Mondavi Winery; hosted by the winery's associate winemaker Rich Arnold. $95 includes museum admission. 6 p.m. at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Museum Restaurant, 26th Street and the Parkway. For further information or reservations visit www.philamuseum.org/dining or call 215-235-7469. Monday, May 7 Philadelphia Food: Past, Present and Future , book launch of The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink , with discussion with editor Andrew F. Smith and others on the history of local foodways and the importance of food in shaping Philadelphia's identity today.

Kris Sumey went to Temple University's Liacouras Center yesterday because, she said, "My whole family is overweight. " Sylvaneta Lewis' motivation was her 8-year-old daughter, who "is overweight for her age. " The two mothers were among 550 people registered for a conference run by Shaping America's Youth (SAY), a nonprofit group based in Portland, Ore., aimed at educating parents and other caregivers about childhood obesity. For years the medical community has urged overweight Americans to eat less, eat healthy and exercise.

When I was a kid, I was what we called chunky. I think if I were growing up today, I'd be known as super chunky deluxe. I mean, I used to walk to and from school. I even came home for lunch, so I walked the round-trip twice. On Sundays, we walked to and from church, seven blocks each way. I rode my bike to my friend's house and then we rode around the neighborhood. I drank milk at every meal, and if the family ate dinner out it was because it was somebody's birthday or someone had graduated from something.

To promote youth fitness, President John F. Kennedy commissioned a catchy exercise record for kids called "Chicken Fat," sung by Robert Preston of Music Man fame. Many kids who grew up in the '60s and '70s still feel the burn. "Touchdown, ev'ry morning - 10 times. Not just, now and then. Give that chicken fat back to the chicken, and don't be chicken again. No, don't be chicken again. " The idea was simple: Children needed more exercise, and daily calisthenics could make a difference.

Seniors a lot younger than W. James Cassels of Springfield, Delaware County, should envy his energy. At age 71, he jogs, plays basketball, swims, bikes, golfs and visits the gym regularly. Last summer, Jim, as he is known, participated in the Delaware County Senior Olympic Games for the first time and came home with seven medals in three sports. He presented one of them, a silver award for freestyle swimming, to a cardiologist "who gave me back my life. " Despite his lean and healthy appearance at 5 feet, 9 inches and 160 pounds, Cassels lives with a heart transplant and a pacemaker, and he knows that lots of exercise is more than a good health practice.

The children at Thelma Peake's West Philadelphia child-care center mind their peas and cukes - and broccoli, beans, oranges and carrots. The 75 youngsters in her full-time program typically get four servings of fruits and vegetables a day before they go home for dinner, putting them a long way toward the five-a-day benchmark that most Americans fail to meet. This is no small feat in a neighborhood where most shops offer little more than hoagies, pizzas and fried foods, where the local supermarket shut down, and where residents say produce is often expensive.

Starting next week, the mayoral policy on fatty hoagies is changing. No more mayonnaise. No more oil. No more photo-ops with the city's mayor gorging himself on processed luncheon meats. After Mayor-elect John F. Street is sworn in Monday, the preferred sandwich of the Philadelphia Mayor's Office will be a vegetarian cheesesteak made with wheat gluten. No beef. And Street is encouraging Philadelphians to make it their favorite, too. At a news conference yesterday at Reading Terminal Market with the editor of Men's Fitness magazine, Street bit into a cheeseless wheat-gluten steak with gusto and announced that he would make healthy living and physical fitness a major part of his focus as mayor.