Schoolchildren act as health angels and call on parents to keep their waists healthy

The problem of childhood obesity in China is becoming more and more serious. However, a survey shows that the parents of these children also have a very high risk of excessive waist circumference, and half of the fathers are almost over the limit. The Millennium Love Health Foundation starts with schoolchildren and roots in correct healthy eating and exercise concepts. The first stop is to train children from Liren Elementary School to become healthy little angels and keep a close eye on their parents' waist circumference.

The Millennium Love Health Foundation instills correct healthy eating and exercise concepts in school children, trains Liren Elementary School children to become healthy little angels, and protects their parents' waistlines. (Photography by Zhang Yawen)

The healthy waist circumference of adults is no more than 90 cm for men and no more than 80 cm for women. The Millennium Love Health Foundation conducted a questionnaire survey on 576 elementary school parents, and more than 43% of them were at risk of exceeding the waist circumference, and 88% did not exercise enough each week. Further analysis found that the situation of fathers' waist circumference exceeding the standard was more serious, with 20% already exceeding the standard, and the number of those on the verge of exceeding the standard was as high as 50%.

Although parents’ own health habits are not up to standard, they are generally willing to make changes for their children: more than 80% of parents will consult their children’s opinions and adopt healthier cooking methods; 72% of parents are willing to participate in outdoor activities with their children.

Sun Luxi, chairman of the Millennium Love Health Foundation, said that children living in families with improper diet and exercise are likely to become candidates for metabolic syndrome when they grow up. Therefore, this year, the "3D Healthy Life" parent-child teaching program was promoted, and knowledge such as control (Do Control), diet (Do Healthy Diet), and exercise (Do Exercise) was promoted in schools to cultivate schoolchildren to become little angels of health, protect the waistline of their families, and pass on health knowledge.

Taipei Municipal Renmin Elementary School was the first to respond to this plan. Today, students followed the spokesperson OPEN to sing, dance and exercise. They also learned how to use a measuring tape. When they went home to hug their parents, they also measured their waist circumference to see if it met the standard.