Boarding Schools for Girls

About one in 200 young Americans, or 367,000 people, are now vegetarians, according to the latest government statistics.

The Center for Disease Control surveyed 9,000 parents of children under age 18 to come up with those figures.

The majority of youthful vegetarians say that they chose that lifestyle because they want to protect animals from cruelty or slaughter.

"Compassion for animals is the major reason," said Richard Schwartz, president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America. This motivation is especially prevalent among young vegetarians who own pets.

One common concern of parents and doctors is that young vegetarians may not consume sufficient amounts of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Another worry is that the children will rely too heavily on pasta, sweets, and sodas to obtain calories.

Labels: health, obesity, vegetarians

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Girls are at greater risk for obesity because they spend more free time at school "standing and talking," while boys play active games like football, according to a study from Great Britain.

Dr. Ricky Ridgers of Liverpool John Moore's University found that girls spend six percent less time in vigorous play than boys do. She and others believe that a practice of women skipping exercise begins in childhood and continues throughout their lifetimes.

"Our study shows boys and girls play differently," Dr. Ridgers said. "Girls tend to spend time in smaller groups and engage in verbal games, conversation, and socializing. Most boys play in larger groups, which lend themselves more to physically active games."

Labels: health, obesity, activity

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The Iowa state public school system plans to crack down on junk food sold in schools. New rules for 2009 eliminate sodas, French fries, fried foods, and low-nutrient, high-calorie snacks in cafeterias. As for vending machine offerings, beverages must have a nutritional value and snacks cannot have more than 200 calories.

Many school food service directors worry about a drop in sales if students decide to leave campuses to go to restaurants for lunch.

Fruits and vegetables just do not sell well, according to Ann Feilmann, food supervisor for Marshalltown schools. "If it's an open campus," she said, "we're going to become a less interesting place to shop for lunch and they'll leave."

Labels: public-schools, nutrition, junk-food

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Smoking makes teenage girls fat - but it may take 10 years to happen.

A new study in the American Journal of Public Health followed over 4,200 twins from age 16 to their mid-twenties. The women in the study who smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day as teenagers were 2.5 times more likely to be overweight in their twenties than non-smoking girls. The effect did not hold true for boys.

"My hunch is that women are more likely to smoke for weight control in adolescence," said lead author, Professor Sherry Pagoto of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "When people quit, they start snacking during those times they used to be smoking."

Labels: health, weight-gain, smoking

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Are you the parent of an overweight child between the ages of 2 and 6? If so, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis want you to participate in an experimental online program.

Dr. Denise Wilfrey described the "Food for Thought" program as a computer intervention that teachers, parents, and caregivers can use to learn to make healthy food choices and to counteract the effect of junk food advertisements on children.

For more information and to enroll in the program, see the Food for Thought website.

Labels: overweight, children

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Two new studies found that teenagers are becoming more sexually experimental, and that girls are catching up to boys in this area.

The first study looked at technology and sexual behaviors, based on a survey of 1,280 young people. One in five teenagers said they have sent or posted nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves, usually to romantic partners. Among the 20- to 26-year-olds in the study, 33% had posted such pictures and 50% had received them.

Girls posted or sent more sexy pictures than boys did. The numbers were 22% of teen girls compared to 20% of teen boys, and 36% of young adult women compared to 31% of the men. However, slightly more (3%) of the boys sent and posted pictures.

Over half of the teen girls cited "pressure from a male" as a reason to send out sexy pictures of themselves, but only 18% of the boys answered that way. The most common reason given to send the pictures was to be "fun and flirtatious."

Three-fourths of the teens were aware that "sending suggestive content can have serious negative consequences."

The study was sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy and CosmoGirl magazine.

A major new study from Bradley Hasbro Children's Research found that anal sex among young people is increasing, particularly among teens who do not use condoms.

Within this study, males engaging in the practice were more likely to be homosexual, bisexual, or undecided, whereas the females were more likely to have been coerced into sex, to have two or more partners, and to be living with a sexual partner.

Teen sex expert Judy Kuriansky, a professor at Columbia University, warns that teens engage in anal sex to avoid AIDS or pregnancy; however, the problem is that they can contract AIDS and other health problems this way.

Commenting on the Hasbro study, Dr. Kuriansky remarked that girls are now experimenting with sexual practices in the same way boys always have.

Labels: sex, behaviors, experimenting

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