Tobacco-free sports: “Their only addiction is the game”

Have you seen the number of young people around you who smoke? This is despite the tobacco ad bans and anti-smoking legislations in many countries.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

If current youth tobacco use trends continue, 6.4 million of today’s young people will die from tobacco-related diseases.

Young people usually have their first-time ever tobacco use before they graduate from high school. This suggests that if kept tobacco-free during those critical years, most young people will never start using tobacco at all.

So how can we keep adolescents away from tobacco use during those impressionable years? One the most popular initiatives that seem to work are through tobacco-free sports.

The CDC goes on to say that:

Youth sports continue to be popular in the United States. Sports activities, therefore, present great opportunities to reach young people. Young athletes learn to make important health decisions related to tobacco use, physical activity, and good nutrition while on a sports team.

Indeed, the tobacco-free sports movement has gained momentum as prominent athletes and sports organizations declared their support. Some of these organizations are the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).

Some of the most important sports and athletics events that highlighted the need for tobacco-free sports are:

• In 2001, the Smoke-Free Soccer program went global when CDC teamed up with WHO and FIFA to promote worldwide tobacco-free messages. Women and men soccer stars and other athletes from the United States, Australia, Brazil, China, and Canada appeared in posters to show their support for the program.
• The tobacco-free Olympic tradition continued in Torino, Italy (2006) and the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The 2010 Vancouver Games also will be tobacco-free!

However, it shouldn’t stop there. The CDC, together with the World Health Organization and the National SAFE KIDS Campaign, are continuously creating educational campaigns and programs to convince young people to engage in tobacoo-free sports. In a language that they would understand. Take for example this In The Mix video clip Soccer: Kickin’ Butts. The CDC also used spokespersons with whom kids can identify with and this included baseball star Torii Hunter, martial arts star Jackie Chan, and professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. Also available are TV spots by anti-smoking celebrities such Esai Morales and Christy Turlington. These TV spots actually carry a message not only for young people, but for their parents as well.

To keep your child tobacco-free, now is the time to act. Point them to the right direction. Download and print out for them the tobacco-free sports poster. Encourage to watch the TV spots. Check out sports activities in your area. Make sports their only addiction.

Photo credit: CDC poster

               

TV shows and celebrities for the heart

This month, let’s feature two celebrities who are active in the battle against heart disease - Go for Red Women celebrities Toni Braxton and Marie Osmond.

Toni Braxton

Let’s welcome back Toni Braxton. She has been featured in this blog before but I think she deserves the honor once again. After all, Toni Braxton is not only a Grammy-award winning musical artist, she is also a heart disease survivor and spokeswoman for the American Heart Association’s Go for Red Women since 2005. If you are a big fan of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, then watch out for Toni. She will be dancing her heart out while battling heart disease and stroke like many of us.

Toni is the voice behind the hits “Unbreak my Heart” and “Another Sad Song”. However, she was on a 6-month hiatus from the entertainment industry when she was hospitalized for chest pains in April. You see, Toni is suffering from pericarditis,

“…a disorder caused by inflammation of the pericardium, which is the sac-like covering around the heart. [It] is usually a complication of viral infections… and most often affects men aged 20-50, usually following respiratory infections.” (Source: Medline Medical Encyclopedia).

Toni’s bio at Dancing with the Stars reads:

The winner of six Grammy Awards, Toni Braxton is a Billboard chart-topping singer and actress, selling over forty million records worldwide. Her U.S. number-one hit “Un-Break My Heart” is the second biggest single by a female artist in history. She has also appeared in two Disney Broadway shows: Beauty and the Beast and Aida. Dancing with the Stars marks her return to the spotlight after a six-month health hiatus.

According to Toni

“I am dancing to celebrate my own triumph over heart disease and raise the consciousness of America’s women that they have the power to beat our number one killer. We have the power to choose life.”

Dancing with the Stars is a TV series at ABC (Mondays and Tuesdays at 8/7 p.m. Central). Each week, several pairs compete in performing ballroom dancing routines. Each pair usually consists of a celebrity and a ballroom professional. Winning is based on points given by judges as well as votes by viewers. Voting can be done by SMS, TV-text, or over the Internet. Check out how to vote for Toni here.

This is Dancing with the Stars’ seventh season. Toni will be dancing will Alec Mazo, a former champion at the series.

Marie Osmond

Another Go for Red Women celebrity spokesperson is Marie Osmond. Marie was part of the family musical group The Osmonds and co-hosted with her brother The Donny & Marie show. She will be one of the ladies featured in the NBC TV special Untold Stories of the Heart, a series supported by the Go for Red Women of the American Heart Association.

After losing her mother and grandmother to heart disease, the legendary entertainer was inspired to reduce her personal risk and spread awareness.

Marie also competed at Dancing with the Stars on its 5^th season in November last year. She won third place at the finals. Hear Marie tell her story in video clips on the Go for Red site or tune in to the show. Check the Untold Stories of the Heart schedule here.

Photo credits:

Foxy Brown Online downloaded at http://www.tonibraxtonweb.org/index.php

www.marieosmond.com

               

Check out the New York Wine & Food Festival

We are what we eat and drink. And where else can we check out the latest on gastronomy than at the New York City Wine & Food Festival on October 9 to 12, 2008.

Now, you might want to ask, what does such a festival have to do with battling heart and stroke? Everything.

Nutrition, the food we eat and the beverages we drink are major lifestyle risk factors for cardiovascular health. If you take a closer look, the festival is not only about gourmet food and wine tasting. There’s something for everyone - even for advocates of health eating.

One of the most heart-friendly offerings at the festival is the session called Beyond Chicken Nuggets: How to Raise a Healthy Eater

According to the session’s abstract:

“One of the biggest health challenges parents face is preparing healthful, convenient meals their children will actually eat. But it’s not easy, and many well-meaning parents fall into the “kid food” trap, serving sure-fire hits like pizza, hot dogs and chicken nuggets just to get their finicky children to eat something.”

Several well-known health food authors and health experts will form a panel who can answer questions of parents concerned about their kids’ diet.

Among the members of the panel are:

• Tara Hope Parker is columnist and blogger at Well, the health blog of the New York Times, who will be hosting the session.
• Alice Walters is a well-known organic chef, author of several books, including “The Art of Simple Food” and founder of the Edible Schoolyard, a non-profit initiative that teaches school children the real value of good natural food (”slow food” as opposed to fast food) through gardening.
• Jessica Seinfeld is the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, mother of three, and author of “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food“. She is the founder of the non-profit organization Baby Buggy which donates used baby items of celebrities to the needy.
• Rachael Ray is TV celebrity at Food Network, bestselling cookbook author, and founder of Yum-O!, a nonprofit organization that helps children and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking.
• Dr. Harvey Karp is a pediatrician and author of “The Happiest Toddler on the Block: The New Way to Stop the Daily Battle of Wills and Raise a Secure and Well-Behaved One-to-Four-Year-Old.“
• Professor Leann L. Birch is a distinguished professor at the Department of Human Development and Family Studies of the Pennsylvania State University and is an expert on childhood eating habits

These authors and experts will offer practical tips ad strategy “that can put an end to food battles and expand the menu options for even the most finicky child.”

The session costs 35 dollar and lasts for 1-and-a-half hour. It may be well worth your money to go!

Photo credit: NYC by davidlat

               

Weight-loss reality show holds local casting call

My wife emailed me this little blurb in today’s paper … I wonder if she’s trying to tell me something? Hmmm

Fri Feb 16 2007

THE producers of a weight-loss reality-TV show are holding an open casting call in Winnipeg this month.
X-Weighted, a reality/documentary series that follows subjects as they try to reach their weight-loss goals with the help of expert coaches, will hold auditions for its third season on Feb. 24 and 25 at the Holiday Inn South.

The show’s producers are looking for overweight subjects who will commit to being filmed for six months while following a diet and exercise program, whose families and friends are also willing to be recorded, and who have a meaningful and reality-TV-worthy goal they’re looking to achieve with their weight-loss effort.

The series will be broadcast on the Slice network (the new name for Life network starting next month) in 2008.

SOURCE: Winnipeg Free Press (Subscriber)

               

This Is What Jennifer Lopez Would Look Like IF She Was Fat

source www.greenchair.net/funny/celebrity-beauties.htm

               

This is What Catherine Zeta-Jones Would Look Like IF She Was Fat

SOURCE: www.greenchair.net/funny/celebrity-beauties.htm

               

This Is What Gwyneth Paltrow Would Look Like IF She Was Fat

SOURCE: www.greenchair.net/funny/celebrity-beauties.htm

               

This is What Elizabeth Hurley Would Look Look Like IF She Was Fat

SOURCE: www.greenchair.net/funny/celebrity-beauties.htm