Parents: Challenge Your Kids To Make Healthy Choices; We Can! Video Campaign Shows You How

(NAPSI)—As parents and caregivers, we all want our kids to thrive. We want them to eat healthier and be more physically active. Yet getting them to look up from their screens and get moving, or to choose a healthier snack—that’s the tough part. Here is where the new public service announcements (PSAs) from the Childhood Obesity Prevention PSA campaign may help (nih.gov/wecan).
The new PSAs focus on helping you – parents and caregivers – show your children how to maintain a healthy weight by eating right and moving more. Better still, they’re fun.
This campaign is about more than the sobering statistics: that childhood obesity rates have skyrocketed in the last three decades; that one in three children in the U.S. is overweight or obese; that the rates are higher for African American and Hispanic kids, at nearly 40 percent.
This campaign is about inspiring you and your children to laugh, dance, play, and eat healthy foods together—without the stress or guilt. Watch the “All In Together” video and try not to tap your foot and start singing along—then get outside to make family time, healthy time.
Watch the Spanish-language video “Podemos” and try not to jump up and shake your hips-then show your kids that dancing to their favorite song is a healthier choice than sitting, plugged into the computer to listen.
Each of the PSAs encourages parents to search for the We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition)® website, where there is a wide array of tips, strategies and activities that can help kids make healthier food choices and to increase their physical activity.
Here are some of the tips to try with your family:
• Replace sugar-sweetened drinks with water or fat-free milk.
• Help your kids be physically active for at least 60 minutes each day. They should be active enough that they can talk, but they can’t sing.
• Limit kids’ screen time to no more than two hours a day.
• Fill half of your family’s plates with fruits and vegetables.
• When your family is active, be sure it’s for at least 10 minutes at a stretch.
• Bring healthy snacks with you when you’re on the run.
The new video campaign was created in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) We Can! program and the Ad Council. To view the ads and learn more about the PSA campaign, and to get more tips to help children make healthier choices, visit the We Can! website at www.nih.gov/wecan.
To learn more about the Ad Council, visit www.adcouncil.org.