Healthy Eating — From School Breakfasts To Family Meals

You're listening to midday edition here and KPBS on Allison St. John in four Maureen Cavanaugh . Is a strange relationship between skipping meals and weight gain. It turns out the teams to skip records are more likely to be overweight than students who we two breakfasts, one at home and when at school. A new study from the red center on food policy and obesity at of the University of Connecticut followed students for three years from fifth grade to seventh-grade and collected interesting data on breakfast eating habits. Here to talk more about this as our guest Robin McNulty program [ Indiscernible ] for school meals thanks much for joining us Robin. You're welcome. Pleasure to be here. The study suggest that one in four children go to school without eating breakfast. That the national figure is that true for San Diego to? You know it is. Study show that that information is transferable to San Diego. One in four children do not eat breakfast before the start of the school day but these studies also show that if breakfast is served at school after the start of the school day we can increase participation for school breakfast by about 40%. I know people sometimes talk about how many kids go to bed hungry is that about the same? Actually, it tends to run a little bit more like the numbers of one in five children in San Diego go to bed hungry. Technically -- the economic [ Indiscernible ] families are having to make trade-offs between paying bills and purchasing food. Kids deserve three meals a day. There are resources available to provide very low income kids with breakfast, lunch, snacks and supper and even meals and summer. It's our duty to make sure that children don't go to bed hungry. We know about school lunches apparently they came about after World War II when it was declared that child hunger was a national security threat because half the people rejected for the drafter rejected because of poor nutrition. That's when lunches started but then breakfast was added and I understand that in some places like New York there's some question as to whether in fact breakfast are a good idea in schools cause they are worried it would exasperate childhood obesity. Have school breakfast come under fire in San Diego? Of course. School foods come under fire everywhere. What we have found a particular we are excited about the study because it was over three years. We studied fifth, sixth, and seventh graders and we found that though some students eight before school and also at school they were not at a higher risk of an unhealthy weight compared to their other students. Actually the breakfast skippers tended to put on more weight than double breakfast participating students. The study had these very interesting broken down into six different happened that habits, people who are breakfast at home and consistently copy but who regularly ate at home or at school and then the people were to breakfast. This idea that in fact having to breakfast my country to obesity which is less space in a major public health issue. This study suggests that's not the case. Can you help us explain that? Why is it that skipping a meal might actually be more linked to obesity risks than having to breakfast? It's partly because of those who skip breakfast are more likely to pick up fast food of some type, those foods tend to be of low nutritional value but very high in calories and fat and sugar. We know that particularly with this middle school population they're less likely to be acted because they are becoming more independent, they want to make their own choices and often times they are led by peer pressure as well. We just have a few seconds that but I just wanted to ask you about how child hunger is changing in San Diego. Is it becoming more common? Are we dealing with it better? Is Unfortunately, it continues to be an issue in San Diego. We have one in five children that go to bed hungry that is not good. But we do know that many partners and resources are getting connected together to help take a closer look at children who are experiencing food insecurity and trying to make sure that HD they have a free meals they deserve. Thank you so much for joining us Robin. Keep up the good work Robin. Thank you so much. From school breakfast to healthy meals of the whole family can enjoy that's the focus of the new documentary called kitchen nieces of national city that stream in San Diego at UCSD tonight. Here's a clip. This is a fast food restaurant every corner. You see every kind like we are the dump here national city. You know how they have the [ Indiscernible ] cars here. Turns out national city has one of the highest obesity rates in the county and the US Department of agriculture considers some parts of national city food deserts. A new program is hoping to empower mothers to transform the way they eat and promote a healthy lifestyle. Here to talk about this is Mary on by circle is director and producer of the film the kitchen nieces of national city and Patty Carrano one of the first kitchen nieces and lead volunteer for the program. Thank you for joining us. Think you for having us.

Maryanne let's start with you for the kitchen nieces and why did you want to make a film out of them? The kitchen nieces are graduates the cooking force a loose program which was created at all of wood garden and learning center national city. These graduates students of healthy cooking but they really advocate for community health. Since the program was started in 2012, 60 for salute program, there now other -- over 100 graduates they are mostly mothers in some grandmothers was not only changed to healthier dishes for themselves and for their families but they have also reached out to thousands of families in their communities to show them healthier dishes and healthier lifestyles. What was it that drew you to thinking this would make a good film? In 2012 I made a decision to work in documentary film making. At that time I was working on a film that focus on entrepreneurial companies that are innovative and profitable but also cared about the community, the environment, and the well-being of their employees. It's called we the owners. By 2014 we were in the marketing stage and outreach of that film copies are. I visited all of wood garden and saw Maria Torres is one of the kitchen he says -- Kitchenistas she was joined by Daisy Torres heard daughter who is eight years old at the time who also had been involved with all of wood garden. When I heard a story I thought while this is a very inspirational and they are really these mothers are really food entrepreneurs. Their food onto yours because they are creating opportunities for their families and the communities to be adventurous eaters and they're taking on all the risks associated with changing generational recipes. Position just way to look at it we have a clip. From Maria Torres and her granddaughter and there's one scene where she's talking about all the medication that she has to take. Hears that clip. This is my basic -- my stable medication so I can survive. I shoot 35 units of insulin and night and I inject them on my belly. My doctor has told me not to shoot any more than 35 units of youth insulin because if I take it and then I go to bed I will go into a, and I will not wake up and I will die. That's what they told me. At the age of 40, traditionally and my family we become diabetic. This is such a dire situation, one that is under the radar. Paint a picture limit for us about how big a problem is diabetes in some of these communities. Like many communities in the United States national city is in a health crisis. As you mentioned specifically that if one of the highest rates of obesity, childhood obesity in the county as well as in the state of California. This leads to other illnesses of course kidney failure, as one example, heart attacks and strokes and other issues. Community health crisis is something that we see across the United States and its complicated. It can't just be solved by have healthy foods but what all of wood garden a showing in with the kitchen nieces are showing the community health starts of the kitchen table Yes a relatively simple thing what we eat. Patty you were one of the first people to join this program. Did you struggle with some of these health problems? What was it that made you feel so -- because he really wanted to be part of this program didn't you? Yes. We have a history in our family of diabetes is Mrs. Torr said after certain age dashes like a pattern and older society that a certain age you start developing the newest illness of the century. One of them cut diabetes. In my family was not an exception. My dad died due to consequences of diabetes in my mother's diabetic and most of my family members are to. That's one of the main reasons I started -- and decided to start participating in this program. Is a seven week class and tell us some of the things that you learned there that really changed the way that you cook for your family. There are a lot of things that we have learned during this seven weeks. Like Maryanne said one of the main things is that we are focused to cook at home. When you cook at home you have the control and the quality of the food, they control of the amount of sugar, salt, [ Indiscernible ] that way you can see the way you are cooking for your family. Most of the time we think that we have busy lives and we are running from one side to another. It's hard and people have been letting the responsibility of feeding their family and other hands. We need to take control of the kitchen and go back and cook for our families. How challenging was it for you to make that commitment into actually put into practice of the things you learned? It's different to say the practice like you say it's hard. I can't lie that is something that we struggle with every day because we eat more than three times a day. If we don't count the snacks at least we need to [ Indiscernible ] if we learn how to cook and watch what kind of veggies, whole grains, what kind of sugar, what kind of salt, what kind of oils, fats we need to use in our kitchen. That way we are going to get the control back again. Otherwise we will not be conscious of what we are eating. Taking control of your diet. Exactly. What about people who say this is going to be more expensive I can't possibly afford to do this. Most people think that but if we imagine a balance in our mind and we put one side the junkfood we are eating any of the other side all the illnesses, all the medications, the therapies, the suffering that you are getting from this bad element then you are going to realize that it's not expensive. It's the opposite, you have a better lifestyle and you take control of what you are eating. You are developing and heritage in your family that would be transform your lives of day you take the decision and after. Pretty radical to transform your life. UNR lead volunteer you finish the program but are you working with the community does the program spread through its participants after they are finished? When I started it was a year before this program started. I started translating the program and I get a lot of what they were doing. It was hard to not continue with that since then I have been there and it's very joyful and it has been a pleasure for me to know all the more heart than 100 Kitchenistas that have finished the course. That's the main reason why keep doing what I'm doing. [ Indiscernible - heavy accent ] Maryanne you got this film now. What you think you can do with that film to increase the momentum of this moment? We are about a 30 way through [ Indiscernible ] one of my objectives was to get it into film festivals around the United States and internationally to inspire others about this community-based program. Also importantly, we are starting a local campaign for public screenings. We are specifically interested in converting the DVDs into a Spanish version. We are looking for sponsors to support that not only the film but the supportive video materials and to get it out to the Latino community. I understand of the programs graduated six classes so far and more than 100 graduates. They are all sharing the recipes with thousands of others in the communities so it's spreading and your film is showing at the UCSD faculty club tonight right? I like to thank you both very much for talking about the surprisingly life-changing program. Thank you Maryanne. And Patty Corona was one of the very first Kitchenistas . Thanks so much. In the interest of full disclosure the [ Indiscernible ] family foundation is the supportive KPBS