Children in Mexico City are learning to live healthier lifestyles thanks to ...

Children in Mexico City are learning to live healthier lifestyles thanks to a program called “Good Health,” sponsored by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

Conducted in schools, this educational program encourages children in Mexico to make healthy food choices. Good Health includes a health assessment for each child and recommendations for a healthy diet, including U.S. pork and beef as basic protein sources for cell development.

Mexico has more than 106 million people and 31 percent of these are 14 years of age or younger, making children a substantial part of the population to target for establishing healthier lifestyle choices.

“The Good Health program is a preventative campaign that detects obesity, diabetes and anemia in children so that healthy alternatives can be introduced early on,” said Rosa Elena Yáñez, a USMEF licensed dietician. “Our goal is to reverse these health concerns by introducing exercise and healthy foods, like U.S. meat as a protein source.” And, she added, U.S. beef and pork are readily available for parents to use in everyday family meals.

The program begins with an educational seminar for children and their parents, stressing the importance of designing a healthy diet that includes meat of the best quality, such as U.S. meat. The dietician and her team then measure each child’s height and weight, in addition to knee and elbow widths to determine the muscle and bone mass. They compare each child’s result to the average, based on the child’s age and height. The results are provided to parents along with recommendations for a healthier diet, U.S. meat education information and recipes.

USMEF in February also will distribute flyers with recommendations for developing a healthy diet at the Children’s Olympic Games at a school in Mexico City where pediatrician and founder of the Good Health program, Dr. Sandra Lopez, works.

“Meat proteins contain nutritional micro-components, such as iron and zinc. Deficiencies of these micro-components cause anemia and affect body and brain development,” said Dr. Lopez.

Lack of protein in the diet impacts mental development and cognition, reducing children’s interaction with the environment, which can lead to problems with attention, inactivity and unresponsiveness, she added. These behaviors may compromise children’s ability to learn. Even short-term nutrition deprivation, hunger, or skipping a meal can adversely affect the ability to concentrate and think clearly.

In addition, diabetes, the leading preventable cause of death in Mexico, can be managed and sometimes reversed with good nutrition and exercise. And good nutrition includes lean cuts of U.S. pork and beef. For example, USMEF shows parents that U.S. pork has 31 percent less fat than 20 years ago, and many cuts of U.S. pork are as lean as skinless chicken.

The U.S. Meat Export Federation is the trade association responsible for developing international markets for the U.S. red meat industry and is funded by USDA, exporting companies, and the beef, pork, lamb, corn, sorghum and soybean checkoff programs.

– USMEF –

The following photos are available with this release:

Photo 1– A young boy’s height is measured during his school’s Good Health program, sponsored by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. The program helps assess children’s health in order to provide suggestions for healthy changes to parents.

Photo 2–The U.S. Meat Export Federation provided a team, headed by a dietician, to take children’s measurements during a program called Good Health. Children who exceeded averages were supplied with information on exercise and diet, which includes several lean cuts of U.S. beef and pork.