PARENTS GET NUTRITION LESSON.

Byline: DENISSE SALAZAR Valley News Staff Writer

While students at Ranchito Street Elementary School attended science, history and math lessons, their mothers met in the multipurpose room for a few courses on healthy eating.

Last Thursday, the parents participated in the first of six classes designed to educate them about nutrition, meal preparation and physical fitness.

``My daughter is telling me `Mom, I don't want to be fat, I want to be healthy,''' said Martha Kilbourn, mother of 7-year-old Ana. ``I like her point of view because if we eat healthy we'll have more energy, a positive attitude, and you feel good and transmit that to the family.''

Kilbourn is one of 19 mothers in the program aimed at teaching the importance of healthy eating for themselves and -- more importantly -- for their children.

Bonnie Bailer, director for the Center for Healthier Communities at Northridge Hospital Medical Center says teaching parents about healthy eating is important because ``parents are the ones who buy the food, prepare the snacks and control their children's eating habits.''

The goal of the ``Good Cooking/Buena Cocina'' class taught by a team from Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles, a nonprofit based in Hollywood, is to help families eat healthy and exercise.

The first part of the two-hour class was dedicated to teach parents how to read nutrition labels.

``Most of us don't know how to read (nutrition labels),'' said Maria Lucia Olguin, who has four children. ``Now I will look for vitamins... what is on the bottom is more important.''

The second part was devoted to preparing a healthy meal using fresh ingredients. The dish was rice pilaf with corn and roasted chiles, which everyone sampled at the end of the class.

But the class got started with an unexpected twist when participants were asked to step on a scale. Northridge Hospital staff recorded the weight and height of each participant, which revealed ``the vast majority were overweight,'' Bailer said. The women will be weighed each week and the Northridge Hospital Cardiology Department will provide blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol screenings.

The class is part of the School-Based Obesity and Diabetes Initiative, a pilot project spearheaded by Northridge Hospital's Center for Healthier Communities, which was embraced by several organizations including the Los Angeles Unified School District, Nutrition Network and California State University Northridge, among others.

The reason for the pilot project, Bailer says, is to help combat childhood obesity. The project is in five schools - James Monroe High School, Sepulveda Middle School, Liggett Elementary, Ranchito Street Elementary and Plummer Street Elementary - all in the high-need communities of North Hills and Panorama City.

Currently, a third of American children and youth are either obese or at risk of becoming obese, according to a report issued by the Institute of Medicine.

In Los Angeles, 25 percent of boys and 18 percent of girls attending public schools in grades 5, 7, and 9 are overweight, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

Bailer says childhood obesity has become a major health threat and parent education is only one component the initiative is using to fight childhood obesity. Other components include in-school and after-school intervention, teacher training and support groups.

The multifaceted initiative launched last March with parent cooking classes at Sepulveda Middle School and James Monroe High School. Bailer says the classes were successful at both campuses, with one group of 12-15 participants losing 85 pounds in six weeks.

``The parents are understanding the impact nutrition can have on disease,'' Bailer said. ``As a result of that they are losing weight, have a positive influence on children and diet and are improving the overall health of their families.''

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A participant of the Good Cooking class follows cooking instructions from Cynthia Agustin of Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles. The dish they prepared was rice pilaf with corn and roasted chiles.

Denisse Salazar/Valley News