A team of Cal State Northridge faculty and students from departments throughout the College of Health and Human Development--from kinesiology to health sciences and the Marilyn Magaram Center for Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences--are determined to change that.

Under the leadership of kinesiology professor Steven Loy, the group has initiated a pilot project, Exercise and Nutrition Defeat (END) Childhood Obesity, to take their message for healthier lifestyles directly to the public rather than waiting for the public to call on them.

"I think the thing that we have come to understand is that if we are going to make a significant change in the nation's health, we have to increase the public consciousness of what it takes to have a healthy lifestyle. How to make informed choices about what we eat, and to realize that getting moderate exercise is not that hard," Loy said.

Project members are working directly with the owners and workers at El Classificado, a local free weekly Spanish-language publication in Los Angeles, and American Apparel in Los Angeles' downtown garment district as well as the staff and students at Langdon Street Elementary School, to develop a plan to improve the health status of people at all three locations.

Northridge faculty and students make regular visits to the three sites, meet with people and survey their lives at home and at work and school. The CSUN team assesses the data and then sits down with the project's participants to develop realistic goals for adopting healthier lifestyles--taking into account cultural issues as well as strained finances, lack of time and other demands on the people they are trying to help.

"If we're not realistic about what is going on in these people's lives, then we can give all the advice we want and it's not going to help," Loy said.

Loy hopes that the project can serve as a model for the rest of the state, and he's been in contact with local state representatives to see if he can get their support in taking END Childhood Obesity statewide.

Loy said it is only logical for CSU faculty and students to take an active role in educating the public about adopting healthy lifestyles.

"We have the skills and knowledge, and a responsibility to serve the community," said Loy. "All we need are the resources and I think we can make a difference."

Efforts to spread the message about making healthy life choices doesn't stop with the END Childhood Obesity project for Cal State Northridge faculty and students. Faculty and students regularly take part in health fairs, invite CSUN students and the public to brown bag lunches where healthy eating habits are discussed, and often host one-day camps and other community activities--such as Healthy Kids Days at local YMCAs--that encourage young people to eat healthy and exercise.

The Marilyn Magaram Center is working with local public television station KCET and the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to publish a regular newsletter, "Good Food News," that goes out to more than 100,000 low-income families throughout the county, providing much-needed information about how to combat obesity and make informed dietary decisions. It also offers tips for getting exercise.

"The key is giving them the information so they can make the right choices," said Annette Besnilian, assistant director of CSUN's Marilyn Magaram Center.

She said changes can be as simple as substituting olive oil for Crisco when cooking or having more fruits and vegetables around the house for snacks instead of potato chips. And when it comes to exercise, she said, "it seems like you're asking a lot of some people. But when you break it down to 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there, they suddenly realize that getting the recommended 30 minutes a day of exercise really isn't that hard."

Balance, variety, moderation and exercise. Those four words make up a mantra that Cal State Northridge nutrition professor Terri Lisagor, a member of the END Childhood Obesity project who participates regularly in efforts to educate the community about healthy lifestyles, tries to drill into everyone she meets. And it's one she wishes Americans across the country would take as their own as they struggle to adopt more healthy life styles.