Iowa State Camp Teaches Health as a Language

A group of Iowa State University researchers will soon know if picking up a healthy lifestyle can be done in the same fashion as taking up a second language.

Ruth Litchfield, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition and others have been studying 4H campers to see if they are more likely to make healthy choices after spending a week in an Immersion in Wellness Camp.

Campers in the intervention groups spent 2.5 hours each day working in the garden, learning how to prepare what they grew and took a nutrition lesson throughout their week long camp at the 4H camp in Madrid.

The last batch of intervention campers left Iowa State's 4H Center Friday. All campers were surveyed before the camp and will be resurveyed six months from now to see if their preferences have changed.

This is the second year of the study.

Litchfield said survey results from the first year of campers have been promising. Campers who spent the week immersed in a wellness intervention group have shown an increased preference toward the vegetables they were exposed to during the camp.

“So we are seeing some slight changes in vegetable preference and consumption,” Litchfield said.

While the cause of childhood obesity is multifaceted, Litchfield said society today doesn't make the healthy choice the easy one.

“We all know what to do. We really don't have that environment that makes it easy to do it,” she said.

About one in every three children, ages 6 to 19, are considered overweight, Litchfield said.

Litchfield said the immersion camp isn't the only way to encourage healthy lifestyles.

“We are all trying to look at different avenues on how we can curb childhood obesity,” Litchfield said.

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