Busy Woodford County girl is one of 20 youth ambassadors in national campaign against childhood obesity

Genna Ringler of Woodford County has been named to the youth advisory board of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a national anti-childhood obesity group, John McGary reports for The Woodford Sun.

Geena Ringler, Alliance for a Healthier Generation
youth ambassador (Woodford Sun photo)

"I  see a lot of kids at my school every day.  They want to be healthier, but they don't know how, so I'm hoping that when I serve on the board, and even after that, that I show them ways that they can lead a healthier lifestyle," Ringler told McGary.

The 12-year-old's life is already full.  She peer-tutors children with special needs, teaches special-needs children to swim, runs cross-country, is on the local swim team and enjoys bicycling, McGary reports.  She has also led a fundraiser that generated nearly $2,800 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, to honor a friend and classmate who passed away.

She applied for the ambassador position in Febuary, was selected in May and was off in July for training in Utah, where she met the 19 other selected ambassadors, received media and interview training, and consulted with the adult ambassadors to develop goals for her project.

"I didn't know that it wasn't just playing video games," she told McGary, referring to the causes of childhood obesity. "It's so much more.  It's your economic background and how your parents raise you ... and all that kind of stuff."

Ringler told McGary that childhood obesity is an epidemic and that "it takes a lot of people to help change one person's lifestyle and I thought that one more person could help make a difference." (Read more) Kentucky ranks eighth nationally in child obesity.

Video systems like Wii Fit not working against child obesity: study

Video games designed to encourage children to exercise don't do anything to prevent obesity, a study has concluded. It found that children either find a way to trick the games "into thinking they are moving around, or they make up for exercise by vegging out more later," reports Maggie Fox for the National Journal.

"It doesn't appear that there's any public-health value to having active video games available in stores — simply having those active video games available on the shelf or at home doesn't automatically lead to increased levels of physical activity in children," said Dr. Tom Baranowski.

Baranowski and his Baylor College of Medicine team studied 78 children, whom they gave the video system Wii to play with. "It's not clear whether those in the study group were more active as a result of the video games but compensated by being less active later, or if they found a way to manipulate the instruments to minimize the amount of physical activity," he said.

Other studies have shown the video systems are beneficial to some age groups, including seniors, Fox reports. The study is published in the journal Pediatrics. (Read more)