Early Exposure To Common Chemicals Can Permanently Alter Metabolic System
Science Daily -- Obesity is generally discussed in terms of caloric intake (how much a person eats) and energy output (how much a person exercises). However, according to a University of Missouri-Columbia scientist, environmental chemicals found in everyday plastics and pesticides also may influence obesity. Frederick vom Saal, professor of biological sciences in MU's College of Arts and Science, has found that when fetuses are exposed to these chemicals, the way their genes function may be altered to make them more prone to obesity and disease.
"Certain environmental substances called endocrine-disrupting chemicals can change the functioning of a fetus's genes, altering a baby's metabolic system and predisposing him or her to obesity. This individual could eat the same thing and exercise the same amount as someone with a normal metabolic system, but he or she would become obese, while the other person remained thin. This is a serious problem because obesity puts people at risk for other problems, including cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension," vom Saal said.
Using lab mice, vom Saal has studied the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, including bisphenol-A, which recently made news in San Francisco, where controversy has ensued over an ordinance that seeks to ban its use in children's products. In vom Saal's recent study, which he will present at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), he found that endocrine-disrupting chemicals cause mice to be born at very low birth weights and then gain abnormally large amounts of weight in a short period of time, more than doubling their body weight in just seven days. Vom Saal followed the mice as they got older and found that these mice were obese throughout their lives. He said studies of low-birth-weight children have shown a similar overcompensation after birth, resulting in lifelong obesity.
"The babies are born with a low body weight and a metabolic system that's been programmed for starvation. This is called a 'thrifty phenotype,' a system designed to maximize the use of all food taken into the body. The problem comes when the baby isn't born into a world of starvation, but into a world of fast food restaurants and fatty foods," vom Saal said.
More research must be done to determine which chemicals cause this effect. According to vom Saal, there are approximately 55,000 manmade chemicals in the world, and 1,000 of those might fall into the category of endocrine disrupting. These chemicals are found in common products, from plastic bottles and containers to pesticides and electronics.
"You inherit genes, but how those genes develop during your very early life also plays an important role in your propensity for obesity and disease. People who have abnormal metabolic systems have to live extremely different lifestyles in order to not be obese because their systems are malfunctioning," vom Saal said. "We need to figure out what we can do to understand and prevent this."
"Perinatal Programming of Obesity: Interaction of Nutrition and Environmental Exposures" is the title of vom Saal's AAAS presentation. Also presenting with vom Saal at the AAAS symposium are Reth Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Bruce Blumberg of the University of California-Irvine, George Corcoran of Wayne State University and James O'Callaghan of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of Missouri-Columbia.
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has begun the implementation of a new Kitchen Garden Program at
Stephanie Alexander said, "Having received 54 submissions from around
The introduction of the Program at Nunawading Primary School will see each child in grades 3 -6 spending one period each week in the garden learning about soil, planting, propagating and harvesting. Once the garden is producing fresh, seasonal food each child will spend 1.5 hours every week in the kitchen preparing meals using the produce from the garden. They will then spend time together sharing the meal and learning to engage with others around the table.
There is considerable work to be done in establishing the garden and building a kitchen and meal sharing area and it is hoped that the work and associated costs will be supported by the parents, the local community and some corporate sponsors.
"We are incredibly excited to have been chosen to implement the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program at the school. The pupils and teachers are very keen to get started. We have had enormous interest from the parents and we look forward to involving the wider community in our project", said Glenda Gauntlett, Prinicpal at
Media inquiries: Call Kate Quirke on 0419768582 or email info@kitchengardenfoundation.org.au
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
There is widespread agreement that the eating habits of Australian children are directly or indirectly leading to serious health problems. Proposed solutions and projects by government departments over the past 20 years have almost all involved negative messages about foods and have been ineffective. Obesity rates continue to rise. Many children continue to choose foods from an increasingly narrow range and many families increasingly rely on convenience foods and appear to ignore the importance of sharing meals with their children.
Stephanie Alexander has devoted the last five years to formulating the program and overseeing the best-practice model established in July 2001 at
The reality is that children are constantly targeted by the advertising industry and the manufacturers of convenience food. If they receive no counter or balancing messages at home they are being left without any food education. As all children attend school until they are 15 it is suggested that it is at school that this education should be taking place.
The aim of the Kitchen Garden program is to pleasurably engage and educate young Victorians in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing delicious and healthy food in the belief that these skills and understandings are essential to the development of life-long joyful and healthy eating habits. The Foundation believes that behaviour is much more likely to change if an alternative is seen as pleasurable, positive and possible.
Each week at
They then spend one and a half hours each week in a modified home-economics kitchen preparing and sharing a variety of meals created from their produce.
The program employs two part-time specialist staff; a qualified gardener and a qualified cook. These two specialists promote pleasure in learning, rather than presenting the program as being primarily about `health' or describing foods as being `good for you'.
The link between the garden, the kitchen and the table is integral. The emphasis is on learning about food and about eating it. No part of the program can exist without the other. It is a compulsory part of the school's program for four years of a child's life.
In both the garden and the kitchen the students work co-operatively in small groups and expend considerable physical energy.
Stephanie Alexander established the Foundation in 2004 to seek funding for the replication of the operational model at
After a call for Expressions of Interest in late 2005, more than fifty submissions were received from primary schools across
A Community Meeting was held on April 10, 2006, at
The use of food gardens in education has come of age. What started as a special interest within the Permaculture milieu ten years ago is now mainstream. So much was evident at the November 2005 Edible Classroom conference at Collingwood College, Melbourne.
More than 200 participants heard speakers such as author and chef, Stephanie Alexander, Cultivating Community's (a community organisation funded by the state government to assist housing estate gardeners) Ben Neil and Victorian community garden instigator, Basil Natoli, as well as school students and teachers present their ideas on the development of food gardens as educational venues. From interstate came Jacqui Hunter (Hunter Gatherer Designs, Adelaide), Clair Fulton (community gardens network, Adelaide), Leonie Furber (community gardens, Noosa), Rebecca Chattelburgh (community and home garden educator, Albury) and Fiona Campbell (local government sustainability educator, Sydney).
Participants visited three school gardens in Melbourne, plus the inspirational garden at Collingwood College which was started by Stephanie Alexander and Cultivating Community. A number of the gardens form the basis of a school-based program in which students grow, prepare and cook the food grown in their gardens and eat it at school. From out of their own funds, some schools fund a community garden coordinator to work with students. Gardens range in size and in the amount of time students spend in them. Some have chooks. What became clear during the tour of the school gardens was the eagerness of students to work in the gardens.
Jude Fanton, from the Seed Savers Network in Byron Bay, held workshops in seed saving and processing in schools. Carolyn Nuttall, the Brisbane woman who sparked the interest in school gardens in education with her book, `The Children's Food Forest', over a decade ago provided an informal and insprirational address.
Edible Classrooms was organised by Cultivating Community, which is involved in the starting of school as well as community gardens. For those who stayed on after the conference, there were visits to Veg Out community garden in St Kilda, with its art works. Veg Out have bottled their third vintage (sauvignon blanc semillon) from their small community vineyard, thanks to help from Yarra Valley vigneron, Red Rock Winery.
Brad Shone, from the CERES environmental park in East Brunswick, attended the conference and invited participants to visit CERES with its energy park, aerogenerator, solar-electric arrays, wastewater treatment, schools program, allotment gardens, energy and resource efficient house with edible garden, commercial Permaculture and Bushfoods nursery and cafe - always worth an afternoon of your time when in Melbourne.
Morag Gamble (SEED International/Queensland community gardens team) made a PowerPoint slide show presentation of her tour of ecovillages and community agriculture in Europe and Hong Kong in the CERES seminar room before going on to visit community gardens in Tasmania.
As a follow-on from a convivial Sunday afternoon picnic in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens organised by Jude Fanton, a visit to the Garden's children's playground was made possible by Roslyn Semler from Visitor Services, who also attended the conference. The playground features clever plantings and installations that provide unstructured playspace in which the children are free to use their imagination. There is a large food garden - herbs, vegetables and a few fruit trees - planted in raised beds.
The Garden of Eden's Amadis Lechter took a few visitors to the new Fleminton Community Garden. Garden of Eden assisted with getting the garden going and Cultivating Community - the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network state contact - provides a worker - Ailsa Winfield - to assist gardeners one day a week.
Garden of Eden is a productive garden that shows how imagination, good design and hard work can convert an old railway station into a blend of cobb oven, mosaic art works, garden beds and educational programmes.
For those that stayed on, the Edible Classroom conference segued into a community gardens tour. This should come as no surprise as the Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network enjoys a close alliance with those working in school gardens - the 2005 national community gardens network conference in Queensland featured a day on the educational use of gardens in schools and a tour of two school gardens in Brisbane.
The coming Community Gardens Network national conference in Adelaide in March, currently being organised by the multi-talented Claire Fulton and team, is to feature two days on the use and benifits of school gardens.
Those who have been around the community garden/Permaculture milieu for a time will recognise that the pioneering work started by Carolyn Nuttall, Robina McCurdy and Salli Ramsden has now been mainstreamed. Robina, an energetic New Zealand woman from Tui Community, offered a three-day workshop immediately prior to the 1995 Permaculture convergence in Adelaide that spurred the development of garden-based education in primary and secondary schools. The Edible Classroom conference was evidence of the idea's coming of age.
FOUNDATION TEXT: Carolyn Nuttall's book, The Children's Food Forest and her manual of worksheets, The Food Forest Resource Sheets, are still available. Email (c.nuttall@uq.net.au) for prices.
This article was written by:
RUSS GRAYSON
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Adelaide, March 4 - 5 2006
A seminar for teachers, parents, education students, and principals interested in eating the classroom!
The Learning in the Garden Seminar will be a weekend of presentations, workshops, networking, and garden tours, with special guests including
Stephanie Alexander (chef, author, Collingwood College Kitchen Garden patron, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation )
Carolyn Nuttall (pioneering school garden educator, author of A Children's Food Forest )
Jude Fantion (co-founder, Seed Savers' Network and about to launch a seed-to-seed school garden program)
Whether you have a garden established in your school, or you dream of transforming your schoolyard into an edible delight, this seminar will provide plenty of inspiration, ideas and practical information. Professional development certification is available for teachers.
The Seminar Program
On Saturday morning, our three special guests will share their passion for gardening in schools, and describe the many benefits they have witnessed.
Participants will be able to chose from a range of breakout workshop and presentation sessions, covering curriculum links, garden design, community engagement, using gardens for health promotion, outdoor education, and much more.
On Sunday, we'll set out to visit a range of the kitchen gardens established in Adelaide schools. Smell the flowers, meet the teachers, and explore some of the possibilities first hand. After a special afternoon tea from the garden, we'll focus on sharing information and resources among Seminar participants, and developing ongoing support networks.
A full program will be available from www.communitygarden.org.au in late January.
Why learn in the garden?
- Children all over the world are gardeners. They plant and harvest food, take care of animals, and have fun as they learn
- Garden experiences reinforce classroom curriculum and offer opportunities to integrate curriculum across subject areas
- Gardens provide a context for understanding seasonality, ecological processes, and life cycles
- Students learn about where food really comes from and the role of food in life
- Healthy eating is encouraged, as students grow, taste, and learn to prepare a variety of fresh produce
- Food gardens offer opportunities to honor the cultures comprising the school community
- Gardens invite community involvement in schools - a way of engaging parents, neighbours, volunteers, and community businesses.
- Children work cooperatively on real tasks, make decisions, carry out plans, and celebrate their accomplishments
- In the garden, students who struggle in classroom settings can shine in unexpected ways.
Registration
Attendance is by prior registration and payment only.
Full registration is $75/ $45 concession for the full weekend. Day rates are also available.
Registration forms are available to download from www.communitygarden.org.au or email ceres.sa@gmail.com.au to be emailed or posted a copy. Phone (08) 8411 4893