Who says video games are harmful to your kids? Hundreds of schools have already deployed one of the hottest video games in their curriculum to battle the bulge! And with childhood obesity reaching epidemic levels in the 21st century, Dr. Northrup advocates any method that promotes healthy food and exercise choices for today’s youth.

The state of West Virginia, said to have the worst childhood obesity problem in the U.S., stepped up to the plate first by implementing one of the most popular video arcade games– “Dance Dance Revolution”–in their schools’ physical education programs.

For those unfamiliar with Komani Corp’s “Dance Dance Revolution,” it’s a music video game where children play by dancing in synchronized steps set to music. They use their ability to time and position their steps in response to arrows that appear on a screen and a dance pad and are synchronized to the rhythm of a chosen song.

According to the New York Times, the idea originated from the director of West Virginia’s Motor Development Center. “I was in the mall walking by the arcade. I saw these kids playing this game, and I was stunned,” she said. “There were all these kids dancing and sweating and actually standing in line and paying money to be physically active. And they were drinking water, not soda. It was a physical educator’s dream.”

Preliminary studies by the West Virginia University School of Medicine’s pediatrics department showed that the children who played the Dance Dance Revolution arcade game for at least 30 minutes five days per week maintained their weight and even showed a reduction in risk factors for heart disease and diabetes.

“Our bodies were designed to move throughout our lifetimes,” Dr. Northrup points out. “Exercise and breathing fresh air are like the nutrients in food. They help build independence and a sense of mastery. And they are a crucial investment in your children’s future.”

To date, all 765 public schools in West Virginia will incorporate the game into their curriculums over the next two years. School districts in the states of California, Hawaii, and Missouri are also planning to provide daily workouts for elementary children through popular video games like “Dance Dance Revolution” and Sony’s EyeToy–which puts the child into the actual game to promote more activity and physical movement.

“To help your child move their body is to give them primary prevention against osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes–all leading causes of premature death and disease in this country,” Dr. Northrup emphasizes.

Many schools say that these video games (that can also be played on your television or home computer) may encourage children who feel awkward playing competitive sports or participating in gymnastics. “They’re having fun,” one school official commented. “And if they continue to have fun, that’s reinforcement for exercising throughout their lives.”

Dr. Northrup adds, “It’s important that a child be encouraged to find her own unique way to stay physically fit, strong, and flexible.”

Studies have also shown, according to Dr. Northrup, that girls who are physically fit have more positive body image than those who aren’t fit, regardless of how well their body aligns with the current cultural standard of beauty.

Dr. Northrup reminds us to be models of the behavior that we expect from our children. “Exercise habits, like eating patterns, get passed down from parent to child. So establishing these patterns needs to be a priority.

So, what can you do to battle the bulge in your children if your school doesn’t offer video games to encourage them to “get up and dance”? Here is a list of tips from Dr. Northrup to promote healthy eating habits and activities in your home this summer:

• Recognize your child’s innate body composition: Overweight is defined as a body-mass index at or above the 95th percentile for children and adolescents of the same age and sex. Sometimes this is a health risk, and sometimes it’s not. It depends upon how much of that weight is lean muscle mass and how much is fat.
• Keep your house stocked with wholesome and delicious food, and follow the 80:20 rule: Aim to make about 80 percent of your child’s daily food whole, healthy, and low glycemic. The other 20 percent can be the food they share with their peers.
• Don’t bring it home: Keep junk food out of the house. Avoid soft drinks, candy, packaged snacks, and so on. Not only do these raise blood sugar too quickly, but sodas are also loaded with caffeine and chemicals that can cause side effects such as headaches—particularly if they contain the artificial sweetener aspartame.
• Take your children food shopping with you, and prepare some meals together: Teach them how to choose a ripe melon, tomato, or pineapple. Shop the outer aisles where the fresh “real” foods tend to be. Learning to cook can be a real boost to your child’s sense of mastery and self-esteem.
• Serve breakfast that includes some protein: A good breakfast is the key to creating stable blood sugar—and a stable mood—for the entire day.
• Eat regular family meals together: Research has shown that families who sit down to meals together at least three times per week are healthier and their children are better students.
• Avoid using the dinner hour to bring up an entire day’s worth of family conflicts and unfinished business: This tends to link stress with eating, and can set up a metabolic pattern that favors indigestion at the very least.
• Serve smaller portions: In the last three decades, portion size has increased so dramatically that we no longer remember what a “healthy” portion looks like. Don’t use restaurant servings as a standard for what to serve at home.
• Encourage your children to try everything at least once, but after that, do not force them to eat anything they don’t want to eat: The dinner table is no place for control wars over food intake. My younger daughter didn’t like greens. I tried to get her to eat them, but they always ended up in her napkin. Now she adores them!
• Teach your children how to savor their food and stop when they are full: Most of the pleasure of eating comes from the interaction between the sense of smell and the sense of taste. To maximize this pleasure, you need to slow down and savor each bite. Remember, the only bite you can fully enjoy is the one that’s in your mouth!
• Don’t offer desserts or high sugar foods as rewards: This will only add major emotional fuel to the fires of sugar addiction. If you want to serve dessert on occasion, then do so after a meal that contains some protein. This will automatically slow down the rate at which the dessert hits the bloodstream as sugar.
• Avoid nighttime snacking: Studies show that if you eat most of your calories earlier in the day, you can maintain or even lose weight. When a family routinely snacks in front of the television at night, they are setting themselves up for a lifetime of health problems and obesity.
• Help clean up the food environment at school: Organize with other parents to get the vending machines out of the schools and to substitute healthy snacks for the usual “party fare.” This change is going to take a while because sugar and refined foods are such a big part of our culture.
• Teach your children about the connection between high-glycemic-index foods and emotional eating: Have them check in with how their body feels after eating high-glycemic index foods. They can even keep a journal of feelings and food cravings.
• Encourage your children to find pleasure in a variety of nonfood-related activities: There are healthier ways to positively alter brain chemistry. These include exercise, listening to music, or participating in creative pursuits that bring you a sense of reward and recognition.
• Make sure your children take a regular vitamin-mineral supplement: Research has shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that long-term vitamin and mineral supplementation helps prevent infection, cancer, heart disease, and boosts immunity.
• Encourage your children to remain physically fit: Regular exercise helps the muscles utilize glucose more effectively, and helps prevent insulin resistance.
• Teach your children to trust themselves with food: Until children have reached the age of reason, what they eat is a parent’s responsibility. But once they have, they’re ready to learn how to make healthy food choices on their own without being controlled by a mother’s disapproval. And they will.

The Bottom Line: Health and weight control are ultimately about freedom. The freedom to know when you’re hungry and when you’ve had enough. Freedom doesn’t mean eating whenever and whatever you want. Like discipline, true freedom involves eating in a structured and conscious way. This is the gift you can give your children–and yourself.