A Gardening Program to Assess Unhealthy Lifestyle Contributions to Summer Weight Gain in Children

In the past two decades, the combination of unhealthy eating and physical inactivity has
contributed to doubling the percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight.
Childhood overweight is known to lead to increased risk for several morbidities in childhood
and into adulthood including type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular
disease. Recent data shows that children experience greater and more variable increases in
BMI during summer vacation than during the school year. Our project aims to determine
whether summer weight gain is due to a decrease in physical activity or an increase in daily
calories as well as to assess the effectiveness of a summer gardening program on preventing
summer body fat gain. We will randomize 40 middle-school children who are above the 95th
percentile for BMI into either a control or intervention group. The control group will
receive the standard of care and the intervention group will participate in Garden Fit, a
summer gardening project at Troy Gardens in Madison, WI. As part of Garden Fit, subjects
will participate in weeding, landscaping and trail maintenance activities as well as
preparing meals twice a week with fresh foods from the gardens. We hypothesize that summer
weight gain is due to a worsening of healthy lifestyle (decreased physical activity from
school to summer and increased eating of high calorie snacks). Additionally, we hypothesize
that an intervention that increases physical activity and provides increased access to
healthy foods will reduce the trend of summer BMI increase.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Middle school child aged 10-14 years

- BMI at or above the 85th percentile for height and weight

- Able to attend 8-week summer program and clinic visits

Exclusion Criteria:

- Any known metabolic disorder

- Any physical disability that prevents or limits physical activity

- Claustrophobia