fit kids getting kids to build healthy relationships with food

if you&39ve ever counted calories or scoured food packaging for the &quotfat free&quot label one nonprofit says you&39re thinking about health all wrong. in this edition of &quotfit kids february,&quot sarah blazonis shares a story about ophelia&39s place and how it&39s working to help kids build healthy relationships with food right from the start.liverpool, n.y. jill catherine was a college freshman when she developed an eating disorder. but she says trouble began long before that.&quotit was many, many years of the mixed messaging that we all get that i got from the media, that i got from my coaches, that i got from the culture of the community that i was around,&quot catherine said.she was told it would be a lifelong struggle. now part of her job as an ophelia&39s place spokesperson is letting others know they can recover.the nonprofit offers support, treatment, and outreach for people suffering from eating disorders. and one of the goals is reaching kids and countering those mixed messages, namely that health is about fitting a certain body type.&quothealth is about the joy we feel inside of ourselves, because in that joy, then we start to find ways to move that feel good, then we start to learn about food in a way of, &39wow, this grows,&39 and &39where does this come from&39&quot catherine said.catherine gives presentations at middle and high schools but she says the younger, the better when getting the message out because bad habits haven&39t had the chance to develop.&quotwe&39ve become such a culture that has to think so hard about how to get kids to exercise when that is really the most natural thing for kids to do. so, it&39s nurturing that from a place of being your best self, as opposed to, &39you need to exercise because we have a child obesity issue,&quot catherine said.adults also play an important role in changing the conversation, not just in the actions they take toward a healthy lifestyle, but also in their words.&quotthose are the ones who are using language and talking and shaming their bodies that the children are hearing. we can start planting the seeds of education to help them untangle the media messages,&quot catherine said.and forge healthy habits right from the start.&nbsp