Kellams: This is Ozarks at Large. I'm Kyle Kellams.
Kellams: We're past Memorial Day weekend and into the summer season, if not on the calendar, certainly in spirit. For many children, this time of year means a change in schedule or routine. Our latest edition of Balance — that's our series about health, nutrition and exercise — we're going to talk about summer. We asked Jamie Baum and Erin Howie to come back to the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio. Jamie is associate professor in the UofA Department of Food Science, and she is director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Arkansas. Erin Howie is associate professor of exercise science at the UofA.
Jamie Baum says summer can mean shifts in habit.
Baum: I think that's a challenge for a lot of parents, especially parents who maybe are working or having to multitask with several children. You want to keep them busy, keep them healthy, but also not overtax yourself — in my opinion, as a mom with a kid that's going to be home for the summer.
Howie Hickey: The research does show that kids' BMI, their Body Mass Index, increases over the summer. It's pretty stable over the school year, and then when they're out for three months, that's when trouble starts because they're not as active. They're doing other things. They're not eating as healthy if they normally get school meals. There's some research looking into, well, how can we help those kids with parents who are working, don't have as many resources, because summer camp is super expensive and not all summer camps are equal in terms of health and engagement. So how can we do our best to keep kids from not sliding over the summer?
Baum: A lot of camps here — as someone who's been looking at summer camps since January — may not provide meals and you have to send your own snacks, and they don't really have guidelines for that either. So how do I give him something he'll eat, but also something that's not going to make his BMI go up.
Kellams: I think if my memory serves, when I was a kid in the summer, I didn't necessarily want to be told how to exercise. I didn't want to necessarily be told how to eat. But you do want your child to get activity and to eat well. So how do you do that?
Baum: I've started asking my son, "What have you done to take care of your body today?" He's a tween — puberty, body changes, all these things. You want to still be cool and do what your friends are doing. So by putting some of the responsibility on him — what have you done to take care of yourself? — when we start talking about how your body is important for the long run, you have to start taking care of it now. And putting some of the responsibility back in his hands makes him think about the choices and also want to be an active participant in healthy decisions.
Howie Hickey: We joke in our research lab about self-determination theory. It's all about how you motivate someone to do a behavior, and it really applies across all spectrums and to how parents interact with their kids, how you work with colleagues, or even yourself. It's all around ARC.
Howie Hickey: The first one, A, is for autonomy — giving a choice. So it's not, you know, go to the fridge and pick whatever you want. Maybe you want your kid to eat protein so they'll satisfy their hunger throughout the day. So maybe you say, "You can have a hard-boiled egg or you can have a meat stick." Or for activity: "You can go to the pool today or we can go ride a bike." You give them a choice.
Howie Hickey: Then the R is relatedness. They don't want to be by themselves. Maybe it's with their peers for older kids, or with their family. Maybe it's once a week you do something together as a family and they have a choice on what they pick. Or maybe you invite a friend to do an activity with them.
Howie Hickey: And the C is competence. Setting goals and thinking about how it makes them healthy, because people want to do things that they're good at. Setting realistic goals and talking about, "Okay, you wanted to do this and we did it. How do you feel? Are you healthier?" So that they feel like they're achieving something.
Howie Hickey: So it's ARC: autonomy, relatedness and competence. Giving them choice, making sure that they're related and making sure that they're succeeding at something makes them more likely to continue a behavior.
Kellams: And when you're giving someone choice, that's part of it — you don’t want to sound totalitarian.
Howie Hickey: It’s harder to sound totalitarian if you're giving someone a choice as opposed to saying, "Kyle, you're going to eat celery all day, every day." As opposed to, "Kyle, you can eat celery or you can eat watermelon."
Baum: I think especially with children, you can guide them — you can present the three or four choices you're giving them, so you're guiding them to maybe healthier choices, but they have the illusion that they get to pick. So it doesn't always have to be chips or candy or things like that. They perceive like they maybe get the favorite option, but it's an option you've pre-dictated that you're okay with any of the choices they make. It's a trick.
Howie Hickey: It's supported by theory and research and evidence.
Kellams: Summer seems to have all kinds of options. And, ideally, some low cost options.
Howie Hickey: We know from physical activity research in kids that getting kids outside basically increases their activity. It doesn't matter what they're doing, but just the fact that they're outside rather than inside can make a difference. So giving them choices in what they can do. But even if you don't have resources to take them to the pool or somewhere where they can bike, just getting them outside — even if they're moving, walking around, playing games, using their imagination — anything can help rather than sitting inside on the couch.
Baum: We used to give my son and some of the neighborhood kids a scavenger hunt where they just had to go in a safe radius around where we lived, find like a brown leaf or a stick or something like that. They thought it was fun and it kept them outside in a safe environment.
Baum: We've talked about AI before — I've asked my son to plan a lunch using AI, or an activity. You could also get them involved in planning or making the choices. My son's a really picky eater, but when he brings home things from the school garden, he's more likely to try them at home. Or if he has a say in helping with cooking, he's more likely to eat it.
Kellams: A challenge for young people now versus a generation ago is screens. I grew up in rural Arkansas. We had one channel and there are only so many times you can watch a Green Acres rerun in the summer. So sheer boredom would send me outside because there weren't as many options. Now, when you can watch anything on a screen, it might be a little bit tougher to get someone outside.
Howie Hickey: Screens aren't bad, and especially during the summer if you're working and they need time where you need them to be doing something, there are benefits. There are a lot of ways that you can use screens that are productive in terms of educational or building social connections with the family. But we don't want to spend eight hours a day on screens with kids. That's where some of these principles of autonomy and having discussions with your kids about when they're going to use screens and when they're not, and giving them choices of what they can do as alternatives, is really important.
Baum: It is a challenge when you have a two-career or two-job household and maybe you have to leave your child home for a little bit of time if they're old enough. For me, I'd rather have my son inside watching a show rather than free roaming the neighborhood without me there or able to check in on him. So it's really a balance. And in modern times, hard to figure out — especially summertime, which is not a great time for households that have two working adults because the summer camp options are expensive or they don't factor in a full work day. There are a lot of options from, say, 9:00 to noon or 9:00 to 1:00. But then what do you do to keep your kid physically active and healthy in the times after that?
Kellams: Are there any challenges for adults during summer? The research has shown that BMI for young people goes up over the summer. Do we have any research about adults in the summer? Does it change for us?
Howie Hickey: It depends on where you live and the climate, because places where it's really hot, activity can decrease in the summer. But places that are cold and it's actually nice and there's sunlight, it can increase in the summer. For us, we have a mild-ish summer, but hydration is important, and also just modifying your activity and your schedule on those really hot days and not expecting you to perform at the same level. Exercising in the morning or later in the evening, even though it can still be hot then. And obviously sun protection is really important in the summer.
Baum: Our jobs don't stop being 9:00 to 5:00 just because it's summertime. But I may be taking advantage of the cooler evening temperatures and the longer daylight to get out for a walk with your family or yourself.
Howie Hickey: So even if your kid is on the screen for eight hours while you're at work, you can all do something as a family — maybe going to a park if you don't have a safe place to play near your house, or going to the pool
Kellams: And enjoying the celery and watermelon.
Kellams: Jamie Baum is associate professor in the UofA Department of Food Science and director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Arkansas. Erin Howie Hickey is associate professor of exercise science at the University of Arkansas. Our series Balance is dedicated to conversations about health, exercise, nutrition and wellness.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
