Health and Fitness

September 25, 2007

Kaiser Permanente has Launched 'Amazing Food Detective' Online Educational Game

This month Kaiser Permanente is launching "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective," an online game created by Kaiser Permanente health professionals to help teach children about healthy eating and maintaining an active lifestyle.

Based on a popular character from Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Program, the Amazing Food Detective takes children through activities that show how to choose the right foods and how to get more active. Children playing the game follow the routines of eight children whose activities or conditions would benefit from healthy food and exercise choices. Children can help one screen character who is feeling weak by steering her to high-protein food choices, for example.

The game automatically shuts off after 20 minutes and encourages players to get up and exercise or perform some activity away from the computer screen. The eight screen characters reflect multiple ethnicities, and the game is available in Spanish.

Through a partnership with Scholastic, Inc., "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective" will be distributed to more than 5,000 public schools in communities that Kaiser Permanente serves. Distribution will include lesson plans, teaching guides, and take-home packages for students that include family activities and healthy recipes. The game also can be played online through Kaiser Permanente's public website.

"The Amazing Food Detective" is Kaiser Permanente's latest effort to help address the epidemic of childhood obesity. About 9 million children in the United States are overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research shows that the majority of overweight or obese children will grow up to be overweight or obese adults.

The rate of childhood obesity in the United States more than doubled from 1980 to 2000. Obesity-related health care conditions cost Americans $93 billion each year in health care costs. "Epidemic" is not an overstatement.

The game builds upon Kaiser Permanente's Healthy Eating Active Living program and its Community Health Initiatives, through which Kaiser Permanente works to help people make healthy choices. More information can be found through Kaiser Permanente's Community Benefit website.

Learn more about "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective" through this news release.