Students to participate in ‘Body Walk’

What really happens to that sandwich you eat after you swallow it? Students at Bayou Vista Elementary School will find out as they tour the Louisiana Body Walk exhibit on Friday, according to an LSU AgCenter news release.
The Louisiana Body Walk is an exhibit that travels the state to teach students the importance of adopting healthy behaviors.
According to Adriana Drusini, LSU AgCenter 4-H agent for St. Mary Parish, the Louisiana Body Walk is one component of Smart Bodies, an innovative program sponsored by the LSU AgCenter and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Foundation that teaches the importance of good nutrition and physical activity.
As students tour this representation of the human body, they will explore each of the Body Walk’s eleven stations, by participating in hands on activities that focus on healthy lifestyle choices such as eating nutritious food and getting plenty of exercise.
Students enter the exhibit, by walking into the Smart Bodies Cafeteria where they are magically turned into a piece of food, such as a carrot or a hamburger. They then walk through a giant ear into the brain where they experience “brain waves.”
The “foods” then step into the exhibit’s larger-than-life mouth, are “swallowed” through the esophagus tunnel, and are “digested” in the stomach. From the stomach, the students travel through the small intestine where they are “absorbed” by villi into the blood.
They then follow the path of the nutrients to the heart, lungs, bones, muscles and skin stations. As students leave the body through a cut in the skin, they visit the pathway for life station to review the health concepts they have just learned.
The Smart Bodies program is in its 10th year and was developed to address increasing national concerns about the lack of physical activity and the declining nutritional status of young children, Drusini said. In Louisiana, childhood obesity has doubled in the past 20 years; almost one in three school-aged children is overweight or obese.
“The Body Walk provides a unique and exciting opportunity for Louisiana elementary students to learn about their bodies and the importance of making healthy choices,” Drusini said.
For information on the Smart Bodies Program or Louisiana Body Walk, contact Drusini at the St. Mary Parish extension office at 3337-828-4100, extension 300, or visit the Smart Bodies Web site www.smartbodies.org.