Video Game Tackles Childhood Obesity

Oct. 8, 2007 — -- With childhood obesity rates tripling in the last 15 years, Kaiser Permanente has decided to do something about this growing epidemic: It plans to introduce a video game.

This may seem counterintuitive, given that one of the culprits in the rise of childhood obesity is sedentary play, which includes video games and TV.

"Video games are embedded in youth culture and are an effective tool to educate children in an interactive and entertaining way," said Ray Baxter, a senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest U.S. health insurers.

The game, "The Incredible Adventures of the Amazing Food Detective," is currently available free online at www.AmazingFoodDetective.com in both English and Spanish. In it, kids join the Amazing Food Detective to investigate why eight multi-ethnic kids are living unhealthy lives.

As Junior Food Detectives, players snoop into the lifestyles of the unhealthy kids to uncover the causes of their health problems. They will find that all the problems are linked to bad nutrition and activity choices.

For example, when investigating Emily, an overweight girl, they find that she eats good food, but just too much of it. To solve that mystery, players must zap Emily's meals so that each plate contains smaller portions.

The mystery with Catherine is that while she exercises, she isn't very strong. Players help her by dragging more protein onto her plate of food. For example, you can add peanut butter to bread and meatballs to spaghetti.

The other mysteries involve unhealthy kids who skip breakfast, play too many computer and video games, eat too much junk food, get tired too quickly, lack calcium and need more activity.

Each time children solve one of the eight mysteries, they unlock three of the game's 24 arcade mini-games. The mini-games vary greatly, but they are usually themed to the eating or exercise problem brought up in the mystery. For example, the games linked to Emily all involve making healthy food choices. In one, kids will whack candy away as it falls, and, in another, they will place healthy foods on trays that zip by on a conveyor belt.

Best for ages 9-10

From Kaiser Permanente, www.kp.org/amazingfooddetective, available free.

Jinny Gudmundsen is the kid-tech columnist for the Gannett News Service and USA Today.com, and is also the editor of Computing With Kids Ezine.