Healthy Habits for Life is a series of segments and storylines in children's television series Sesame Street. Launched in season 36, the segments are a "multi-year, content-driven initiative to help young children and their caregivers establish an early foundation of healthy habits that can last a lifetime".
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In the early part of the 2000s, childhood obesity became a critical issue in the public mind, and was reinforced as a cause for concern by data published by the US Centers for Disease Control.
Sesame Workshop, as a developer of many kids programs, took interest in promoting healthy lifestyles to its viewers. According to people from Sesame Workshop, "Health has always been a part of our Sesame Street curriculum, therefore we will always be committed to ensuring kids are given information and messages that will not help them become healthy and happy in their development. For season 36, we have turned up the dial in health, but it will always be part of our curriculum."
The Healthy Habits for Life programming was launched In 2005, to encourage young viewers to lead more active and nutritious lifestyles.
The Workshop formed an Advisory Board consisting of experts such as Woodie Kessel, M.D., M.P.H., the Assistant Surgeon General of the United States. This board examines the research of other organizations, and also conducts pilot studies to determine which areas of research should be expanded, based on social, ethnic and socio-economic sections of the population.
Throughout season 36, every other episode of Sesame Street had a health related theme to its Street-scene, and various segments.
At the start of every show, before the sponsorship list and opening sequence ran, a "Healthy Moment" segment aired. Generally, these included celebrity guests like astronaut Buzz Aldrin, game show champion Ken Jennings, or singer Alicia Keys as well as George Lopez the actor.
As part of the Healthy Habits programming, Sesame Workshop began "broadening Cookie Monster's eating habits".[1] In actuality, the company had begun broadening his intake as early as 1990 with the song "Healthy Food", by Christopher Cerf. The song was remade for 2006 with rapper Wyclef Jean as a guest star. A 1999 Sesame Street Beat Newsletter for parents discussed his balanced lifestyle:
The international media picked up on the story, but instead a high percentage twisted it into sensationalism, with headlines like "'Sesame Street' tosses its cookies"[3] or claiming the character was "sent on a diet". An Internet petition/boycott received hundreds of signatures of support, from misinformed web users.
Characters Elmo and Rosita filmed public service announcements with various U.S. state governors in 2006. Participating were Governors Mike Huckabee (R-AR), Frank Murkowski (R-AK), Felix Camacho (R-GU), Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID), Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS), Kathleen Blanco (D-LA), Jennifer Granholm (D-MI), Kenny Guinn (R-NV), John Hoeven (R-ND), Aníbal Acevedo Vilá (PPD-PR), Bob Taft (R-OH), Don Carcieri (R-RI) with his wife, Sue Carcieri, Jon Huntsman, Jr. (R-UT), Jim Douglas (R-VT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).[4]
On 1 February 2004, Sony Wonder released the VHS/DVD Happy Healthy Monsters.
A series of books from Random House, called "Happy Healthy Monsters" were released. They were Squeaky Clean (All About Hygiene), with Elmo, Ernie, and Bert; Get Moving with Grover with Elmo and Grover; and Elmo's Breakfast Bingo with Elmo.
Del Monte canned vegetables featured the characters, as well as Sunkist strawberries and blueberries. Hannaford Supermarkets ran an "Apple of the Month" promotion, featuring the characters on various varieties' stickers, with activity sheets describing the unique traits of each fruit.[5]
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