Health Promotion Program for Primary School Children. The “Adopt an Alien” Food Education Pilot Project

During the last 30 years Europe is targeting overweight and obesity as a major challenge. “Adopt an alien” is a healthy lifestyle and balanced diet promotion program which targets primary school children. The pilot project involved two schools and 240 children. The programme included three meetings with children, two with parents and two with teachers. Results show that 97% of children take breakfast and all the children consume a healthy snack if provided by the school. 36% of children watched the TV before going to school prior to the programme, while this had fallen to 30% after the intervention. In recent years many programs have been developed to manage obesity, but to make an impact it is important to act on more factors and for longer durations. Even though the program obtained positive results, we are still far from the goal of reducing obesity.