As seen in our first feature story, Dr. Olajide Williams is a neurologist and Columbia University professor who founded the Hip Hop Public Health Education Center at Harlem Hospital. His team produces a series of health awareness programs that use hip-hop music to teach pre-adolescents about issues such as eating healthy, warning signs of strokes, and preventing Type 2 diabetes. As you can see in the video below, the center — whose sponsors include GE, the New York City Council and the National Stroke Association — recently hosted hundreds of students from New York City public schools for a program called H.E.A.L.S. (Healthy Eating and Living in Schools) at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem.
Dr. Williams tapped two of hip-hop’s originators, Doug E. Fresh and MC Easy A.D. to help the center establish credibility among kids who eat-and-breathe hip-hop — and to craft beats and rhymes that rise above the standard fare of children’s music. At the Apollo, children were taught a range of eating options, including the difference between healthy foods, or “Go foods” like apples, and unhealthy, or “Whoa foods” like donuts. They were even taught what a calorie is — a measurement of energy — and the consequences of having too much of a necessary thing. As Dr. Williams said: “Music is a powerful messenger, and this is a powerful message.”
Focus on healthy diets continue to gain traction in the U.S. as an estimated 17 percent of children and adolescents ages 2-19 are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Additional research shows that some 80 percent of overweight children become obese adults. Dr. Williams hopes his Hip Hop H.E.A.L.S. program will help curb that trend
“When we teach children about these issues and what they can do, we’re also teaching their parents, siblings, and friends,” Dr. Williams says. “Music makes health education fun. And when it’s fun, kids retain information and know how to act.”
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