The Philadelphia Inquirer: Camp teaches black and Latino children to make healthy choices

Camp director Shelley Johnson outlined the dietary minefield that is the vending machine, doing her part to make sure the 30 black and Latino boys before her wouldn't end up on the wrong side of the statistics. The numbers say the youngsters she was addressing as they sat at tables at Lincoln University have a disproportionate chance of developing hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes.Johnson started with a candy bar. "Twenty-two grams of sugar," she said, displaying a test tube brimming with the sweetener.

It was day four of the Project A.H.E.A.D. summer camp, and the lesson was cutting back on fat content and added sugar. The camp, for boys ages 9 to 16, is a two-week nutrition and fitness program aimed at combating gender and ethnicity-based health disparities.