A Matter of Denial : Children Cut Junk Food, TV--and Cholesterol

Samantha Ter Kasarian still remembers the alarm in her mother’s face in May when her pediatrician said her blood cholesterol level was 205 milligrams, well above the recommended maximum of 175 for children.

“My mom was, like, worried,” said the 9-year-old Huntington Beach girl, who had tested high twice before and was supposed to be watching her diet. “My mom didn’t have any faith that it was the food. She thought it was hereditary.”

Dr. Paul Y. Qaqundah had previously given stern warnings to Samantha’s mother to put her too-heavy daughter on a diet. But in May, he also recommended a drastic reduction in Samantha’s average television viewing of three to four hours a day.

He told Pamela Ter Kasarian that a UC Irvine survey of Samantha and more than 1,000 other youngsters revealed excessive TV viewing as a common thread in those with high blood cholesterol and recommended that the youngster’s access to TV be sharply limited.

Doctors now say that 53% of the 88 children surveyed with cholesterol levels above the danger level of 200 milligrams watched TV two hours or more a day. Researchers concluded that such viewing is a red flag for unhealthy dietary habits, between-meal snacking and a serious lack of exercise.

Today, Samantha is a member of a Weight Watchers group for children, has shed 6 pounds and plays on a her parochial school’s winning soccer team. She watches barely two to three hours of TV a week. And her self-image is much improved, her parents say.

But the best news of all came Nov. 6, when the Huntington Beach pediatrician told her that her blood test came back with a cholesterol level of 162 milligrams.

“I told myself, ‘I did it, I really did it!’ ” Samantha said Tuesday as word hit the news about the UCI study and the link between high cholesterol and TV viewing habits.

Another of Qaqundah’s “success stories” is Annie Ferris, 6, the youngest daughter of a nutrition-conscious Westminster family.

Annie was just growing out of her baby fat when her blood cholesterol tested at 216 milligrams in May, 1989. In a later test, it hit 230, her mother, Wileen Ferris recalled Tuesday.

“How could this be?” thought the mother, who had raised her three daughters on nonfat milk and sensible food.

But just like Samantha’s mother, Wileen Ferris began thinking as she answered the UCI survey questions on exercise, diet and TV viewing habits. Annie was spending three to four hours a day in front of the tube.

“I didn’t realize how many hours she really was watching TV,” Ferris said. “She was watching ‘Sesame Street’ and ‘Mr. Rogers’--the good programs. I never thought about it as a problem. I thought it was great because she’s learning. . . . But I realized that she did sit around and snack--probably on the wrong foods.”

Like the rest of the Ter Kasarian family, the other Ferrises did not have high cholesterol levels. Nor was there a strong family history of it.

And while the Ter Kasarians have changed dietary habits to emphasize lean meat, poultry, low-cholesterol foods and little or no desserts or junk food, Wileen Ferris’ family already had the reputation among relatives of being the health food fanatics.

Then she began to notice that Annie, her pickiest eater, preferred high-cholesterol cheeses and lots of butter and seldom engaged in physical activity. Ferris also realized that she had been treating her youngest to frequent meals at McDonald’s outlets.

The fast-food days are pretty much a thing of the past now for the Ferris family. Mom now encourages Annie--a quiet child who prefers coloring or card games such as Old Maid to rough-and-tumble activities--to roller-skate and play outside with a new neighbor girl. The towhead’s first-grade sack lunches now include snacks of low-calorie string cheese and fruit.

As for TV, the family limits its viewing to Friday evenings and weekends.

Annie isn’t out of the woods yet, Qaqundah said. She tested at 185 milligrams of blood cholesterol on Oct. 23. (The danger level for adults is 240 milligrams, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends dietary counseling for children with cholesterol levels of 175 or more.)

Ferris is confident that the family’s low-fat diet, combined with less TV and greater physical activity now that Annie is in school, will eventually bring her daughter’s cholesterol down to normal.

Qaqundah is proud of both girls. And while he is adamant that parents should limit TV viewing, he is careful to advise parents to consult a physician or dietitian before putting a child with high cholesterol levels on a diet.

“I don’t want people to panic . . . and starve their children,” he said. “Some cholesterol is necessary for young children.”