April 15 - Cookie Monster, one of the most recognizable figures in the pantheon of public television characters, is turning over a new leaf as the venerable television show Sesame Street enters its 36th year.

The season will introduce a new curriculum designed to build a foundation of lifelong healthy habits. Cookie Monster and other characters on the show hope to guide preschoolers toward choosing healthy foods, playing actively, and making other healthy decisions. This season will find Cookie Monster singing 'A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food,' where Hoots the Owl explains that while cookies are 'sometimes' foods, fruits are 'anytime' foods. Other new songs, street scenes, segments, and animations also will illustrate healthy directions. Joe Torre, Dominique Dawes, Buzz Aldrin, and others will make appearances to discuss the value of healthy living. The effort is part of a larger Sesame Workshop initiative "Healthy Habits for Life," created in response to rising obesity in children and youth.

  A recent Institute of Medicine report, Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, examines the increasing prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States. Over the past three decades, its rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2 to 5 years and adolescents aged 12 to 19 and more than tripled for children aged 6 to 11.

• Project Web Site: Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity
• Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance (2005)
• Listen to the Briefing (requires free RealPlayer)

• Sesame Street Healthy Habits for Life
• Sesame Street, Brought to You by the Letter 'H'