Hamden boy stars in YouTube music video on nutrition

HAMDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A music video on nutrition is getting a lot of hits on YouTube. It's all about getting kids to "unjunk" themselves, health wise.

The YouTube video gets you moving and singing along.
 
"Everywhere I go, everyone I see, I check out what people eat.  What they're stuffing in their face, candy, muffins and cake and they call the meal complete with deep-fried, modified, hydrogenized. This might be a surprise that exercise is legalized, so come on get up and unjunk yourself."

Unjunk yourself of processed food and choose wisely when it comes to what you chew is a video produced for tweens and young teens.   

It stars 12-year-old Gabe Katz.

"Healthy people have more fun, and if they were healthy and fit they would be able to enjoy playing basketball today on this beautiful day or running around. I just want them to get into the action cause you want to enjoy life."

Gabe and his dad, Dr. David Katz, the Director of Yale Prevention Research Center,  worked closely on this project for their non-profit foundation, Turn the Tide .

Dr. Katz said, "what we've found is that it's pretty easy to develop good programming for adults, pretty easy to develop good programming for young kids, really tough to reach the in-between group."

The music video is a way to empower that age group and help stop the widespread epidemic of childhood obesity.

Gabe raps and hip hops, "if it can live in a bag for a million years, I'd check it out.  If the ingredients are impossible to pronounce I'd check it out."

He explained, "if you can not pronounce an ingredient, it's probably not the best thing for you like hypoglycerin acid.  Do you really want that in your body?

They're counting on kids to stir things up.   

Dr. Katz pointed out, "they helped us to quit smoking, they helped us put on seatbelts, they helped us to change the batteries in the smoke detectors, you can really get kids riled up about important messages related to health, related to environment."

The Katz family walk the walk when it comes to eating healthy. Now they want others to do what they can to follow the video and, "unjunk yourself. Choose what you chew.  Unjunk yourself."
      
The background singers and dancers are Gabe's two older sisters. The music video is a collaboration with Kellee McQuinn: founder of Kid Tribe .  

Expect to see more in the months to come.