Over 40 entries were submitted, but just a few made the cut as finalists for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s “Make the Play for Healthy Habits” video contest. In January, the Blues asked fourth to eighth graders in Michigan for ways to help make Michigan healthier, and below are the five statewide finalists.

The winner will be decided by public votes on aHealthierMichigan.org/kidcontest where the videos are posted. Voting opens at noon on April 13 [Today!] and runs through April 25, 2012, at 12 a.m. EST with the winner announced on May 7.

The finalists are:

Kailey Head, a fourth grader from North Elementary in Newport

Jalen Johnson a fifth grader from Forest Elementary School in Farmington Hills

Kate LaLone, an eighth grader from Cherryland Middle School in Elk Rapids

Marissa Orzame , a sixth grader from Boulan Park Middle School in Troy

Hailey Samples, a fifth grader from Warner Upper Elementary in Farmington Hills

The winning student will go on to star as a guest video blogger on aHealthierMichigan.org, and his or her school will receive a school assembly with Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions quarterback. The program was inspired by 10-year-old Marshall Reid from North Carolina, who documented his fight against childhood obesity through “Portion Size Me” videos.    

Video submissions answered the question:

“What would you do to make Michigan healthier?”

Check out Kate’s video below to find out how she answered the contest question above. Kate is available for interviews, and don’t forget to vote for her HERE.

As America struggles over whether or not the current healthcare mandate is proper, there are some lessons in American history that are instructive. Seems that our Founding Fathers, whose views are often invoked to justify current arguments, were no strangers to mandates, to wit:

The founding fathers, it turns out, passed several mandates of their own. In 1790, the very first Congress—which incidentally included 20 framers—passed a law that included a mandate: namely, a requirement that ship owners buy medical insurance for their seamen. This law was then signed by another framer: President George Washington. That’s right, the father of our country had no difficulty imposing a health insurance mandate.

That’s not all. In 1792, a Congress with 17 framers passed another statute that required all able-bodied men to buy firearms. Yes, we used to have not only a right to bear arms, but a federal duty to buy them. Four framers voted against this bill, but the others did not, and it was also signed by Washington. Some tried to repeal this gun purchase mandate on the grounds it was too onerous, but only one framer voted to repeal it.

Six years later, in 1798, Congress addressed the problem that the employer mandate to buy medical insurance for seamen covered drugs and physician services but not hospital stays. And you know what this Congress, with five framers serving in it, did? It enacted a federal law requiring the seamen to buy hospital insurance for themselves. That’s right, Congress enacted an individual mandate requiring the purchase of health insurance. And this act was signed by another framer, President John Adams.        Einer Elhauge in The New Republic

For original source information about seafaring, see The Seaman’s Contract 1790-1918. (Amazing what you can find on the Internet!)

So please use historical arguments with caution, especially ones about the Founding Fathers. It often turns out that history is more complicated than currently portrayed, especially when the arguments put forth are blatantly self-serving. It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court includes The Seaman’s Contract in its upcoming judgment on the healthcare mandate, or  references to mandates in general, such as the obligation to bear arms invoked in 1792.

It’s often more productive to argue the relative merits of a present-day law than it is to try to invoke the beliefs and actions of the Founding Fathers.

Although it’s difficult to argue that diet soda (pop) is good for you, new research points to lifestyle issues more than diet drinks as problems for health.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill found that diet soda drinkers who ate a so-called “prudent” diet, rich in fruit, fish, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and milk, were significantly less likely to develop metabolic syndrome over 20 years than those who ate a “Western diet” heavy in fried foods, meats and sugars.

Metabolic syndrome is a condition characterized by excess abdominal fat, elevated blood sugar, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol. About 32 percent of the participants in the “Western diet” cluster developed the condition.   NPR

This year, families with teens are expected to spend an average of $1,078 on prom, up from $807 last year, according to data from a survey released today by Visa that includes results based on a thousand telephone interviews conducted at the end of last month.  USA Today

Now that’s a lot of money to spend on a dance, even such a signature event.