Graehm Gray: The White House Weighs In On Childhood Obesity

May 17 2010

Graehm Gray: The White House Weighs In On Childhood Obesity

The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity issued a report to the President on childhood obesity on May 13^th, 2010 entitled: Solving The Problem Of Childhood Obesity Within A Generation. It is a summary of recommendations on how to approach the epidemic and focuses on four “priority” areas: 1. Empowering parents and caregivers; 2. Providing healthy foods in schools; 3. Improving access to healthy, affordable foods; and 4. Increasing physical activity. The goal for the Task Force is “returning to a childhood obesity rate of just 5% by 2030.” Can this be achieved? I am not so certain. Of course additional indicators such as measuring the number of children eating a healthy diet, making sure that children eat less sugar in their diet, increasing fruits and vegetables and increasing physical activity will be extremely important for the success of this plan.

The report indicates that: A. one in every three children (31.7%) ages 2-19 is overweight or obese, B. that obesity is estimated to cause 112,000 deaths per year in the United States, C. one third of all children born in the year 2000 are expected to develop diabetes and D. even more starling that the current generation may be on track to have a shorter lifespan than their parents.

Additional points from the report are the following:

Each year obese adults incur an estimated $1429 more in medical expenses than their normal weight peers
Overall medical spending on adults that was attributed to obesity topped approximately $40 billion in 1998 and by 2009 increased to an estimated $147 billion.
More than one quarter of all Americans ages 17-24 are unqualified for military service because they are too heavy
Between the survey periods 1976-80 and 2007-08, obesity has more than doubled among adults (rising from 15% to 34%), and more than tripled among children and adolescents (rising from 5% to 17%).
Obesity rates are highest among non-Hispanic black girls and Hispanic boys
The Prevalence of obesity has been found to be highest in southeast states like Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Oklahoma. It is lowest in Colorado.
Obese 6-8 year-olds were approximately ten times more likely to become obese adults than those with lower BMIs.
Obese children are more likely to develop diabetes, heart disease and asthma
Obese children reported a lower health-related quality of life ( a measure of their physical, emotional, educational and social well being).
Obesity during childhood is associated with some psychiatric disorders, including depression and binge-eating.

The main recommendations of the report are as follows:

Getting children a healthy start on life, with good prenatal care for their parents; support for breastfeeding; adherence to limits on “screen time”; and quality child care settings with nutritious food and ample opportunity for young children to be physically active.

Empowering parents and caregivers with simpler, more actionable messages about nutritional choices based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans; improved labels on food and menus that provide clear information to help make healthy choices for children; reduced marketing of unhealthy products to children; and improved health care services, including BMI measurement for all children.

Providing healthy food in schools, through improvements in federally-supported school lunches and breakfasts; upgrading the nutritional quality of other foods sold in schools; and improving nutrition education and the overall school environment.

Improving access to healthy, affordable food, by eliminating “food deserts” in urban and rural America; lowering the relative prices of healthier foods; developing or reformulating food products to be healthier; and reducing the incidence of hunger, which has been linked to obesity.

Getting children more physically active, through quality physical education, recess, and other opportunities in and after school; addressing aspects of the “built environment” that make it difficult for children to walk or bike safely in their communities; and improving access to safe parks, playgrounds, and indoor and outdoor recreational facilities.

This report is certainly a good start at helping us focus on the problems and provides a basis for potential solutions. There are no described penalties for not following these guidelines yet. Although there are implicit warnings. We, as parents, as educators, as members of the corporate sector, and just plain citizens of the planet, should become familiar with the problems and solutions. That way we can all work together. Can we do this without the imposition of laws and restrictions on our freedom? Only time will tell. By looking at the rates of obesity, we have not been able to help ourselves so far.

Please review the report in detail at: http://www.letsmove.gov/tfco_fullreport_may2010.pdf.

Let me know your thoughts at talk@nerdel.com.