1. The lower house of the Mexican Congress passed a law against childhood obesity. This law will try to limit the selling of junk food in primary and secondary schools and also require daily half hour exercise periods.
2. The new law will also try to stop children from eating and drinking foods with high fat, high sugar and preservatives and to encourage shops near schools to sell fruit and “healthy juice.”
3. According to Mexican data, almost 52 percent of the 5 to 11 year olds in Mexico are either obese or overweight and that Mexico has one of the worst childhood obesity problems in Latin America. 

We don’t have to go outside our country to see similar efforts by our own state legislators.

1. California:  legislators passed laws banning the sale of machine-dispensed snacks and drinks in elementary schools in 2003. In 2009 they passed a law to prohibit the sale of sodas in high schools.
2. Connecticut: Governor M. Jodo Rell  vetoed a bill, passed by Connecticut legislators, that would have restricted  the sale of some snack foods and beverages in all public schools and require a minimum of 100 minutes a week of recess for younger students.
3. New York: several bills are being proposed that would levy taxes on “fatty foods,” movie tickets, video games and DVD rentals! Mayor Bloomberg of New York City  proposed his National Salt Reduction Initiative meant to set guidelines to cut the amount of salt in processed and restaurant foods by 20% in the next five years.
4. 17 States that enacted school nutrition legislation in 2005: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia
5. Nebraska and Texas considered taxing foods and beverages with minimal nutritional value.
6. In 2005 21 states enacted legislation requiring physical education and physical activity in schools:  Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia
7. In 2003 Arkansas became the first state to enact BMI legislation. As of 2008-Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia.
8. California: enacted legislation in 2003 that requires non-invasive screening of 7^th grade (female) and 8^th grade (male) students for type 2 diabetes risk including measurement of body mass index as one of four diabetes risk factors.
9. Maine: a law enacted in April 2008 that imposed a tax on syrup used to make soda in restaurants, bottled soft drinks, beer and wine, and on claims paid by insurance companies, and directed the tax revenues to pay for the Dirigo Health Choices program, a government-sponsored health insurance program, was overturned by Maine voters in a November referendum

Well my friends, there you have it-this is part two of a continuing discussion about  the current governmental penalties for nutrition and fitness and the potential for many more to come. So I raise the question again, can we govern ourselves? Do we have self discipline? Can we decrease the portion sizes and calories we consume? The answer my friends is that we will inevitably see more governmental policies, laws and requirements regarding the nutrition and fitness of our children and ourselves. Obesity and overweight categories of our population are at epidemic proportions. Shouldn’t the health of its citizens be of prime importance to our representatives?  Send me your comments here at talk@nerdel.com. This story will continue!

My friends, stay fit and healthy The New Nerdel Way!

For more information on state laws enacted and proposed please visit: The National Conference of State Legislatures

Overweight vs. Obese: (CDC) These are terms used to classify kids and adults and based on Body Mass Index (BMI-height and weight). BMI for kids and teens takes into account growth changes, differences in body fat between boys and girls. BMI calculator for Child and Teen. So go to your pediatrician’s (or primary healthy provider) office and get your child’s BMI measured. The BMI number will be plotted in a CDC BMI-for-age growth chart. You will find out whether he or she is in the A. Underweight category: less than the 5^th percentile, B. Healthy weight category: 5^th percentile to less than the 85^th percentile, C. Overweight Category: 85^th percentile to less than 95^th percentile and D. Obese: Equal to or greater than the 95^th percentile. This simple office visit will tell you all about where your child is relative to other children of the same age and sex. It will allow you to focus on how best you can help your child. Some school systems in the country, like in Arkansas, measure the BMI’s of their students and routinely send out a “BMI Report Card” to the parents. For most parents who actually look at the report, it is an eye opener. “How can that be,” we ask, “my child is not overweight and is definitely not obese.” But my friends, the harsh reality is that those of us that have heavier children underestimate our own child’s weight more often.

Calorie: is a unit of energy supplied by food. Proteins (soy, chicken, meat, fish), fats (butter, lard, olive oil, vegetable oil), and carbohydrates (sugars, glucose, starch, bread, pasta, rice) all have calories. It is the balance of calories that affects your body weight. To maintain your weight, you will eat about the same amount of calories as you are using/burning up-in your routine daily activities. To gain weight, you will eat more calories that your body is using, and to lose weight, you will either eat less calories than your body is using or you will burn up more calories in your daily activities (e.g. more exercise) with the same calorie intake.

How many calories equals one pound of fat: 3500. 

It all comes down to balance. When energy in the form of calories or food enters the body, through normal body mechanisms and exercise or play, that energy is burned off. What is not burned off remains and is turned into fat. To maintain a weight, the balance of energy coming in and energy used is achieved.  With more calories taken in than is used, there is a positive balance resulting in a weight gain. With less calories coming in than is used, there is a negative balance and a weight loss.

Portion Size: that amount of food that is consumed. Okay-now we have a problem. What exactly is a portion size? Is it the size of my fist? The size of the plate? We have grown accustomed to larger and larger portion sizes. In Europe, the portion sizes have been small. In Spain, with a meal called Tapas, the portions are small-called finger foods (appetizers). But here in the United States, we do things big! “Livin Large” is what we call it. And it’s true to the meaning. We are a large people and getting larger. Our portion sizes are huge. And we are exercising less. What does that mean-it means we are expanding our waist sizes at alarming rates.

How Many Calories Should My Child Eat? Look at the following table supplied by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) My Pyramid program: 

Find The Right Calorie Level For Your Child

Portion sizes need to be controlled, but are we ready for that? Are we ready for the Portion Police or Exercise Police? Could happen! Stay tuned for part three.

1. Merriam-Webster-doesn’t have a definition of childhood obesity. Their definition of obesity is: a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation of fat in the body (Merriam-Webster)
2. Medilexicon.com-Ideal Body Weight: a weight that is believed to be maximally healthful for a person, based chiefly on height but modified by factors such as gender, age, build, and degree of muscular development.(Medilexicon.com)

1. Healthline.com-An overweight child is one that has a BMI greater than 95 percent of children their age and gender. Healthline.com
2. Wikipedia- Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child’s health or wellbeing. Wikipedia
3. National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI): Body mass index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women BMI= Mass (kg)/ (height (m)) 2.  (NHLBI) BMI Categories:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5-24.9
• Overweight = 25-29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

1. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

Body Mass Index (BMI) is used as a screening tool to identify possible weight problems for children and risk of weight-related health problems. BMI measures excess body weight for a particular height. CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend the use of BMI to screen for overweight and obesity in children beginning at 2 years old. For children, BMI is used to screen for obesity, overweight, healthy weight, or underweight. BMI is NOT a direct measure of body fat but has been shown to correlate with body-fat. For example, a child may have a high BMI for age and sex, but to determine if excess fat is a problem, a health care provider would need to perform further assessments. These assessments might include skin fold thickness measurements, evaluations of diet, physical activity, family history, and other appropriate health screenings.

Obesity defined: Obesity is the result of caloric imbalance (too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed) and is mediated by genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors and can lead to health risks as elevated cholesterol, triglycerides and insulin levels, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, orthopedic complications and mental health problems.

How Do You Determine A Child’s Weight Status: (Body Mass Index Measurement in Schools, Journal of School Health d December 2007, Vol. 77, No. 10 d ª 2007, American School Health Association) Weight Status in a child and adolescent is determined by comparing their BMI to other youth of the same sex and age in a reference population. Childhood growth changes are taken into account. Once the BMI is calculated for a child, it is plotted by age on a sex-specific growth chart and converted to percentiles. A child’s BMI-for age is then identified.  (For example a 10 year old boy at the 95^th percentile has a higher BMI than 95 out of every 100 10 year old boys in the reference population).

BMI-for-age weight status categories and the corresponding percentiles are shown in the following table.

Obesity consequences: Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem. Obese youth are more likely than youth of normal weight to become overweight or obese adults, and therefore more at risk for associated adult health problems, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.

So there you have it. This is part one of my search for the explanation of what childhood obesity is, how it is defined, what makes a child overweight and what makes him or her obese. Which populations are more at risk, causes and solutions in my next installment.

If we can all agree on what the definition of childhood obesity is, we can look at our own children and see if they have a high BMI and or are they at risk. It is always up to us, as parents to look out for our children. It is our responsibility. Let’s not place the entire blame on the schools, the teachers, the fast food restaurants, the food companies or our government. We need all of them to help us help our kids. It needs to be a group effort. So to paraphrase the words of our First Lady, Michelle Obama, “let’s move!”