May
19
2010
First Lady Michelle Obama, in a press conference with members of the Food and Beverage Industry, announced that the Partnership for a Healthier America has signed an agreement with The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation (HWCF) whose members are pledging to take actions aimed at reducing 1.5 trillion product calories by the end of 2015. As an interim step to this goal, HWCF will seek to reduce calories by 1 trillion in 2012.
“Solving the obesity epidemic requires far more than anything government can do alone and today’s announcement represents an important step forward to providing Americans with healthier choices so that they can choose to lead healthier lives,” said Mrs. Obama, who also serves as honorary chair of the Partnership. “This is precisely the kind of private sector commitment we need. I want to thank the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation for stepping up to the plate and I hope this encourages others to do the same.”
“On behalf of the Partnership, I am pleased to acknowledge this major first step by the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation. Pledges like this one – with targeted and achievable results that are meaningful and measurable – will help us reach our goal of curbing childhood obesity within a generation,” said Dr. James R. Gavin III, chairman of the Partnership’s board of directors.
So how will these companies do it? Here is their plan:
growing and introducing lower-calorie options
changing ...
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May
17
2010
The White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity issued a report to the President on childhood obesity on May 13th, 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 ...
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Apr
18
2010
Well, I am back my friends-after a brief but needed vacation. Actually I didn’t go anywhere. I just stayed home and paid bills, read mail, cleaned and organized my desk, went grocery shopping several times, caught up on my TIVO. You know, sometimes you just don’t have to go anywhere. It’s certainly cheaper. Anyway, I was having dinner with some friends and of course the topic of nutrition comes up. They all know what I do, so inevitably someone will start the conversation off about cholesterol, fats in the foods and childhood obesity. This time was bit different. After discussing the idea of where to begin nutrition and fitness education and deciding it was in preschool, we covered the BMI report card, the “Let’s Move” program by First Lady Michelle Obama, Jaime Oliver’s new show on ABC: “Food Revolution,” and ended with the buy an extra seat on the airlines for the obese traveler. But it didn’t end there. This discussion was more heated. Most of my friends have kids, and most of their kids are in the “okay” weight range-meaning that they are in the middle of the BMI range. Some of the kids are overweight and some are thin. And then it happened: one of my friends said that we will not get anywhere with the obesity problem unless there is government intervention. Everyone took a deep breath ...
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Mar
10
2010
Okay, stay with me on this one. School budgets are being cut. The economy stinks-let’s face it. Recovery? Where Mr. President? Maybe on Wall Street-yep the stock market seems to have rebounded. Banks are paying back our stimulus money. Great! Wall Street executives are getting fat bonuses, again. Also great! General Motors is re-upping about 600 dealers. Life is super great! What! Give me a break. Housing foreclosures are still among the highest levels in years. More single family homes and apartments are for sale. Prices are dropping. More people are giving up their homes, cars and possessions. The jobs wanted market is flooded with people looking. And now the latest misery, School Boards across the country, stretched to the max with money problems are cutting PE (Physical Education), Music and Art classes. Who needs more artists and musicians anyway? Culture-blah humbug-don’t need it. And as for PE-well that’s a no brainer-let’s have our kids keep eating and eating, consuming more and more calories and not burning anything off. What does that equal? Say it with me-More Obesity in our children! Now wait a minute! You read in The Nerdel News that First Lady Michelle Obama is targeting Childhood Obesity with her “Let’s Move” campaign. It’s a fantastic effort-getting our kids to move and exercise. And we already know that our kids are not physically active enough. But-Ahm-hello-now the ...
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Feb
19
2010
I guess by now, everyone, everywhere has heard that President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle have placed childhood obesity on the top of their “to get rid of” list. I think its actually ahead of some Republican pundits. Yes, childhood obesity has finally made it to the front page headlines. All of us in the press and academic fields have known for quite a while that our children have been gaining weight at an alarming rate. The President informed us that over 30 percent of our children are either overweight and or obese. We also have known that our children are not exercising as much. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is an imbalance-more calories going in and less calories being burned up. Result: a positive weight gain. Okay-that’s means overweight. But the one item that still needs clarification is: how do I know if my child is overweight or obese? I need to know that definition. So here is a sampling of what I could find out:
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)
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 ...
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