Child Obesity Takes Center Stage

With Child Obesity in the national spotlight, this is an ideal opportunity to talk about some of the issues concerning it. 

It’s not baby fat, it’s obesity

According to an article published in the February, 2010 journal Clinical Pediatrics, research suggests that the "tipping point" in obesity often occurs before two years of age, and sometimes as early as three months, when the child is learning how much and what to eat.  The Clinical Pediatrics study suggests obesity prevention efforts should begin before age two, when children reach a "tipping point" in a progression that leads to obesity later in life.  This study indicates that we may need to discuss inappropriate weight gain early in infancy to affect meaningful changes in the current trend of obesity.

What could possibly be causing obesity in infants?  Could it be that they are being fed more calories than they need?  Food is given to crying babies to comfort and quiet them. For instance, if a baby is crying, a new mother’s instinct is to give her baby a bottle thinking it is hungry when perhaps it isn’t. 

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar

Perhaps baby food has evolved over the years becoming more and more processed containing corn syrup and more sugar?  No doubt more and more children are exposed to processed foods, snacks, fast foods and ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup over the past 10-20 years.  Do parents even bother to look at the fine print of ingredients in a product they are feeding their children?

NOW is the time to act

I’m not going to regurgitate all the child obesity statistics.  This is an issue about health. We know that today’s children are overweight, and that they are dealing with diseases that were once known as “adult diseases”. 

It is up to as a parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to take action now.  Children eat what we feed them and it’s up to us to stop feeding them fast food, sugary snacks and junk food. Get active with children.  Take them to the park to the playground, or go skating with them, play tennis, etc.  The list of activities you can you can DO with children are endless.

The Let’s Move Campaign

This past week, First Lady, Michelle Obama, launched her Let’s Move Campaign to help solve the child obesity epidemic.   This is certainly a step in the right direction to stop talking about the issue, but to take action and do something to help solve the problem. As a Fitness Professional/Natural Health Advocate, I applaud Michelle Obama for helping to bring SOLUTIONS to Child Obesity.

The Let's Move campaign has 4 Pillars.

1st Pillar-Helping parents make healthy family choices.  Parents need the tools to make it easier to understand how to help their kids stay healthy. Many parents know certain foods are bad for their kids, but don't know the solutions.

Children learn from the choices they see adults make.  If children see parents enjoying nutritious foods and physical activity, they’re more likely to do the same.   With greater understanding and opportunities for good nutrition and physical activity, parents can take simple steps so busy families can live healthier lives.

• Empowering Consumers - By the end of the year, the Food and Drug Administration will begin working with retailers and manufacturers to adopt new nutritionally sound and consumer friendly front-of-package labeling to provide 65 million parents in America and other caregivers with easy access to the information they need to make healthy choices for their children.

2^nd Pillar – Healthier Schools - Many children consume at least half of their daily calories at school. As families work to ensure our kids eat right and have active play at home, we also need to ensure our kids have access to healthy meals in their schools. With more than 31 million children participating in the National School Lunch Program and more than 11 million participating in the National School Breakfast Program, good nutrition at school is more important than ever. Let’s move to get healthier food in our nation’s schools.

·            Healthier US Schools Challenge Program establishes rigorous standards for schools’ food quality, participation in meal programs, physical activity, and nutrition education – the key components that make for healthy and active kids – and provides recognition for schools that meet these standards.

3^rd Pillar – Physical Activity - Children need 60 minutes of active and vigorous play every day to grow up to a healthy weight.(source) If this sounds like a lot, consider that 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 ½ hours to using entertainment media including TV, computers, video games, cell phones and movies  in a typical day, and only a third of high school students get the recommended levels of physical activity. 

4^th Pillar - Accessing Healthy & Affordable Food - More than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods that are more than a mile from a supermarket. These communities, where access to affordable, quality, and nutritious foods is limited, are known as food deserts.  Lack of access to proper nutrition is one reason why many children are not eating the recommended levels of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Another issue is that healthier food choices are more expensive than unhealthy, cheap, processed junk foods.  As part of the President’s proposed FY 2011 budget, the Administration announced a new program – the Healthy Food Financing Initiative -- a partnership between the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services which will invest $400 million a year to provide innovative financing to bring grocery stores to underserved areas and help places such as convenience stores and bodegas carry healthier food options.  Grants will also help bring farmers markets and fresh foods into underserved communities, boosting both family health and local economies.  Through these initiatives and private sector engagement, the Administration will work to eliminate food deserts across the country within seven years.

If you are a parent, doctor, fitness professional, health advocate, check out the Let's Move website http://www.letsmove.gov/index.html and let’s do our part to ACT NOW and help make a difference to improve the health of our children.  This affects not only our children’s future, but our future and the future of our country.  

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211121832.htm

http://www.letsmove.gov

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/09/obama.child.obesity/index.html