Childhood obesity campaign has momentum, let's localize it for healthy kids here

2/18/2010 - staff

Since Michelle Obama launched the “Let’s Move” initiative last week, which targets the “national epidemic” of childhood obesity, supporters of the campaign have begun to ooze out of the cracks like cherry filling from a just-out-of-the-oven pie. Everyone from Disney, Wal-Mart, Burger King, Dr. Pepper and PepsiCo, to major school lunch suppliers have been quick to issue press releases outlining details of initiatives their organizations will be taking to quell childhood obesity. The American Beverage Association, for example, has pledged “to begin putting a clear, uniform, front-of-pack, calorie label on all of their cans, bottles, vending and fountain machines within two years.” While larger nutritional labels may very well be a PR muscle-flex, consider these ghastly little figures taken from the White House’s “Let’s Move” website and realize any effort is welcome: “Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. One third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives; many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma. A recent study put the health care costs of obesity-related diseases at $147 billion per year. This epidemic also impacts the nation’s security, as obesity is now one of the most common disqualifiers for military service.” The First Lady has vowed to, “mobilize public and private sector resources.” She says, “Let’s Move will engage every sector impacting the health of children to achieve the national goal, and will provide schools, families and communities simple tools to help kids be more active, eat better, and get healthy.” Here is an outline of Mrs. Obama’s four-tiered initiative. The program aims to: 1. Help parents make healthy choices through more visible nutritional labeling, closely monitor children’s Body Mass Index at the doctor, update the food pyramid on MyPyramid.gov, vamp up public service announcements, and develop an online Food Environment Atlas that maps geographical areas by their food availability and affordability. 2. Encourage healthier food at schools by investing a historic $10 billion over 10 years to improve the National School and Breakfast program, increase the number of schools participating in the Healthier US School Challenge and increase nutrition education and awareness to students. 3. Increase access to healthy, affordable food in “food deserts,” or low-income urban and rural neighborhoods more than a mile from a supermarket with produce. The campaign will invest $400 million a year to bring grocery stores to these areas. An additional $5 million is proposed to encourage the Farmers Market Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 4. Increase physical activity by reducing T.V. time from children’s average 7.5 hours a day and expand the President’s Physical Fitness Challenge. As a community with its share of weight issues, Pickens residents should tap into their individual talents and professional fields and think about creative ways we can encourage healthy living among our children and among ourselves. Perhaps Pickens schools could participate in the Healthier US School Challenge, or classes could take trips to family farms for a day of picking, cleaning and preparing their own food. Groups or individuals could sponsor low-income children for a season of rec league soccer or baseball. Families could vow to cut out fast food or soda for a month or two months at a time. Doctors could organize children’s health events in the county. Aligning yourself with such a commendable and important effort is a no-brainer. And on a local level, we can be infinitely more effective at fighting fat than making nutritional information bigger on soda cans.