Conquering Childhood Obesity in the U.S. 05-31-2010
According
to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of U.S. adults and 15% of U.S. children
are overweight or obese, which places them at risk for developing heart
disease, diabetes, and cancer.[Note: The percentage of overweight and obese children may be higher,
with other sources saying 20-30%.] A few months ago, President Obama addressed
the U.S.
regarding the obesity problem of American children. He sought to gain support
from both the private and public sectors. With the responses of 2,500 parents,
doctors, teachers, and other concerned citizens, a report was produced that
offers over 70 recommendations to reduce the levels of childhood obesity within
a generation. The goal is to decrease the current childhood obesity rate from
its current 20% to 5% by 2030.
The
document focuses on five areas. The first is getting a healthy start to life
including prenatal care and breastfeeding. Empowering parents and caregivers through
educational information is the second area. Providing healthy foods and
nutrition education at schools is also an area of focus. Assuring that there is
increased availability of healthy, affordable food is the fourth area. The
fifth area is to make sure that children are living active lives through school
exercise programs and implementing activity opportunities within communities,
such as creating bike paths so that children can walk or bike to school.
The White
House Task Force on Childhood Obesity is guiding this initiative through
working to increase the amounts of fruits and vegetables while decreasing
amount of sugar intake, both at home and at school. They also have plans to
have primary caregivers assess body mass index (BMI) during children's visits
to the doctor. Another initiative is keeping track of how far residents live
from a grocery store to remove "food deserts" so that communities
will have access to healthy food.
Most of
what the task force has currently proposed is considered "soft regulation."They are encouraging private and public
sectors to participate, such as asking entertainment companies to license
popular characters to nutritious food and drink advertising only.
Complementary
and alternative medicine practitioners, botanical and supplement companies and
organizations, and health food companies have a wonderful opportunity to
participate in this initiative. While much of the focus has been on botanicals'
abilities to decrease obesity and its subsequent ailments (See the FasTrak HC
051031-401 which covers green tea's benefits of reducing obesity and diabetes),
providing proven ways to maintain a healthy lifestyle and weight can also be a
core message.