Report: Obesity Fight Depends on Location

Lack of Grocery Stores, Bike Paths Can Lead to Spike in Overweight Children, Research Suggests

(AP)  Where you live matters when it comes to children's waistlines, says a report that finds lots of options localities could and should use to fight child obesity - from easy bike paths, to luring healthier stores, to taxes on junk food.

Yes, whether you snack on a carrot or a doughnut is a personal choice, ultimately. But the report by the Institute of Medicine says local environments hugely influence those choices - and it calls on city and county governments to make it easier for families to make healthier decisions.

"In some communities, actually doing the healthy thing is not as easy as it might be in other places," said Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, chief medical officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, who chaired the institute's report.

"Single actions can make a difference, and one at a time can start you in the right direction," he added.

Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese, and childhood obesity has tripled in the past three decades. Nearly 18 percent of adolescents now are obese, and doctors worry that we're raising generations who no longer may outlive their parents.

Preventing obesity boils down to being more active and eating more fruits and vegetables instead of fatty fast food and treats. But Tuesday's report was sparked because a local government official asked an institute scientist what practical steps communities can take to do that. How do you get grocery stores that carry healthy produce to build in inner cities, for example? What will make restaurants offer healthier fare?

The report offers a menu of suggestions and highlights how some communities are making them work. Among them:

-Require chain restaurants to post calorie counts. New York City is among a handful of cities that have begun this, and a city survey found more than a third of fast-food customers said the calorie information affected what they ordered.

-Use tax credits and other incentives to attract supermarkets to underserved neighborhoods; offer grants to small stores to help them stock healthier items, and create community shuttle services or special bus routes to help residents reach supermarkets.

In New Orleans, where inner city access to grocery stores was limited even before Hurricane Katrina, the police department is being tapped for store security as city leaders plan how to get more healthy-food sellers back into business.

-Use zoning laws to restrict fast-food restaurants, junk-food carts and even billboards advertising unhealthy fare near schools and playgrounds.

-Consider a junk-food tax. The report says there's limited evidence about the impact of such a tax, but Sanchez notes that taxes have helped discourage another unhealthy habit, tobacco.

-Require that publicly run after-school and child-care programs limit video game and TV time, and offer healthy foods and beverages.

-Build and maintain sidewalks, bike paths, playgrounds and parks to allow safe and comfortable outdoor activity. Use community policing to improve security in high-crime areas so that families will get outdoors, and work with education departments to create programs that allow children to walk or bike to school safely.

In a suburb of Boston, a "Shape Up Somerville" program slowed weight gain among first- to third-graders, starting with better school food and a push for safe walking and biking paths to schools. And rural Shelby, Mont., built a fitness center and persuaded major employers to subsidize their workers' memberships, in addition to walking trails.

-Encourage breastfeeding, which prevents obesity later in childhood. In Shelby, the county's public health nurse calls each new mother to encourage breastfeeding.

The Institute of Medicine is part of the National Academies, an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters.

[rf35]

"Consider a junk-food tax. The report says there's limited evidence about the impact of such a tax, but Sanchez notes that taxes have helped discourage another unhealthy habit, tobacco."

I was wrong. I thought alcohol would be the next target of the 'tax it to death' crowd. I figured junk food would eventually get hit, but only after alcohol became an option only for the rich. I hope all the fatties who supported the tobacco taxes are ready. You made the bed, now it's time to lay in it.

[riho08]

Obesity in USA reflects demographics: race, gender, location and poor mental health. The demographics on the vast majority of obese people: black both rural and urban, hispanic both urban and rural, native americans and caucasion women, mostly rural. The locations for concentrations of obese people are in major urban concentrations of blacks: Oakland CA., Detroit MI, Gary IN, Atlanta GA, etc and rural blacks: Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, No. and So. Carolina, Louisiana, parts of Arkansa, Kentucky and Tennessee, Virginia. Hispanics in Florida, California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and parts of New York City. Rural white women, think West Virginia, parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin and a scattering of other farming regions. The better term is cultural obesity since within the culture it is OK to be obese. Obesity is not perceived as a problem. In addition, being overweight and mildly obese leads to longer life spans than people in the "normal" BMI scale and especially those whose BMI is <18.5. The notion that overweight and obese people will die sooner is dead wrong. Only the morbidly obese, BMI >40 die young, and there are very very few of these people, fortunately. The mental health issues are primarily depression and anxiety disorders. Culturally, overfed infants leads to overweight toddlers and obese pre-schoolers. The major groups of obese 4 year olds are #1 Native Americans, #2 Hispanics, #3 Afican Americans, #4 Caucasians, #5 Asian Americans/ Pacific Islanders. Berating fat people does not cause one pound of weight loss. Educating mothers on good parenting, that is, how to address a crying baby, how to speak to an infant, what words do you choose, what message do you send, what are realistic expectations you should have for your child are but a sampling of alternatives to sticking a bottle in the crying infant's mouth, propping the bottle and go back to doing what you were doing. Post partum depression occurs in a lot of women. If their culture is not supportive or gives the wrong information on how to deal with your child's issues, then, bottle propping, unreal expectations, and other maladaptive behaviors emerge. What is missing in the fight against obesity, is teaching parents how to raise a child that is not like themselves. For the mother, there is some hard soul searching that has to go on before the parent acknowledges that they just don't know what to do and need outside help. The message to the parent needs to be other than "you're doing it wrong, I told you you couldn't do it" or words to that effect. It takes a trained professional to guide a child (read an immature individual who has not learned how to form long term attachments and relationships) to become an adult who can adequately parent their child. Overfeeding is the symptom of immaturity, lack of specific nutritional knowledge, and emotional disorders. Each issue needs to be addressed. That is why obesity is such a hard issue to deal with. There is not a simple answer: "eat less, exercise more." When the general public realizes that the simple answers are wrong, progress in remediation is then possible.

[billpl-2009]

.....stupid


the make up of any giving location in America is more based on the make up of the people who live there, not the other way around.

[ssporleder]

People make their own choices about what and how much they consume and overweight parents who allow their children to become overweight should be reported to CPS as it is abuse to allow them to get that way and have to be the subject of ridicule from other children.

Be RESPONSIBLE for yourselves and your children.

I do not want to pay - through taxes - for something that will not be used. IF, IF, IF they wanted to lose pounds, they can go out and walk, they can get an exercycle for their home, they can get a Wii exercise program ~ tons of options but they need to get up off of their butts and not blame the world and not sit in a fast food place eating the OBVIOUS foods that made and keep them overweight.

I DO know and understand how difficult it is but it can be done.

Failure to make the change is a choice.

[uisignorant]

You know, when I was growing up we did not have bike paths.
And very few of my school chums were fat.

[hologram5]

First, America needs to learn to take responsibility for its actions. Second, we need to remove all the garbage from our food source, IE hormones, chemicals, in the food and water. We feed our food stock garbage like growth hormones and whatnot and wonder why our children are developing and maturing at 10 and 11 years old.

[clancy49]

I am sick to death of constant press attacks on obesity. Explain to me how some people can consume the worst of all foods and eat three times the amount of an obese person and remain underweight? Explain the growth hormones that added to every American consumable food including meat, fruit, vegetables, and carbohydrates that we are consuming and our bodies are growing with the hormones, mainly the children. And what on God's green earth makes everyone believe just because you are thin you are healthy? Obesity may cause maintainence medicines, but bulimia and anexoria kill! Skinny or fat both could eat unhealthy or healthy and still be either. Stop this harassment!