With nearly 33% of children in America considered to be overweight or obese - a rate that has tripled in adolescents and more than doubled in younger children since 1980 - an Obama Administration task force recently established a goal of reducing the childhood obesity rate to just 5% by 2030, less than a generation away.
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According to C & R's Youth Beat, kids eat at a restaurant 2.5 times a month. In an average 30-day month, there are 150 meal occasions:
- 30 Breakfasts
- 30 Lunches
- 30 Dinners
- 60 Snacks (at twice a day)
If kids are only going to restaurants 2-3 times a month, they account for only
2 percent of all meal occasions.
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President Bill Clinton Honors 179 U.S.
Schools
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, founded by the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation, today recognized 179 schools that have transformed their campuses into healthier places for students and staff.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz is taking initiative and traveling around the United States to launch his HealthCorps program and promote health through nutrition and exercise. Dr. Oz is currently trying to launch his HealthCorps program in Sacramento to fight childhood obesity.
According to an article from allvoices.com, The HealthCorps is being initiated locally at Burbank High and Sacramento Charter High School. The program is modeled after the Peace Corps. It is designed to recruit college graduates who have deferred medical school enrollment to coordinate HealthCorps for two years at a high school. The program at Sacramento’s Luther Burbank High School is being run by Chioma Enweasor, a graduate of Pomona College. She will teach 10 classes a week as well as operate an after-school club and oversee health-related events.
The City of Alexandria, Virginia is trying to secure $90,000 to help fight childhood obesity. Officials said they would use the money to make minor upgrades to playground equipment and to encourage urban gardening. However, the new play areas that the city’s parents said are needed to help their children slim down will have to wait, according to an article in the Washington Examiner.
According to the article, the city has applied to Kaiser Permanente for the funding and intends to use the money to hire a consultant to assess the city’s playgrounds. Additionally, the money will go toward the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority to promote urban gardening. About 43 percent of Alexandria children between the ages of 2 and 5 are either overweight or obese, according to an Inova Health Systems study. About 25 percent of all Virginia residents are considered obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“There’s this potential that the next generation could actually have a shorter life span than the current generations that are older, and that would be a first in human history,” said Dr. Stephen Haering, Alexandria’s health director.
