Childhood Obesity

I was a pioneer of childhood obesity. By the time I was a junior in high school, I weighed more than 200 pounds. I was a fat kid before being a fat kid made you the topic of a national conversation and the first lady's pet project, back when Gatorade still tasted gross and no one knew how many calories there were in anything. For most of my childhood, I was the only fat girl in my class - I can still name the other two fat girls in my grade. Now, fat kids fill the playground and the high school bleachers, including a whole new breed of fat girl who wears skin tight jeans and mid-riffs and dares anyone to say anything.

I was a pioneer of childhood obesity. By the time I was a junior in high school, I weighed more than 200 pounds. I was a fat kid before being a fat kid made you the topic of a national conversation and the first lady's pet project, back when Gatorade still tasted gross and no one knew how many calories there were in anything. For most of my childhood, I was the only fat girl in my class - I can still name the other two fat girls in my grade. Now, fat kids fill the playground and the high school bleachers, including a whole new breed of fat girl who wears skin tight jeans and mid-riffs and dares anyone to say anything.

When the National School Lunch Program began in 1946, the idea was to get nutritious food into the stomachs of malnourished children from low-income families. Ironic, then, that these days the school lunch program is being scrutinized for its role in contributing to the growing problem of childhood obesity in America. The latest report was published online this week by the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. It concludes that girls who participate in the National School Lunch Program gain weight at a faster clip than other girls from low-income families who do not get the subsidized lunches (and sometimes breakfasts)

Re "No end in sight to obesity epidemic," May 8 Of course there is no end in sight to the obesity epidemic. If the government can hold a conference that might suggest that Americans consume less junk food, then what makes us believe that the government wouldn't stop there and would suggest that Americans eat more broccoli? The Supreme Court has already given its lecture that our vegetable-averse Founding Fathers have hidden in the Constitution a prohibition to a broccoli mandate, even though one would improve citizens' health.

The ranks of obese Americans are expected to swell even further in the coming years, rising from 36% of the adult population today to 42% by 2030, experts said Monday. Kicking off a government-led conference on the public health ramifications of all those expanding waistlines, the authors of a new report estimated that the cost of treating those additional obese people for diabetes, heart disease and other medical conditions would add up to nearly $550 billion over the next two decades.

The childhood obesity ad is short, stark and to the point: A child named Tina says she doesn't like going to school because the other kids pick on her. "It hurts my feelings," she says. Then text appears: "Stop sugarcoating it, Georgia. " Children's Healthcare of Atlanta felt not enough was being done to curb sky-high obesity rates in the state (Georgia has one of the highest childhod obesity rates in the country). Its Strong4Life campaign recently kicked off with a series of ads with kids and their parents talking about the toll that obesity can take.

TV advertisements for sugary and fatty foods are playing a role in childhood obesity and ought to be taken off the air, a leading group of pediatricians says. In a policy statement released Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and Media rips "the media" for contributing to child and adolescent obesity, ticking off the many ways in which screen time is a negative influence. The group called on doctors to ask Congress and regulatory groups to ban advertisements for junk food and fast food during kids' programming, as well as advertisements targeted to children via cellphone and other media.

Everyone loves a roly-poly baby. Still, there is such a thing as an overweight infant, and obese babies -- even those as young as 9 months -- are predisposed to being obese later in life, researchers say in Friday's issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion . Childhood obesity is a growing public health problem in the United States.  It has been linked to psychological problems, asthma, cardiovascular troubles and a greater chance of developing diabetes. Hoping to better understand the factors associated with being obese at a very early age -- and possibly help parents and health advocates stave off its ill effects -- lead author Brian G. Moss of Wayne State University and William H. Yeaton of the University of Michigan analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort , a nationally representative sample of American children born in 2001.

Some encouraging news on the childhood obesity front: Obesity levels among kindergartners through eighth-graders in New York City have gone down, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The decline, says the report, is to date the largest drop on record in a large U.S. city in this population, and it may be due to a comprehensive intervention that included the tried-and-true recipe of better food and more physical activity. The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released today finds that, from 2006 and 2007 to 2010 and 2011, obesity prevalence in kindergartners through eighth-graders in city public elementary and middle schools declined 5.5%, from 21.9% to 20.7%.

Community-based interventions to halt childhood obesity are gaining popularity as schools, local governments, parents and health clubs work together to help kids slim down and eat more healthfully. First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move campaign helped push the issue to the forefront. But some interventions may be working better than others, according to a study presented this week at the International Congress on Obesity in Stockholm, Sweden. Researchers looked at the success of three three-year community intervention programs, each targeting a different age group of more than 1,000 children -- kids younger than 5, primary-school age children and teens.

The ranks of obese Americans are expected to swell even further in the coming years, rising from 36% of the adult population today to 42% by 2030, experts said Monday. Kicking off a government-led conference on the public health ramifications of all those expanding waistlines, the authors of a new report estimated that the cost of treating those additional obese people for diabetes, heart disease and other medical conditions would add up to nearly $550 billion over the next two decades.

New legislation in Sacramento that would ban food trucks and other street vendors from doing business within 1,500 feet of a school just doesn't pass the taste test. The purpose of the bill is to prevent childhood obesity, but that is a large and complicated problem, and the state isn't going to reverse obesity by controlling every aspect of a child's or a teenager's life. Certainly, the government is responsible for the well-being of children while they're in school. The Obama administration has rightly taken strong steps to ensure that school meals are more wholesome than they used to be. Now schools need to take those rules and figure out how to produce appealing food that students are willing to eat. We're not suggesting that food vendors aren't part of the problem.

Fat kids, dumb bill Re " A food truck stop? " March 4 The bill to limit food trucks from parking "within 1,500 feet of elementary, middle and high schools from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on school days" is simple lunacy and demonstrates what is wrong with society's focus on human problems. If food trucks are pushed away, will someone else propose to close down the doughnut shop directly across the street from the high school in our neighborhood? How about the fast food taco place on the other corner?

Childhood obesity is a complex issue with no simple solutions, but involving the entire family in weight loss and health may help kids achieve their goals, a report finds. A scientific statement released Monday in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Assn. reviews strategies shown to be successful in helping kids slim down. Some studies find that obese children can have symptoms normally associated with adult obesity, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. Others suggest that overweight kids often turn into overweight adults.

The childhood obesity ad is short, stark and to the point: A child named Tina says she doesn't like going to school because the other kids pick on her. "It hurts my feelings," she says. Then text appears: "Stop sugarcoating it, Georgia. " Children's Healthcare of Atlanta felt not enough was being done to curb sky-high obesity rates in the state (Georgia has one of the highest childhod obesity rates in the country). Its Strong4Life campaign recently kicked off with a series of ads with kids and their parents talking about the toll that obesity can take.

The quality of a mother's relationship with her toddler could affect that child's weight in adolescence, a study has found. The report was based on observing how mothers interacted with their children when they were 15, 24 and 36 months old, then following up with those kids when they turned 15 to check levels of obesity. Study participants included 977 children. Researchers concentrated on two aspects of the relationship: attachment security, or how aware children are that their mother is a base of security and a comforting presence in times of stress; and maternal sensitivity, or a mother's awareness of her child's emotional state and her ability to be comforting and warm.

Free toys and fatty foods are a bad combo meal. At least that's what San Francisco supervisors decided when they voted Tuesday to ban Happy Meals and other fast-food fare from offering a free toy with meals that contain more than set levels of calories, sugar and fat. The measure, which the San Francisco Chronicle reports requires a final vote next week, was controversial before the vote, a Los Angeles Times article reports,  "with...

A growing number of Californians consider obesity to be a "very serious" problem facing children in the state and believe unhealthy fare in schools should be restricted, according to a statewide poll released Tuesday. "They recognize the seriousness of the childhood obesity epidemic and understand that changing public policies is the key to creating healthier communities," said Dr. Robert K. Ross, president and chief executive of the California Endowment the Los Angeles-based nonprofit that funded the Field Poll survey.

Some encouraging news on the childhood obesity front: Obesity levels among kindergartners through eighth-graders in New York City have gone down, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The decline, says the report, is to date the largest drop on record in a large U.S. city in this population, and it may be due to a comprehensive intervention that included the tried-and-true recipe of better food and more physical activity. The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released today finds that, from 2006 and 2007 to 2010 and 2011, obesity prevalence in kindergartners through eighth-graders in city public elementary and middle schools declined 5.5%, from 21.9% to 20.7%.

California's childhood obesity rates remain dangerously high despite a slight drop in recent years, threatening the long-term health of children throughout the state, according to a study released Wednesday. Thirty-eight percent of children statewide were obese or overweight last year, a 1.1% decline from five years earlier. The rates in Los Angeles County dropped by 2.5% to about 42% last year. "Any decline is good," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of Los Angeles County's Department of Public Health.