From Your Health Journal…..”I wanted to bring your attention to and promote an article I found on one of my favorite sites to visit called Everyday Health written by Amir Khan entitled Michelle Obama’s Incomplete Obesity Fight. We have discussed so many times here the great work Mrs. Obama has done as a lead spokesperson in the fight against childhood obesity. We have discussed how this generation of children risk being the first generation of children whose life expectancy may be shorter than their parents. Obesity related illnesses in children have risen sharply recently as children show risk factors for heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, weak joints, and asthma. Many obese children get bullied at school simply due to their weight, and many have low self esteem. Michelle Obama has been an inspiration to me with her hard work and dedication as she celebrated a 13 percent decrease in childhood obesity in Mississippi last week. Mrs. Obama would like to see this type of improvement nationwide, but sadly, it has not happened yet. There are some experts who state we still have a long way to go. According to the CDC, one in three children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 were overweight or obese in 2011, the last year for which data is available. So, Mrs. Obama has a big fight ahead of her. Regardless, I am proud of her accomplishments in Mississippi, as well as other parts of the United States. Please visit the Everyday Health web site (link provided below) to read the complete article. Amir Khan did a wonderful job with this article, so please support their site by using the link below.”
From the article…..
First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated a 13 percent decrease in childhood obesity in Mississippi last week, but the childhood obesity fight and her signature “Let’s Move” initiative have a long way to go.
First Lady Michelle Obama stepped into the small, packed gym at Northside/Eastside Elementary School in Clinton, Miss. last week and told the crowd of students, teachers and officials to take credit for turning the childhood obesity epidemic around in their community. The applause was long and loud.
“As we can see in Mississippi… we can actually solve this problem,” Obama said, pointing to a 13 percent drop in the rate of obesity among the state’s elementary school-aged children from 2005 to 2011. “There’s no reason why this success can’t happen in cities and states across the country if we’re willing to work for it.”
Obama’s energy and commitment to ending childhood obesity was on display last week in Clinton, Chicago and Springfield, Mo., as she celebrated the third anniversary of her signature “Let’s Move” program and announced both an expansion of its mission and new partners. But experts cautioned that although the epidemic may have leveled off, it remains fueled by a powerful mix of cultural factors and economic incentives.
Nationwide, “we have not seen a 13 percent drop in childhood obesity,” said David Katz, MD, editor-in-chief of the journal Childhood Obesity and director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center. “We seem to witness a leveling off, which is encouraging, but it’s far too soon to celebrate anything like ‘mission accomplished.’ ”
According to the CDC, one in three children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 were overweight or obese in 2011, the last year for which data is available — and the extra weight puts them at risk for a host of illnesses later in life, from heart disease and diabetes to high blood pressure and stroke.
There’s little question that Obama has focused public attention on the problem by founding “Let’s Move” in 2010 and enlisting a host of celebrities — including Beyonce, David Beckham and Gabby Douglas — to support the group’s efforts to promote healthier diets and more physical activity among kids.
“Let’s Move” is widely credited with helping to pass the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which mandated that whole grains be a key component of school lunches and limited the calorie counts of the lunches to a maximum of 850. But the act’s major provisions only took effect last year and would have had little if any role in the 13 percent obesity decline cited by the First Lady in Clinton — a number not matched by other school-aged groups in Mississippi. For example, the obesity rate among high schoolers didn’t budge statistically during the time when elementary-age rate dropped, and a higher proportion of middle school students were actually obese in 2011 than in 2005.
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