Let’s Move (faster) On Childhood Obesity

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boyhamburgerFrom Your Health Journal…..I always enjoy articles by Mr. Geoffrey Cowley, and I found one today on MSNBC entitled Let’s Move (faster) On Childhood Obesity. As we know, childhood obesity is on the rise all over the world, as some even predict this could be the first generation of children whose life expectancy may be shorter than their parents….and let’s hope not – and try to reverse this trend. Many children have heart disease, high risks of cancer, getting type 2 diabetes (which at one time, was called “Adult Onset Diabetes” as it was thought to only affect adults), poor joints, and low self esteem. Heart disease is still the number one killer in the United States. Change is needed, and quickly. A third of the nation’s children are now overweight and 17% are obese—a threefold increase in just four decades. Kids haven’t changed fundamentally since the 1970s, but their world has. Please take the time to visit the MSNBC site to read Mr. Cowley’s article (link provided below). Tell others to read it as well, as it is a very important piece to read.”

From the article…..

Michelle Obama chose well and aimed high when she took on childhood obesity four years ago. There is no clearer threat to America’s long-term health, and no question about the need for collective action. A third of the nation’s children are now overweight and 17% are obese—a threefold increase in just four decades. Kids haven’t changed fundamentally since the 1970s, but their world has. It’s now a carnival of cheap calories—brightly packaged, aggressively marketed, nutritionally bankrupt—that make healthful eating an unlikely act of resistance. “We need you all to step it up,” the first lady urged food manufacturers after launching her “Let’s Move” initiative in early 2010. “We need you not just to tweak around the edges but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products and how you market those products to our children…What does it mean when so many parents are finding that their best efforts are undermined by an avalanche of advertisements?”

That bold spirit vanished at critical moments during President Obama’s first term. Despite some major advances in food policy—notably an overhaul of the federal school lunch program and a national rule requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus—the administration has dropped or delayed other nutritional measures to appease the food and beverage industries. And Let’s Move has become more a jumping-jacks campaign than reform movement. With guns, immigration and climate change crowding the president’s second-term agenda, health advocates fear that food and nutrition issues may be sidelined yet again. But with focus and resolve, this administration could still reverse the obesity pandemic. Here are three ideas that stalled during his first term, and some prospects for reviving them in the second.

To read the full article…..Click here