obesity

I commend the Obama administration for its recent drive to expel junk food from the nation’s schools, in hopes of reducing the number of children who become overweight during their school years. In proposed legislation, candy and sugary drinks will be banned from school and schools will be required to offer nutritious choices to students.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack delivered a speech Monday, February 8th at the National Press Club in which he insisted, according to The New York Times, that any vending machines that remain in schools be “filled with nutritious offerings to make the healthy choice the easy choice for our nation’s children.” To this, I say kudos! If children don’t have healthy choices, it is impossible to make them.

According to a 2007 Centers for Disease Control survey of public high schools,only 18 percent of high schools offered fruits or vegetables for students to purchase. But, in 77 percent of high schools, students could purchase soda pop or corn-syrup laden “fruit drinks” and in 50 percent of them, students could purchase chocolate candy. No wonder our kids are getting bigger and unhealthier by the year!

Shockingly, this move is facing opposition. This angers me. Who would be opposed to helping America’s kids eat healthier foods, help reduce childhood obesity and ultimately lower the debt of our nation’s health care system? I have read and heard the argument – “The government has no right to control what goes in my child’s belly!” That is ridiculous. To this, I say that the parents fighting to keep junk food in their child’s school are probably feeding them the same unhealthy snacks at home. AND- I disagree that the government is trying to “control” what Americans can eat. This is simply a way to offer healthy alternatives while at school. Plus, parents and students can still choose what to consume for dinner, during the summer and on the weekends.

Even the soda industry is wavering on its objections to this legislation. The companies’ bottled water and juices offered by the cola giants can now fill the soda machines. No harm to big business there.

This drive to push junk food out of our schools falls in line with first lady, Michelle Obama’s statement last month, promising to lead an initiative to reduce childhood obesity. I look forward to seeing the positive impact that programs like Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” and our administration’s push to help children make healthy food choices creates.

Tagged as: CDC, junk food, Let's Move, Michelle Obama, obesity, public schools, schools, The New York Times, Tom Vilsack

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Yes they are, according to Joseph Proietto, a professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne.

In the article “Treatments needed to tackle obesity crisis: Experts” that has been picked up by British and Indian news aggregators but apparently hasn’t yet been widely distributed state-side, Proietto claims that lifestyle changes can only achieve so much before the body adapts. Therefore, it is “absolutely essential” to develop drugs to help people keep the weight off, he is quoted as saying.

As an athlete, I know that unless I change up my training regimen now and then, my performance will plateau. Ole Albert Einstein said it well: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Some speculate that diets don’t work because they are temporary measures to reach a specific target, but aren’t necessarily designed for long-term impact. The notion that the body adapts is also a possibility: what initially helps us to lose weight will decrease in effectiveness as our body becomes used to the new intake and accommodates for it. As with physical activity: as we undergo physical conditioning, activities that used to tax our muscles become easier, and we see fewer results. We then need to increase the intensity or duration of an activity to continue to see gains.

What do you think? Is varying our diet and incorporating different types of physical activity enough? Or do we need a little help to stay healthy?

Tagged as: behavior change, diet, drugs, lifestyle, obesity

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From Babe Ruth’s belly to Kirby Puckett’s bubble butt, Major League Baseball players have always been known as the portliest of professional athletes and apparently, their clubhouse meals haven’t been helping the matter any.
This morning, National Public Radio reported that over a third of all Major League baseball clubs are skimming the fat and adding a new member to their roster – nutritionists.
In an interview with Giant’s pitcher Barry Zito, he described the San Francisco clubhouse as a nightmare for nutritionists. “There was every candy bar you could imagine right there at our disposal, every ice cream treat, and hot dogs, hamburgers,” Zito says. “You’d be amazed what professional athletes get fed every day. It’s probably worse than, you know, [what] the kids of America are eating.”
Players eat two to three meals a day at the clubhouse, so when the food served to the team is fatty and unhealthy, it becomes a part of their daily lives.
That is why this season, the Giants have followed suit and brought in a chef from a five star restaurant to cook healthy, but delicious meals. By twisting traditional recipes into healthier fare, the Giants – and a third of major league baseball clubs are slowly eating their way to healthier bodies.
But not all players are thrilled with the culinary changes. Some players, like Tim Lincecum, last year’s Cy Young award recipient, don’t feel that their diet affects performance. I am guessing most nutritionists and trainers will disagree. Either way, it is encouraging to see the MLB get as serious about health as they are about home runs. Let’s hope the players carry their healthy eating habits into the off season and onto next year’s field.
Read or listen to NPR’s piece on a healthier MLB.

Tagged as: healthy eating, Major League Baseball, obesity, sports

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Another reminder that low-budget social media can really make a difference. An idea first promoted on YouTube has worked it’s way to the Senate. The idea? Taxing sodas and other sugary drinks.

Last year, Richard F. Daines, M.D., New York State’s Health Commissioner showed up on YouTube with a very low-budget demo of how much sugared soda makes up of NYC’s resident’s diets. Then, in April the New England Journal of Medicine published a paper, stating that sugary drinks “may be the single largest driver of the obesity epidemic” and also argued that raising the price of the sugar packed drinks may actually lower consumption.

Currently the Senate is considering the soda tax but will the tax actually reduce consumption? If it is anything like the tobacco tax, it could have an impact on youth and lower income Americans, two groups greatly affected by obesity.

And if it does work, who will we have to thank? Well, Richard Daines certainly, but also the smarty who decided to promote this via YouTube.

Tagged as: Childhood obesity, Digital Activism, obesity, Richard F. Daines, soda tax, youtube

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Today marks the 113^th anniversary of the running of the Boston Marathon. The runners in this and other marathons are athletes who practice and exercise on a regular basis. Their focus is on reaching their optimum performance and time. Most of us do not exercise or keep fit the way that marathon runners do. Many of us do very little at all. Subsequently we are becoming a nation where the population is having serious health issues linked back to fitness and diet. I think that today would be a great day to start thinking about taking small steps towards our personal fitness. We should all do one small thing today to improve our health and wellness. We don’t need magazines, trainers, or health clubs to take this small step. We just need to raise our personal awareness of what we do and how we do. Focus on fitness today and take the side of good health!

Tagged as: boston marathon, fitness, health, obesity

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