Weight of the Nation

Date/Time
Date(s) - 02/14/2013
12:00 am

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HBO has collaborated with the Institute of Medicine, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health and has partnered with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente to produce The Weight of the Nation (http://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films/trailer), a four part documentary series focusing on the obesity epidemic. The series is available online athttp://theweightofthenation.hbo.com/films
The documentary provides compelling evidence along with personal stories to show how obesity can lead to health problems, such as, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and liver disease. The makers of the film hope it will convey the seriousness of the obesity epidemic, while changing the way Americans think about food.
Healthy Orange will be working with Orange County schools to inform and educate parents, students and teachers about what they can do to help fight obesity. Part 3 is of particular interest to schools.
Part 3: ‘Children in Crisis’: Childhood obesity is much more than a cosmetic concern. The health consequences of childhood obesity include greater risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and other serious illnesses. The combination of these health effects and the dramatic increase in childhood obesity rates over the past three decades causes some experts to fear this may be the first generation of American children who will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
Strategies like cutting out TV and sugar-sweetened drinks may help reduce a child’s weight or prevent future weight gain, but not always for the reasons we expect. There is a link between TV watching and overweight and obesity among children. While the act of watching TV – being sedentary and possibly eating snacks while taking in a favorite show – is part of the problem, experts are now looking at what kids watch as well. There is a growing debate over the effects of food marketing on the childhood obesity epidemic and what should be done about it.
For parents of obese children, responsible parenting means more than tackling health challenges head on. It also means doing the hard work of finding supportive, healthy communities that will instill long-term habits that promote healthy living. And it means knowing that some day, every child will be an adult who deserves to know that their parents did all they could to help them grow up healthy and happy. Changes to school lunches are one way to make a major dent in the childhood obesity epidemic. But in too many schools across the country, the lunches being served don’t meet all of the federal government’s guidelines for nutrition. Moreover, the obstacles to changing our National School Lunch Program and the food served in cafeterias across the country are formidable.
Consuming sugar-sweetened beverages, including juice drinks, is also associated with obesity and accounts for more added sugar in our children’s daily diet than any other food. Replacing sports drinks, soda and other sugary drinks and limiting your intake of 100% fruit juice are effective straightforward ways to start the journey to healthier behaviors and lower body fat for kids and adults.
Beyond proper diet, kids need physical activity to lead a healthy lifestyle. With the rise of video games and the decline of physical education in schools, being active isn’t as easy or common for today’s kids.
Schools can become the centerpiece of public efforts to ensure that kids participate in physical activity and develop healthier lifestyles that can last a lifetime. And it makes perfect sense for them to do so: not only will they be nurturing the growth and development of the whole child, but research links physical activity with improved learning capacity. “If they’re not bouncing up and down in gym, they’re going to be bouncing off the walls in class,” says the director of the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden. Unfortunately, P.E. has become a low priority in some of our nation’s schools.
The good news is that there are resources available for concerned parents who want to help their kids. With hard work, we can improve the health of our children. The bad news is that there are many barriers to achieving these goals and, unfortunately, a lot of parents don’t yet recognize the seriousness of obesity-related health issues and the help their children need to overcome the obstacles in their environment

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Healthy Orange News

Goes Healthy Orange – 6.17.2013