On May 19th, at the Benning Stoddert Recreation Center, the American Heart Association hosted an event that fused food, nutrition education and physical activity for the District's children from Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8. As the District's recent obesity report uncovered, Ward 8 has the fewest healthy food options and also has the highest rate of obesity. I'm personally passionate about issues related to nutrition and access to healthy food, and as a health communicator, I read stories and write blog posts about the obesity epidemic, so this event was the perfect opportunity for me to get involved as a volunteer and to make a difference in my own community.
Posts Tagged ‘obesity’
Chaffee
Food Friday: Can the FDA Light Up Our Brains?
Friday, April 9th, 2010A few weeks ago, I was listening to a radio interview with Sheena Iyengar who was discussing the research she did for her new book The Art of Choosing. Iyengar is a professor at Columbia University School of Business and a well-known expert on the study of choice - how we make choices and how they affect our lives. It is a subject close to the heart of anyone working in the field of chronic disease treatment and prevention with its focus on getting people to make the choices-particularly about diet and exercise-- necessary to stay healthy. Study after study has confirmed that educating individuals about risks and how to avoid them isn't enough to trigger behavior changes. So what else should we be doing?
Over the past few years we've been listening to a national debate about how to address America's obesity epidemic, which is costing us $147 billion each year and is a major contributor to diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer. It has also become an epidemic among our children, with one in six classified as obese.
Last month when the First Lady launched her Let's Move campaign aimed at reducing childhood obesity, questions about choice were very much a part of the conversation. Who and what are responsible for creating this problem? Americans are ambivalent about the question, with many believing it is a matter of individual choice. But public health officials see it a different way. They believe that we need to change our "obesogenic" environment, which promotes increased food intake, unhealthful foods and physical inactivity. Tom Frieden, who heads the Centers for Disease Control, is the lead author on a compelling article in Health Affairs about how to tackle the problem. And there is no ambivalence in his prescription for change:
"Reversing obesity is not going to be done successfully with individual effort. It will be done successfully as a society only with societal effort...We got to this stage of the epidemic because of a change in our environment. And only a change in our environment again will allow us to get back to a healthier place..." (more...)
Sellers
Chronic Monday: Is the Key to Women's Weight and Health a Drink (or Three) Away?
Monday, April 5th, 2010Women everywhere are confused - one day having an alcoholic beverage is beneficial to our health (and some speculate our sanity) and the next day it's not. Even health media like Tara Parker-Pope at the New York Times is pointing out the scientific discrepancies. It's the same thing with a number of other foods women love and would gladly consume in excess on a regular basis if given a medically-sound reason - including chocolate, ice cream, coffee and anything with sugar in it. 
So, when a study published in early March in the Archives of Internal Medicine by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston demonstrated that women who drink moderately are less likely to gain weight over time than those who didn't, it definitely got a lot of attention. The research showed that after evaluating more than 19,000 women over a 13 year period, those women who had more than two drinks daily (considered the highest consumption level) were 30% less likely to be overweight and nearly 70% less likely to be obese than their counterparts who drank less. This would seem that women should adopt more "liquids" as part of their diet to maintain a healthy weight, right? (more...)
Newbert
Michelle Obama: Taking on Obesity
Monday, February 1st, 2010In his State of the Union Address Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama praised First Lady Michelle Obama for "creating a national movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make kids healthier." Less than 24 hours later, Mrs. Obama joined U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin to announce the release of The Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation.
The paper, which is Dr. Benjamin's first release to the nation since being sworn in as Surgeon General earlier this month, includes recommendations for helping Americans to adopt healthier lives through better nutrition and regular physical activity. The paper also encourages communities to be actively involved in creating healthier living environments and combating obesity. (more...)
Seng
Mr. Obama: Unite The Health Of Our State With The State Of Our Health
Friday, January 29th, 2010
Green area highlighted denotes the health reform section in the White House transcript of President Obama’s State of the Union Address, a little less than 8 percent.
My fellow Americans: President Obama read through nearly half of his 2010 State of the Union speech Wednesday evening before he arrived at, and all-too-briefly reviewed, what I still consider the nation's number one challenge, and indeed crisis: health care.
Interestingly, he described it as health insurance reform, which is a curious refinement from "health reform" or "health care reform." More unfortunate is that the subject of health reform as Mr. Obama's #1 agenda item - prior to Scott Brown's surprise win of the open Senate seat in Massachusetts just nine days earlier -ultimately won less than eight percent space and time overall in the President's speech.
Whatever your politics, the newly sidelined health reform and our declining health as a nation deserved more time and a profound call-to-action from our leader. (more...)
Morrison
