Posts Tagged ‘obesity’

Darby Pearson
Darby
Pearson

Hungry Kids and the New School Lunch Guidelines

Monday, October 8th, 2012

New federal laws, designed to create healthier public school lunches, took effect on October 1. The new guidelines are part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The initiative aims to combat childhood obesity by focusing on the lunchroom - increasing the servings of fruits and vegetables, limiting carbohydrates and serving meals that contain a reduced number of calories. For example, high school lunches should now contain 750-850 calories. The guidelines, particularly the calorie restrictions, have elicited passionate reactions from students and parents.

Hungry Kids Respond.

One of the more creative responses, garnering almost 1 million online views, is from high school students in Kansas who posted a YouTube parody video titled "We Are Hungry."  The video shows athletes passing out on a football field and students finding ways to sneak food. This inventive response to the new regulations, from the young people it directly affects, is the focus of many news stories about the new guidelines.

Are They, Perhaps, Missing the Point?

There is no denying that childhood obesity is indeed an epidemic and a pressing public health issue. According to the American Heart Association, one-in-three American kids and teens are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is also a pressing issue on a global scale - with 1-in-10 children globally being obese. GLOBALHealthPR recently did a study of the global conversation online about childhood obesity. The results highlighted an alarming trend – the global online dialogue about this issue falls very short. Feel free to view the infographic and get a taste (pun intended) of our insights.

A Step in the Right Direction.

Most school (and home) meals are not made in-house, from scratch, with the time and attention to ingredients and nutrition that signal to kids it is a priority. It is important to applaud the fact that something is being done at a nationwide level to promote healthy eating and help young people be more mindful about nutrition. Whether you fully support or view the new guidelines as an infringement on your right to eat what you want, it is ultimately a step in the right direction to see new programs put into practice. That said, until we can address the way that many children and adults think about and interact with food, we are still going to have a big problem on our hands.

I mentioned that childhood obesity is a global problem, and there are some countries that take a progressive, yet very traditional approach. This CBS segment demonstrates how the French approach school lunches. To sum it up, it’s about the food. Novel idea, no?

Posted in Food and Nutrition, Food Policy and Nutrition, obesity
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Juliet Glassroth
Juliet
Glassroth

Blaming the Victim: Food vs. Fat Folly

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

foodI recently took to Spectrum’s blog to vent a bit about the confusing nutritional landscape. I asked the question “with all the great nutritional research available, why are so many of us still fat?”

Personally, I think it’s a little more complicated than people just making poor nutritional choices and not exercising enough. I sometimes feel that we blame the victim with regards to obesity.

Now, I am not denying that there are significant behavior changes that can, should and yet often are not made. I don’t want to be critical of Paula Deen, but she did open herself up to a backlash when she talked about her diabetes diagnosis. And kudos to her for altering her diet and adding in exercise. I hope a lot of people learn and benefit from her example and the changes she’s made.

But I don’t drink a ton of sweet tea, eat fried chicken or wrap hamburgers in donuts. And I bet a lot of other people with weight problems don’t do any of those things either. So what gives? (more…)

Posted in Fitness, Food and Nutrition, obesity
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Juliet Glassroth
Juliet
Glassroth

Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: Food Fact Frustrations

Monday, July 16th, 2012

Do you ever find yourself asking: why is America fat? It’s certainly not due to a lack of information about nutrition. New research comes out pretty much daily. For instance, just this past week there were reports that:

  • Though “the majority of Americans say they’ve been trying to eat more fruits and vegetables over the past year…” (according to a poll of 1,057 adults for the International Food Information Council Foundation) “…most people are consuming less than half of what the government recommends.” (July 10, USA Today)
  • “Substituting other sweeteners for sugars may help people lose weight and help people with diabetes control blood sugar, according to a new joint statement issued by the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association.” (July 9, WebMD) (more…)

Posted in Food and Nutrition, obesity
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Leticia Diaz
Leticia
Diaz

Coming To A Crossroad: Paula Deen, Diabetes and Me

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

If your office is anything like ours, celebrity chef Paula Deen’s diabetes announcement has become quite the topic of conversation over the past week. As I read the coverage online and caught a few TV interviews, I was struck by the backlash against the timing of Deen’s decision to announce her type 2 diabetes. Questions swirled about why she waited three years to talk about her diabetes and criticism came from fellow chef personalities like Anthony Bourdain, among others. While fans and critics alike will continue to disagree, Deen’s announcement helped to push the important but sometimes unsexy issue of lifestyle changes and type 2 diabetes into the media spotlight. For patient groups, advocates, diabetes educators and health care professionals, sponsorship deals like Deens’ help to drive awareness about living with diabetes and help to infuse some creativity into everyday meal planning – an important part of managing the disease.

(more…)

Posted in Food Policy and Nutrition, obesity
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Anthony LaFauce
Anthony
LaFauce

Where Are We Going?

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

flagYesterday Maggie Fox (@maggiemfox) wrote a great piece regarding an American Heart Association study about the current trend in obesity and the health of Americans. The piece was based on a 10 year study that looked at the trending health and weight issues we face. The study lists a series of issues America will face due to this epidemic. I use the term epidemic because things like increases in high blood pressure, diabetes and of course heart diseases are forcing us into a national crisis.

When everyone hears about health issues the cost of health care becomes top of mind. When I do, and I’m sure as an Air Force brat, when Maggie does as well, it also brings national security and national resources to mind. Over a quarter of all young adults between the age of 17 and 24 are physically unfit to serve. I know a percentage of those people have physical reasons why they can’t serve but the number is still staggering. As a former United States sailor it absolutely shakes me to the core to think of what will happen if this trend in Americans’ health continues.  Will we not be able to protect our borders, man our ships or send humanitarian aid to countries when they have natural disasters like typhoons or earthquakes?

(more…)

Posted in Chronic Disease, Community Involvement, Disease Awareness, Health 2.0, Health Care Industry
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Jenny
Frank

Video and board games to replace PE and Health classes?

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Source: Exergamefitness.com

Last week, my colleague Arianna and I attended the Social Marketing and Games Symposium at George Washington University. The panelistsdiscussed the use of interactive video games as well as traditional board games for positive health behavior change.

Karen McDonnell, Associate Professor at GWU’s Department of Prevention and Community Health, spoke about her current study in “exergaming,” which can best be described as replacing sedentary video games with interactive video games like Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution. Positively, games like Dance Dance Revolution were found to have no difference in the amount of energy expenditure when compared to typical PE classes. These interactive video games were also found to be more enjoyable than PE classes for overweight and obese boys and girls in 6th-8th grades. And everyone knows when you enjoy what you are doing, you are more likely to continue engaging in the activity.

(more…)

Posted in Food Policy and Nutrition, Health 2.0
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My Recess by the River

Monday, June 7th, 2010

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.

(more…)

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Food Friday: Can the FDA Light Up Our Brains?

Friday, April 9th, 2010

A 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…)

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Amanda Sellers
Amanda
Sellers

Chronic Monday: Is the Key to Women’s Weight and Health a Drink (or Three) Away?

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Women 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. chronic-disease

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…)

Posted in Chronic Disease
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Michelle Obama: Taking on Obesity

Monday, February 1st, 2010

In 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…)

Posted in Community Involvement, Food Policy and Nutrition, Public Health, Uncategorized
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