Focus on an "obesogenic" environment rather than kids behavior to battle obesity

According to researchers reviewing numerous anti-childhood obesity programs, the focus to prevent it should be on strategies that seek to change children’s environments rather than their behavior.

The researchers said that environmental approaches improving physical activity and dietary habits are the key to prevention measures.

To find which forms of intervention could have a maximum effect to help prevent obesity in children, an international team of researchers updated a previous Cochrane Review by searching for new evidence from existing studies to see which forms of intervention work best.

Researchers targeted children ages 6-12 with school-based programs that encourage healthy eating, physical activity, and positive attitudes to body image.

The researchers highlighted the key strategies that could be considered for prevention measures including healthy eating, physical activity and body image in school curricula.

The key findings are:

• Increasing physical activity and the development of fundamental movement skills during the school week.
• Improving the nutritional quality of food supplied in schools.
• Creating environments and cultural practices within schools that support children eating healthier foods and being active throughout each day.
• Professional development and capacity building activities which help to support teachers and other staff as they implement health promotion strategies and activities.
• Giving more attention to parent support and home activities that encourage children to be more active, eat more nutritious foods and spend less time in screen-based activities.

Source: http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20111207/8141/how-to-prevent-childhood-obesity-prevention-measures-for-child-obesitywatch-your-child%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%E2%84%A2s-dietch.htm

Post hosts summit on childhood obesity epidemic

Last week, Washington Post Live hosted a conference on the health crisis called “Weighing In on America’s Future: Childhood Obesity Summit.” Those in the auditorium and watching online heard how children have become so sedentary that they don’t even know how to jump rope, and how our “all you can eat” culture has led to an alarming rise in diabetes in children.

Celebrity TV chef Carla Hall proved you don’t need a lot of money to make tasty meals. Decked out in her chef’s apron, Hall cooked the lunchtime meal for $2.32 a plate — the amount the federal government spends on many lunches provided in school cafeterias. On that tight budget, she whipped up chicken pot pie, tossed salad and a poached pear topped with rosemary oat crumble.

Eating well affordably was also the message of Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan. Her advice: Don’t get paralyzed in the grocery store aisles about which kind of apple or tomato to buy. Just buy fruits and vegetables (and wash them). A mom herself, Merrigan advised parents not to think in terms of “good foods and bad foods.” As she noted, “If I start making foods prohibited, then they become very attractive.”

Greg Jennings, the Green Bay Packers wide receiver who scored two touchdowns in this year’s Super Bowl, took the stage to congratulate local students who won a KidsPost contest that sought their ideas for curbing obesity. Read today’s KidsPost (on the back page of the Style section) to learn from the winners, including the 11-year-old who wrote that kids need to learn to prepare meals because “many parents grew up eating fast food so they may not even know how to cook.”

Jennings and other football players at the event urged children to join the “Fuel Up to Play 60” program, which urges children to exercise 60 minutes a day. He and just about everyone in the audience got into the spirit and exercised between panel discussions, loosening ties and kicking off high heels for jumping jacks and scissor kicks, all in the name of powering a movement to make Americans trimmer.

What follows are comments excerpted from hours of discussion of one of the most important health issues facing America today.

Source: The Washington Post

WHO calls for junk food ban in schools, playgrounds

Junk food should not be sold in schools and playgrounds, the World Health Organisation said Friday in a series of recommendations aimed at promoting a healthy diet and cutting child obesity.
However it fell short of calling for a ban on advertising directed at children for foods high in saturated fats, sugars or salt, opting instead to ask member states to "consider the most effective approach to reduce" such marketing.
The non-binding recommendations will be put to a high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases during September's General Assembly in New York, WHO officials said.
"Settings where children gather should be free from all forms of marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars or salt," said the UN health agency.
"Such settings include, but are not limited to, nurseries, schools, school grounds and pre-school centres, playgrounds, family and child clinics and paediatric services and during any sporting and cultural activities that are held on these premises," it added .
Some 43 million pre-school children are obese or overweight, according to WHO data.
"Children throughout the world are exposed to marketing of foods high in fat, sugar or salt, which increases the potential of younger generations developing noncommunicable diseases during their lives," it said.
Six out of ten deaths every year are due to cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic lung diseases, the WHO warned, pointing out that a common factor of the four main diseases is poor diet.

Source: Google news. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jfzUeW7BjDuqLjipN5Meuy969_Ew?docId=CNG.8c7c2d37b80a7efbfd66908fa452bb99.2f1