Health, community and social organizations in Chicago vowed recently to implement strategies set forth by the childhood obesity task force put together as a result of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! national campaign to combat childhood obesity.
Health, community and social organizations in Chicago vowed recently to implement strategies set forth by the childhood obesity task force put together as a result of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! national campaign to combat childhood obesity.
Obama, a Chicago native, launched the campaign in February and President Barack Obama established the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to come up with ways to lower the current national rate – 20 percent – of childhood obesity.
According to the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children, the obesity rate for children in Chicago ages 3 to 7 is 22 percent, and 28 percent for children ages 10 to 13.
“For the first time, the nation will have goals, benchmarks, and measurable outcomes that will help us tackle the childhood obesity epidemic one child, one family, and one community at a time,” said Michelle Obama.
After meeting for the last 90 days, Assistant Health and Human Services Secretary Howard Koh, M.D. said getting children a healthy start on life by breastfeeding and offering nutritious food, educating and encouraging parents and caregivers about good food choices, providing healthy food in schools, improving grocery choices in neighborhoods and getting children involved in more physical activity are five recommendations to help drop the number of obese children, or those at risk. The recommendations are designed to return the childhood obesity rate to 5 percent by 2030. The rate began to increase in the late 1970s, he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for heart disease, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, Type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and several types of cancer, among other ailments. They are also more likely than youth of normal weight to become obese or overweight adults.
The Cook County Department of Public Health was recently awarded a $16 million grant for obesity prevention in suburban Cook County. The Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant will support public health efforts to reduce obesity, increase physical activity, improve nutrition and decrease smoking.
Koh said some of the funds would go to address food deserts — areas where mainstream grocery stores with affordable and healthy options are often absent or miles apart, but fast food joints are aplenty.
According to the recently released The Chicago Food Desert Progress Report, as of September 2008, slightly more than 600,000 residents, mostly Black, live in food deserts. Of that number, nearly 200,000 are children. However, in the last two years, many grocery chains began filling the void, reducing the city’s food desert population by nearly 24,000.
To help diminish obesity statistics among children, CLOCC recently launched the 5-4-3-2-1 Go! campaign to encourage children and their families to practice five healthy behaviors on a daily basis: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables; 4 servings of water; 3 servings of low-fat dairy products; 2 hours or less of screen time; and 1 or more hours of physical activity.
Education in the schools is also key, with a two-pronged approach effect, said cardiologist David Montgomery, M.D.
“While a health class won’t supplant the need for actual exercise and a healthy options only menu at school, health education at every grade would be the most natural next step in fighting, but also in not promoting the obesity problem in our children,” said Montgomery.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Defender.
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