New Plan Fighting Childhood Obesity

Many leaders in Washington DC feel like the war in Iraq is failing. If a plan is failing, leaders better change the plan. It also looks like the war on childhood obesity is failing also. The war on obesity is not failing because there was no plan, but the plan has not been working.

 

There were several media reports stating the federal government spent more than a billion dollars on nutrition education this year. According to Dr Tom Baranowski, a pediatrics professor from Baylor, “Any person looking at the published literature about these programs would conclude they are generally not working

 

There is no question that childhood obesity epidemic is a very complex problem, which will require complex solutions. For a moment let’s take a simple approach to the problem. Over simplified, the obesity solution is calories in and calories out. Let’s turn back the clock before the obesity crisis. There has always been food (calories in), admitting, some of the food choices and the amount consumed may have changed. When we turn back the clock concerning physical activity (calories out), our nation has seen a dramatic change. I know calories in is an issue but I think it is time to start putting a stronger focus on physical activity (calories out). Our society has almost completed eliminated physical activity from the lives of our youth. The obesity crisis started with the elimination of physical activity! Families for years grew up drinking whole milk, used real butter, and cooked with lard. These families may not have had fast food but they did have grandma feeding them homemade cakes, pies, and cookies. Yet in that environment, we had no childhood obesity crisis, because we had an abundance of physical activity.

 

Since our nation has launched the war against childhood obesity, the attack has been on food. School vending machines became the headlines, the plan, change vending machines and we will win the war on childhood obesity. Soon to follow was the cafeteria food, again an important strategy. Next step was the Federal government’s mandated school wellness plan. Hopefully this plan will be more than a document on a shelf, but most school wellness plans have only focused on nutrition.

 

Don’t think for a second I do not think we need to educate our youth about nutrition. But we need to face the facts that our nation’s childhood obesity war plan is not working.

 

The new plan………..our nation should start focusing on physical activity. It is time for us to spend a billion dollars on physical education this year. The difference is PE4life has data that proves this plan will work.

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