Opinion: The Challenge of Childhood Obesity

(Feb. 22) -- For many years, educators, nutritionists and researchers have been trying to call attention to the crisis of childhood obesity. And now, with Michelle Obama sounding the clarion call, we finally have a real opportunity to turn the tide on this growing public health threat.

But all the acclaim the first lady rightly received for her initiative won't go far enough, once the cheering subsides, without widespread support across the country.

Make no mistake: Childhood obesity is a grave and growing problem. Nearly one in three youngsters in the U.S. is overweight, and approximately 17 percent are dangerously obese. Twenty-five percent of children ages 5 to 10 already have elevated cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. These conditions put them at risk of heart disease, diabetes and sleep disorders as they grow older.

As Obama rightly acknowledges, these conditions can't be cured just by lecturing parents, youngsters or even the food industry. They are rooted in economic, social and technological changes that are transforming the way we live and work, eat and play.

Hard-pressed, two-earner working parents often don't have the time and energy to prepare home-cooked meals or even to serve family dinners. Children are raised on high-calorie processed or prepared foods loaded with sodium, sugar, saturated fats and artificial ingredients. Young Americans get a third of their calories from hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, french fries and similar fare, and all Americans spend more than $140 billion a year on fast food.

Meanwhile, cell phones, video games and electronic social networking -- on top of television -- enables sedentary forms of socializing and recreation. While Bruce Springsteen was "born to run," today's youngsters are more likely to sit in front of their computers or their TVs munching on junk food. American children spend an average of three to four hours daily watching TV or staring at screens on their computers or cell phones.

At the same time, public schools under increasing budget pressure are scaling back their fitness and nutrition programs. Only 30 percent of high school students attend daily physical education classes, compared with 41 percent in 1991 and even more in earlier generations. Lunch periods are often a half hour or less, with heavy helpings of, you guessed it, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza and fries. Soft drinks, candy and low-nutritional snacks are frequently available in vending machines in the school buildings.

Changing all these unhealthy habits is a huge and complex challenge. But there is hope.

What's needed is a comprehensive national campaign that focuses on changing kids' attitudes about eating and exercise.

Keep in mind that it wasn't that long ago that the nation's youth thought it was cool to smoke, OK to litter and weird to set aside old newspapers, aluminum cans and plastic bottles for recycling.

But national education campaigns successfully convinced kids to change their own -- and their families' -- habits.

We need that spirit today in the battle against the youth bulge.

It's urgent that children at an early age and their families learn about healthy lifestyles, including natural foods and balanced diets. So is encouraging kids to go outdoors and play and families to go swimming, biking and hiking together.

There are efforts under way. The group I founded, HealthBarn USA, was developed in collaboration with Rutgers Cooperative Extension to help youngsters learn to prepare nourishing food with safe, simple cooking techniques, as well as how to identify artificial ingredients on the labels of processed foods. In order to engage entire families, we offer workshops that give parents the skills to support healthy living at home.

Similar programs are under way across the country, supported by America's land grant colleges, but they are chronically underfunded. That needs to change.

Such efforts offer models for the nation's schools for improving school lunches, nutritional education, physical education and community outreach. They can also inform the first lady's national campaign to persuade parents and kids to eat less and exercise more.

Of course, much more needs to be done. But I'm confident that an informed, intensive and sustained national campaign can make healthy eating and frequent exercise as common as recycling, and make eating junk food as unfashionable as smoking.

Difficult? Sure.

Do-able? Yes, if Americans take action together.

Needed? Absolutely.

Stacey Antine, MS, RD, is founder and CEO of HealthBarn USA, www.healthbarnusa.com.


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