I came across a fascinating report entitled, “F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America, 2008.” Produced by the Trust for America’s Health, it’s stuffed full with interesting statistics and ideas. What I wanted to do was take a few posts and work through their list of 10 ideas to combat obesity.
The interesting thing about this organization is that they appear to be independent and not under the influence of any group. Looking through their list of directors you’ll see Lowell P. Weicker, Jr.
Anyway, I want to break out their ideas for battling obesity into two a day and give my thoughts on them.
Their ideas:
Investing in effective community-based disease-prevention programs that promote increased physical activity and good nutrition: Yeah, not a good way to start off with me. What this boils down to is shifting responsibility for child raising to community groups. The one thing that might make this a good, solid idea is if the “programs” aren’t publicly funded. The problem with the “good nutrition” part is affecting whole changes throughout the day. You can’t feed kids at school and then let them run wild at night.
The next one:
Improving the nutritional quality of foods available in schools and childcare programs: Perfect. This idea is spot on and one that needs to be adopted ASAP. If you’re going to make food available to kids it needs to be healthy. What is healthy? I wouldn’t worry about it being low carb or low fat. No, choose unprocessed foods. Fruit, veggies, cheese, etc. This is something that can happen right now and probably won’t be. Why not? It’s cheaper to serve the crap.
