By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: December 10, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — After decades of rising childhood obesity rates, several American cities are reporting their first declines.
The trend has emerged in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, as
well as smaller places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Kearney, Neb. The
state of Mississippi has also registered a drop, but only among white
students.
“It’s been nothing but bad news for 30 years, so the fact that we have
any good news is a big story,” said Dr. Thomas Farley, the health
commissioner in New York City, which reported a 5.5 percent decline in
the number of obese schoolchildren from 2007 to 2011.
The drops are small, just 5 percent here in Philadelphia and 3 percent
in Los Angeles. But experts say they are significant because they offer
the first indication that the obesity epidemic, one of the nation’s most
intractable health problems, may actually be reversing course.
The first dips — noted in a September report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation — were so surprising that some researchers did not believe them.
Deanna M. Hoelscher, a researcher at the University of Texas, who in
2010 recorded one of the earliest declines — among mostly poor Hispanic
fourth graders in the El Paso area — did a double-take. “We reran the
numbers a couple of times,” she said. “I kept saying, ‘Will you please
check that again for me?’ ”
Researchers say they are not sure what is behind the declines. They may
be an early sign of a national shift that is visible only in cities that
routinely measure the height and weight of schoolchildren. The decline
in Los Angeles, for instance, was for fifth, seventh and ninth graders —
the grades that are measured each year — between 2005 and 2010. Nor is
it clear whether the drops have more to do with fewer obese children
entering school or currently enrolled children losing weight. But
researchers note that declines occurred in cities that have had obesity
reduction policies in place for a number of years.
Though obesity is now part of the national conversation, with aggressive
advertising campaigns in major cities and a push by Michelle Obama,
many scientists doubt that anti-obesity programs actually work.
Individual efforts like one-time exercise programs have rarely produced
results. Researchers say that it will take a broad set of policies
applied systematically to effectively reverse the trend, a conclusion
underscored by an Institute of Medicine report released in May.
Philadelphia has undertaken a broad assault on childhood obesity for
years. Sugary drinks like sweetened iced tea, fruit punch and sports
drinks started to disappear from school vending machines in 2004. A year
later, new snack guidelines set calorie and fat limits, which reduced
the size of snack foods like potato chips to single servings. By 2009,
deep fryers were gone from cafeterias and whole milk had been replaced
by one percent and skim.
Change has been slow. Schools made money on sugary drinks, and some set
up rogue drink machines that had to be hunted down. Deep fat fryers,
favored by school administrators who did not want to lose popular items
like French fries, were unplugged only after Wayne T. Grasela, the head
of food services for the school district, stopped buying oil to fill
them.
But the message seems to be getting through, even if acting on it is
daunting. Josh Monserrat, an eighth grader at John Welsh Elementary,
uses words like “carbs,” and “portion size.” He is part of a student
group that promotes healthy eating. He has even dressed as an orange to
try to get other children to eat better. Still, he struggles with his
own weight. He is 5-foot-3 but weighed nearly 200 pounds at his last
doctor’s visit.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow, I’m obese for my age,’ ” said Josh, who is 13. “I set a goal for myself to lose 50 pounds.”
Nationally, about 17 percent of children under 20 are obese, or about
12.5 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which defines childhood obesity
as a body mass index at or above the 95th percentile for children of
the same age and sex. That rate, which has tripled since 1980, has
leveled off in recent years but has remained at historical highs, and
public health experts warn that it could bring long-term health risks.
Obese children are more likely to be obese as adults, creating a higher
risk of heart disease and stroke. The American Cancer Society says that
being overweight or obese is the culprit in one of seven cancer deaths. Diabetes in children is up by a fifth since 2000, according to federal data.
“I’m deeply worried about it,” said Francis S. Collins, the director of
the National Institutes of Health, who added that obesity is “almost
certain to result in a serious downturn in longevity based on the risks
people are taking on.”
Obesity affects poor children disproportionately. Twenty percent of
low-income children are obese, compared with about 12 percent of
children from more affluent families, according to the C.D.C. Among
girls, race is also an important factor. About 25 percent of black girls
are obese, compared with 15 percent of white girls.
Some experts note that the current declines, concentrated among higher
income, mostly white populations, are still not benefiting many minority
children. For example, when New York City measured children in
kindergarten through eighth grade from 2007 to 2011, the number of white
children who were obese dropped by 12.5 percent, while the number of
obese black children dropped by 1.9 percent.
But Philadelphia, which has the biggest share of residents living in
poverty of the nation’s 10 largest cities, stands out because its
decline was most pronounced among minorities. Obesity among 120,000
public school students measured between 2006 and 2010 declined by 8
percent among black boys and by 7 percent among Hispanic girls, compared
with a 0.8 percent decline for white girls and a 6.8 percent decline
for white boys.
“The needle is actually moving,” said Gary D. Foster, director of the
Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University. He first noticed the change while conducting a study of middle school
students. Even children who made up the control group that did not take
part in anti-obesity measures had a weight drop of nearly 4 percent,
compared with 5.5 percent for those who did.
Here at William H. Ziegler Elementary in Northeast Philadelphia, where
most students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the day begins
with a nutrition tip over the loudspeaker. Teachers give out colorful
erasers and stickers instead of Tootsie Rolls. Fund-raising events
feature fruit smoothies instead of chocolate. Some students had never seen broccoli or cauliflower, so Jill Dogmanits,
a sixth-grade teacher, started taste tests to acquaint students with
those vegetables and healthy snacks like hummus, fresh pineapple and
whole-wheat bagels.
But school is only part of the day. Children buy an average of 350
calories worth of snacks in corner stores every day, according to a
study by Dr. Foster’s center at Temple University. About 640 corner
stores are now part of a program of stocking healthier food, according
to the Food Trust, a nonprofit group that runs it. “Parents tell their kids, ‘Take this money and go buy a snack,’ ” said
Josh, as children streamed into a store across from his school where
crayon-colored sugar drinks called Hugs sell for 25 cents and generic
soda is 40 cents.
Dr. Donald F. Schwarz, a pediatrician who is the city’s health
commissioner, said: “I think we are beginning to turn the tide with the
many things that have gone on now for a decade.”
It is too early to tell whether the trend will hold. “I’d like to see another year of measurement before I go out and party
over this,” said Mary Currier, Mississippi’s state health officer. And some public health experts say that without broader policy actions
like a soda tax, which Philadelphia tried but failed to pass in 2010 and
2011, deeper change will be difficult. Still, new data from
Philadelphia — from more than 20,000 children in first through sixth
grades — show a further 2.5 percent obesity decline from 2011 to 2012,
Dr. Foster said.
Josh lost weight this summer, exercising outside with his stepfather, an
Army reservist. But now that it’s cold he has gained some back. Still,
he believes he can influence others. His 2-year-old cousin now asks for
bananas instead of chips at the corner store. Josh takes full credit.
PLEASE MAKE NOTE:
September is National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. To foster awareness and help make a difference, Livliga, a healthy lifestyle company, will be donating 10% of all its Kidliga sales during the month to the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition,
a nonprofit dedicated to research and programs to help kids live
healthier lives. In addition, all orders of Kidliga will receive a FREE
Sammie and Sax ebooklet! For fun and healthy cooking classes for kids in
Kansas City, MO check out the Kid Chefs Cooking Classes at Function Junction. Help us Help Kids Be Healthy and Join the Fun!
No comments