You have to be living under a rock not to have heard of the “epidemic” of obesity that is apparent not only among adults in this country, but also affecting nearly a third of our youth. Unless this epidemic is derailed: Our children and grandchildren will have shorter life expectancies than we do. Health costs will continue to catapult even more than the estimated increase from 2 percent in 1987 to almost 12 percent in 2005 – almost 70 billion – and we will all have to pay. We will see continued health effects of obesity, which are equal to about 20 years of aging. Diabetes rates will continue to rise among younger people with complications of heart and kidney disease.
Teasing, bullying and stigmatizing of overweight youth spells out more youth with poor self image, depression and suicidal thinking. If you are like many, you have heard of this growing health crisis, but probably think it is something for health care providers and individuals to handle. Just eat properly and get more exercise, right? It is easy to state this individual goal, but it is very complex to alter the environment, which has in large part led to the epidemic.
Obesity is due to many things including genetics, education, eating habits, activity levels, amount of TV and computer time. But many factors operate in the environment to thwart the best intentions of families and individuals. These include streets and neighborhoods that force one to use a car or bus rather than walk to schools or needed services, lack of access to safe and convenient parks and recreational spaces, easy availability of fast and not particularly nutritious food, cutbacks in school physical education programs, lack of availability of healthful and lower sugar and fat snacks in vending machines. It thus becomes a much greater problem than merely the sheer force of individual will to change. It will take all of us: individual families, neighborhood groups, businesses, schools, government and public health agencies along with health care organizations and universities to reverse the current trend which has tripled the rate of childhood obesity (more than 28 percent of California children in grades five, seven and nine).
So what can we do? Each of us can start to get informed about the problem. If you haven’t seen it yet, read the supplement published in The New York Times on Sunday, Jan. 15, “Childhood Obesity” sponsored by three leading health care institutions in the state of California: University of California San Francisco, Kaiser-Permanente, and the School of Public Health at the University of California Los Angeles. Our own county Board of Supervisors, along with the county Health Department, CHIP (Community Health Improvement Partners) and a distinguished group of community organizations and citizens, recently rolled out a master plan for obesity, “Our Community, our Children”. See how you can become involved. Take it upon yourself to address one or more of the many of the environmental barriers to healthy eating and activity for our youth, which you may find right here in San Diego: Find out how much physical education (and how active it is) children in a local school are actually getting.
Observe an outdoor PE class. Are most children active or are many just standing around? How many children per teacher? Is there any recess? Are school foods nutritious? Visit a school at lunchtime. You know enough about nutrition to decide. What is in vending machines in youth-frequented places? What portion of offerings is healthy? Are there adequate, safe parks and places to play in the neighborhood? Are there convenient sources for fresh fruits and vegetables in the neighborhood? Attend city council meetings to lobby for revised planning for development and codes that will promote healthy nutrition, walking and biking. Become a personal advocate and information source for others about the problem.
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