Center for American Progress: How Health Reform Helps Address the Childhood Obesity Epidemic

In a recent report from the Center for American Progress, the authors Ellen-Marie Whelan and Sonia Sekhar look at the far-reaching consequences of obesity. Titled ‘Tackling the Obesity Epidemic: How Health Reform Helps Address the Childhood Obesity Epidemic,’ the document organizes the information in an easy-to-understand format that addresses different aspects of obesity’s role in health reform.

 

SOURCE: AP/Mike Derer

 Here’s an example:  

Fact  

Prevention is critical to fighting obesity. 

Obesity has likely accounted for up to $147 billion annually in direct care costs in recent years. (6) Indirect costs of obesity include worker absenteeism, which is estimated to cost $4.3 billion annually, and lower worker productivity, which costs $506 per obese worker per year. (7) 

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provisions  

The new law has many provisions that support and promote an emphasis on prevention in general. Each of these provisions should focus on and maximize efforts to reduce obesity:
All health plans including Medicaid and Medicare must cover preventive services without co-pays and deductibles. (Sec. 1001)
Two new taskforces—the Preventive Services Task Force and Community Preventive Services Task Force—will examine evidence and promote effective preventive services. (Sec 4003)
A new Prevention and Public Health Fund will ensure funding for prevention programs. (Sec. 4002)
The National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council will coordinate the promotion of prevention initiatives across government departments and agencies. (Sec. 4001) 

 Results 

A recent report found that investing $10 per person in activities that focus on improving health status and preventing the development of chronic diseases could save the country more than $16 billion annually—mostly from reduced health care expenditures. (8) 

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Check out the full report here: Center for American Progress    I think the way this five-page report is designed makes it easy to understand some basic fundamental changes that need to occur to change childhood obesity rates within the United States. I also like how the article covers a variety of topics like breast-feeding, collaboration in communities, prevention, and higher obesity prevalence in certain communities. Check it out and give your input!

Fruits & Veggies More Matters

Through Twitter, I recently came across a website encouraging more fruit & veggie consumption, stocked full of resources on how to do so more easily. 

Fruits & Veggies More Matters includes articles, recipes (kid friendly too), explanations on in-season produce, and fruit & veggie spotlights. They also offer resources to help with healthy meal planning, how to select, store and prepare fruits & vegetables, how to get kids involved (including their very own kid friendly website – http://www.foodchamps.org/), and even an ‘ask the expert’ center. 

When you check out their website, don’t forget to sign up for their free bi-weekly Fruits & Veggies More—Matters Newsletter. 

Shaping America’s Youth encourages healthy eating habits and plenty of exercise. Encouraging kids, from a young age especially, to enjoy fresh, natural foods from the earth is a good way to instill life-long habits. Check out the website Fruits & Veggies More Matters for resources and links to help yourself or your family out!

What is the Connection Between Food in Schools and Our Nation’s Health?

What really grabs my attention about this topic is that on all sides of political spectrum, governmental groups, agencies, and individuals, people want to find a way to serve healthier foods in schools.

A group of retired military officer, ‘Mission Readiness,” ask for higher food standards in schools to decrease obesity for the future of national security. They explore the relationship between what kids eat at school and how well they can perform years later, preparing to serve the country.

In their recent report “Too Fat to Fight,” they highlight some main issues:

• 75% of all young Americans, 17 to 24 years of age, are unable to join the military because they failed to graduate from high school, have criminal records, or are physically unfit
• Being overweight or obese is the leading medical reason why applicants fail to qualify for service

Their preferred solution lies with the school. According to a 2010 Health Affairs article they cite, “80 percent of children who were overweight at ages 10-15 were obese at age 25,” (available here for a fee). Mission Readiness argues that using schools to establish early healthy eating habits is the way to increase health for Americans and increase the amount of eligible candidates for service.

 ‘Too Fat to Fight,’ also addresses the financial benefits of decreasing obesity, inside and outside the military.  After initial ineligible recruits are turned away, obesity still takes a toll financially. The military discharges around 1200 enlistees every year, even before their contracts are up because of weight problems. To recruit and retrain new individuals costs around $50,000 per lost man or woman, totaling more than $60 million dollars a year.

Outside of the military, the report warns that obesity puts financial stress on the health care system. They cite the American Public Health Association, which projects that by the year 2018 we will be spending about $344 billion dollars annually on health care costs related to obesity. It will account for more than 21^% of all health care spending.

The authors outline three suggestions that can alter this negative trend.

• Get the junk food and high-calorie beverages out of our schools by allowing the Secretary of Agriculture to adopt the Institute of Medicine standards for what can be served or marketed in schools.
• Increase funding for the school lunch programs. This funding will help deliver healthier, lower-calorie meals to more children who are eligible and to others from millions of families that purchase the meals. That can help students control their weight now and develop life-long healthy eating habits.
• Support the development, testing and deployment of proven public-health interventions that can deliver the education and encouragement children and parents need to adopt healthier life-long eating and exercise habits.

From Shaping America’s Youth, here are a couple of other resources and ways you can help:

• Look at the Better School Food website, which is dedicated to changing the foods that are fed to our kids in school. Resources include an action plan with different links, events, a blog, school garden suggestions, and info on Wellness Policies.
• Go onto Jamie’s Oliver’s website, where you can sign a petition to make school food better.
• The School Lunch Initiative has recipes (even for food service professionals), curriculum online learning guides, and information on seasonally fresh foods.
• The Institute for Agricultural Trade & Policy, which has news articles, reports, events, other info relating to food and farms in schools.
• Check out this blog: Fed up with Lunch: The School Lunch Project. A teacher in the Midwest who vows to eat student lunches everyday and then write about it to raise awareness.

Unhealthy Americans? Look to America’s Unhealthy Food System for Answers

Dr. David Wallinga recently wrote an article in the Huffington Post called, ‘Challenging the Obesity System,’ which examines the correlation between America’s unhealthy people and America’s unhealthy food system. The problems we face as an overweight/obese nation can be traced back to a series of events in farming history that led to the industrialization and increase of a couple different commodity crops, like corn and soybeans. Originally used to address inadequate nutrition in the United States between the 20’s and 50’s, the crops — corn which is used in sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup, and soybeans which are used to produce fat and oils — now add extra sugar, fat and refined grains to our diet. High fructose corn syrup is included in bread, chips, cereal, crackers, pretzels, soups, and even medicines. It’s also included in household products like cleaning supplies and plastic.

In his article, Dr. Wallinga points out an interesting correlation:

• Soybean and corn crops have increased around 600 times from 1920 to now
• Our 2007 daily average intake increased by 400 calories since 1985, and 600 calories since 1970
• Cheap calories (like high fructose corn syrup) have succeeded in ways that public health has failed: fewer than 1 in 10 Americans meet the daily recommended servings of fruit and vegetables, essential components of a healthy diet

Wallinga offers some great suggestions of how we can improve these statistics. Here are a couple from the article:

• The creation of a Healthy Foods Commission, operating independently of the government and comprised of public health, farming, and agricultural figure heads
• Increasing communication and working more closely with farmers to create changes in the food systems
• Raising standards for foods served in public schools, addressed specifically in the National School Lunch and Breakfast programs

What else can be done?

YOU have the chance to vote three times a day. The food you choose to purchase at your local grocery store, co-op, or farmer’s market communicates your values to the food industry. You have the opportunity to encourage ethical and healthy food behaviors for yourself and your family, and can even encourage it in your community by supporting local CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), farmer markets, community gardens, and farm-to-school food programs.

Something you can do right now? Check out the following website, Time for Lunch, a national campaign to give kids the school food they deserve. Sponsored by Slow Food USA (another great organization to check out!), the site offers great resources on ways you can get involved. The homepage of the website offers a place to write your local legislator and ask for healthier foods to be served in schools. 110,516 people have already taken action: You can be next! 

For more information on this topic, please refer to: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and the documentary Food Inc, directed by Robert Kenner and co-produced by Eric Schlosser.

Doug Beghtel/The Oregonian

A recent article in our local Oregonian Newspaper examines the relationship between obesity and serving in the military. Here are some interesting facts from the article:

• Weight is the main medical reason recruits are rejected for military service, accounting for a quarter of medical failures. The number is almost twice the rate of marijuana use, the No. 2 cause of medical failure.
• A study by Army physicians found that 27.1 percent of recruits were overweight in 2006, up from 22.8 percent in 1993. The number of obese recruits more than doubled during that span, from 2.8 percent to 6.8 percent.
• In Oregon, almost 10 percent of eighth-graders and 11 percent of 11th-graders are obese (with a body mass index that tops the 95th percentile on traditional height and weight charts), with higher rates among boys: One-seventh of male high school juniors are obese, and another seventh are overweight. The state health department calls childhood obesity “a looming public health crisis.”

Obesity is an important issue that affects all aspects of life. In our previous blog, we provided information on some of the less obvious ways that obesity will affect us in the future. Obesity prevention is so necessary in our lifestyles; the consequences we face, as a nation, if we don’t make those changes are expensive, harmful to our well-being, and deadly to both ourselves and the safety of our country.

To read more about this article, click here.

The Skyrocketing Cost of Obesity: It’s Everybody’s Business

Over the past thirty years, the number of overweight Americans has reached epidemic proportions. More than two-thirds of all adults and one-third of all children in the United States are now overweight; of these, nearly 50% of adults and 16% of children are obese.¹

While the physical and emotional costs of excess weight most directly strike the affected individuals and their families, the economic costs and consequences of this national health crisis have spread into every sector of our society. America has become an overweight nation, and it has come at a very high price.

Childhood Obesity: In the Short-term and the Long, Business Pays
• Children are included in parents’ health insurance and medical claims.
• Among obese children, average claims costs are nearly twice those of non-obese children.²
• Overweight children experience far more medical problems² and more missed school days³ than leaner children, resulting in their parents’ higher absenteeism, lower productivity, and greater health insurance utilization.
• Approximately 80% of overweight adolescents will become overweight adults.^{4, 5}

Costs to Employers
• The annual healthcare cost of obesity in the US has doubled in less than a decade and is estimated to now be as high as $147 billion dollars a year.⁶
• Obesity-related medical expenses account for nearly 10% of total annual US healthcare costs.⁶
• Obesity accounts for 13% of private insurance expenditures.⁶
• Medical spending for obese people is 42% higher than that for normal weight people.⁶
• Obesity costs US businesses more than $13 billion annually in:⁷
          • Health insurance claims
          • Paid sick leave
          • Disability and life insurance
• Obesity costs a 1000-employee company approximately $285,000 per year.⁸
• Indirect costs of employee absenteeism include the increased burden on other workers, cost of training replacement employees, and/or overtime pay to other employees.

Direct Effects of Obesity on American Businesses
The Insurance Industry
• Overweight and obese individuals have more chronic health problems than normal weight people, resulting in increased disability costs due to tens of millions of lost work days annually.
• Compared to normal weight, overweight people suffer from a higher incidence of chronic disease, which can complicate recovery from any given injury or illness, resulting in higher costs for treatment, medications, physical therapy, and rehabilitative services.

The Transportation Industry
• As many as 1 billion additional gallons of gasoline are consumed yearly in the US due to the excess weight of the population.⁹
• This additional fuel consumption produces carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 10 billion tons.⁹
• Heavier airline flights due to heavier passengers cost an extra $275 million annually for 350 million more gallons of fuel.¹⁰
• This increased airline fuel use releases an extra 3.8 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air.¹⁰

Design and Retooling Changes
With 68% of the adult population now overweight, manufacturers are faced with providing products that fit these bigger bodies.  Manufacturing processes that are necessitating refitting include, but are certainly not limited to:
• Clothing: adults and children
• Public seating: sports arenas, theaters, classrooms, churches, restaurants
• Furniture: homes, schools, and offices
• Bathroom fixtures: toilet seats, showers, bathtubs
• Healthcare facilities: ambulances, beds, exam and surgical tables and equipment
• Cemetery supplies: caskets, hearses, plots

The Bottom Line
• Obesity is the nation’s most widespread and rapidly growing health crisis.¹¹
• The staggering economic costs of obesity now permeate every sector of our society.
• Overweight youth become overweight members of the work force.
• By current estimates, up to 86% of Americans will be overweight and 51% obese by 2030.¹²
• Overweight and its accompanying medical conditions and costs are preventable.

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Citations
1. Flegal, KM, Carroll, MD, Ogden, CL, Curtin, LR. Prevalence and Trends in Obesity among US Adults, 1999–2008. Journal of the American Medical Association 2010; 235–241.
2. Sepulveda MJ, Tait F, Zimmerman E, Edington D. Impact of childhood obesity on employers. Health Affairs 2010; 29:513-521.
3. Geier AB, Foster DG, Womble LG, et al. The relationship between relative weight and shcoll attendance among elementary schoolchildren. Obesity 2007; 15:2157-2161.
4. Herman KM, Craig CL, Gauvin L, Katzmarzyk PT. Tracking of obesity and physical activity from childhood to adulthood: the Physical Activity Longitudinal Study. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity 2009; 4:281-288.
5. Whitaker RC, Wright JA, Pepe MS, Seidel KD, Dietz WH. Predicting obesity in young adulthood from childhood and parental obesity. New England Journal of Medicine 1997; 337:869-873.
6. Finkelstein EA, Trogdon JG, Cohen JW, Dietz W. Annual medical spending attributable to obesity: payer-and service-specific estimates. Health Affairs 2009: 5:w822-w831.
7. Thompson D, Edelsberg J, Kinsey KL, Oster G. Estimated economic costs of obesity to U.S. business. American Journal of Health Promotion 1998; 13:120-127.
8. Finkelstein E, Fiebelkorn C, Wang G. The costs of obesity among full-time employees. American Journal of Health Promotion 2005; 20:45-51.
9. Jacobson SH, King DM. Measuring the potential for automobile fuel savings in the US: the impact of obesity.  Transportation Research 2009:14:6-13.
10. Dannenberg AL, Burton DC, Jackson RJ.  Economic and environmental costs of obesity: the impact on airlines. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2004; 27:264.
11. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation 2010. Rockville MD: USDHHS, Office of the Surgeon General, January 2010.
12. Wang Y. Will all Americans become overweight or obese? Obesity 2008; 16:2323-2330.

Michelle Obama Addresses Grocery Manufacturer’s Association

Michelle Obama addressed large food companies like Coca-Cola, General Mills and Kraft Foods to take responsibility for their contribution to childhood obesity by making healthier foods and targeting those foods, instead of junk food, to children.

“We need you not just to tweak around the edges, but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products and how you market those products to our children,” she said in a speech to the Grocery Manufacturer’s Association this past Tuesday, March 16th.

Since then, PepsiCo has pledged to cease selling full-sugar soft drinks to schools (primary and secondary) around the world by 2012, which will affect 200 countries. As the first company to stand up and take concrete action, they’re being applauded by Center for Science in the Public Interest and Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity among others. Coca-Cola has also issued a resolution to cease selling soda unless the parents or school district ask for it.

This is a big accomplishment for Michelle Obama and school children worldwide. But she’s still pushing for companies to change the built environment, the production of food, and consumer awareness. She addressed the food industry with the following words:

‘We can build shiny new supermarkets on every block, but we need those supermarkets to actually provide healthy options at prices people can afford,” she said. “And we can insist that our schools serve better food, but we need to actually produce that food. And we can give parents all the information in the world, but they still won’t have time to untangle labels filled with 10-syllable words or do long division with these portion sizes. And that’s really where you come in.”

Cheers to Michelle Obama and her determination to change factors in our society to positively influence the reduction of childhood obesity in our nation! Stay tuned for more news of the first lady’s actions.

Michelle Obama’s Obesity Initiative Components

(Michelle Obama addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors)

Michelle Obama is underway to lead this generation of children to healthier, happier lifestyles. Encouraging changes in families, schools, and communities, she shares many of the core values that Shaping America’s Youth has promoted to fight childhood obesity. Through public discourse, compelling speeches, visits to schools, sport clinics and grocery stores she works to connect with Americans across the country by sharing stories and educating communities about her mission. Her success thus far has proven Michelle’s dedication to fighting childhood obesity and her ability to make people listen. 

But how exactly is Michelle Obama doing this? Phrases like ‘task force,’ ‘obesity platform,’ and ‘the plan’ have made bold headlines around the country in a confusing flurry of information.  I’ve broken down the two major components, hopeful to clarify how Michelle Obama is pursuing change. 

Task Force on Obesity
Barack Obama signed a presidential memorandum on February 9, 2010 which establishes the first-ever governmental task force focused on obesity. The task force is comprised of key folks that represent a variety of public interests, including but not limited to the Secretary of Agriculture (Tom Vilsack), the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Kathleen Sebelius), the Secretary of Education (Arne Duncan), and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (Peter Orszag). The responsibility of the task force is to create a national action plan within 90 days of the memorandum that unites the strengths of different governmental agencies to solve the problem of overweight and obesity among children. The task force will also designate measurable goals to ensure that the group is en route to success. The task force is comprised of four main components (copied directly from the memorandum on the WhiteHouse.gov website): 

(a) ensuring access to healthy, affordable food;
(b) increasing physical activity in schools and communities;
(c) providing healthier food in schools; and
(d) empowering parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families. 

Let’s Move
The Let’s Move Website is an online forum for people to get engaged and find information to support their lifestyle changes. There are four main topics on the website (to reflect the four main focuses mentioned above) which are labeled as ‘Accessible & Affordable Healthy Food,’ ‘Physical Activity,’ ‘Healthy Schools’ and ‘Healthy Choices.’ On each of these tabs, the website provides abounds of helpful knowledge like information, statistics, and links to other reputable sources. The site also offers a place to sign up for newsletters and e-updates. There is also a section labeled ‘Kids’ Collection’ which offers resources geared towards kids like activity books, comics, recipes, and games. 

These two distinct forces work together to reach the American public and persuade change in American lifestyle. In upcoming months, there is sure to be more coverage, interest, and expansion. Make sure to stay involved and keep checking back to stay updated!

Social Media Online

Shaping America’s Youth (SAY) engages public involvement – parents, youth, and the broader community- to develop community based solutions to fight childhood obesity. Here are a couple of mediums that we use to connect with people. Please take a look and let us know what you think. We are more than happy to answer questions!

Facebook Page
              
   
            Facebook Cause              
                           

                                         

    

Michelle Obama Selects Ending Childhood Obesity as her Legacy

Surrounded by talking vegetables and puppets, Michelle Obama recorded a Public Service Announcement with Sesame Street intended to educate and encourage kids to eat healthier foods. It’s one step toward fulfilling her legacy of ending childhood obesity, which she announced at the beginning of this year.

 

Aside from a political standpoint, childhood obesity is a problem that Michelle faces as a mother. In a New Yorker Magazine article from 2008, Michelle describes a visit with a pediatric doctor that warned her that one of her daughters was at risk for becoming overweight. After this, she describes a self-reflection of their family’s eating habits, saying ‘You know, you’ve got fast food on Saturday, a couple days a week you don’t get home. The leftovers, good, not the third day! …So that whole notion of cooking on Sunday is out. . . And the notion of trying to think about a lunch every day! . . . So you grab the Lunchables, right? And the fruit-juice-box thing, and we think—we think—that’s juice. And you start reading the labels and you realize there’s high-fructose corn syrup in everything we’re eating (New Yorker, 2008). ‘

 Michelle began to integrate healthy food into her family’s life by keeping a bowl of fresh fruit available and offering more cut-up, ready-to-eat vegetables. Now, she is taking that concept national and promoting kids to eat nutritious, fresh produce and encouraging parents to provide healthier options at home through her childhood obesity initiative. Before she presents this initiative nationwide next month, Michelle gathers before the U.S. Conference of Mayors this week to ask for their support.

 During her speeches, Michelle singled out exceptional mayors that have already begun to encourage healthy eating and weight loss in their city, like Mayor Mick Cornett from Oklahoma. He created a website – thiscityisgoingonadiet.com – to help Oklahomans to collectively lose one million pounds by providing resources, tips, and progress trackers. So far, 40,000 have people have signed up and the city has lost more than half a million pounds. It is an example that other cities can learn from.

 Michelle also mentions that she wishes to partner with a variety of individuals from cross-sectors of society to battle obesity, including businesses, foundations, and non-profit groups. This concept is familiar at Shaping America’s Youth, where we have likewise joined a variety of viewpoints, groups, and strategies to represent obesity across the country. She discusses the importance of the collective efforts of these groups in aiding an end to childhood obesity.

 I am curious how Michelle will find individuality and success in her initiative, without doubting that she will. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of groups, initiatives, reports, foundations, medical centers,  and support groups around the country dedicated to this subject already. What will Michelle do differently? How will she use her power as the first lady to find success? Where is she going to begin?

 She recognizes herself that childhood obesity isn’t a problem that can be solved in a year, or just with a select group of people’s efforts. It will take time and hard effort, but she says, ‘”But make no mistake about it, this is a problem that can be solved.”

Sources:

Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-20-first-lady-obesity-20100119,0,2100666.story
The Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/sns-health-michelle-obama-anti-obesity-initiative,0,385634.story