Fight on Fat
How Portland, Maine, took a stand against childhood obesity. It spent $3.7 million to rally schools and other sites in the state. More families adopted 5-2-1-0 a day: At least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 2 hours or less of screen time, at least 1 hour of exercise, and 0 sugary drinks. After all that, the childhood overweight-and-obesity rate for southern Maine dipped 1.5 percentage points to 31.3%.
Full article on Maine’s resistance against obesity.
Proves that you can spend a lot of money for marginal gains.
ROI must be miserably low.
It’s good to see that they’re trying, at least. So sad to see 9-year-olds with prediabetic symptoms simply because of their diet choices. I think parents have the most influence in this arena…if they set good examples from the get-go, then kids are more likely to adopt their healthier choices.
You can’t go wrong eating fruits and vegetables and cutting all sodas and sugary drinks out of your diet…that’s just a no-brainer.
Amber
When I was growing up we had outdoor recess twice a day plus a time we could spend outside running around after lunch. We also had PE, which many schools have dropped during the past few years. Physical activity is less common at school than in years past. Reinstating physical activity at school would be a good start.
In a recent House Armed Services hearing, military commanders testified that childhood obesity is affecting our military readiness. In the event of a situation that caused us to involuntarily draft soldiers, they are worried that the available pool of draft candidates are too overweight and unfit to respond to an emergency.
@Brian, that’s a scary thought.