Reshaping the Nutritional Environment for Our Children
Under the leadership of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, the White House has launched a new initiative to combat the childhood obesity epidemic in America. Obesity rates among the young have more than tripled over the past thirty years. Today, almost one in three kids is diagnosed as overweight or obese. Other weight-related health problems, such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, asthma and cancer add to the urgency to tackle this issue.
While former government administrations have mostly favored an approach of personal responsibility in the fight against childhood obesity, the Obama campaign is decidedly less focused on individual behavior and more on structural conditions.
This is a step in the right direction. In fact, the White House has adopted a message that nutrition experts have been proclaiming for a long time, namely that the nutritional environment plays a significant role in the formation of eating habits at a young age.
Too many children grow up in a nutritionally hazardous environment. School lunches, especially in less affluent school districts, are notorious for their low nutritional quality. Thankfully, some of the largest school lunch suppliers in the nation have now agreed to review their current meal plans and have pledged to make efforts to reduce excessive fat, sugar and salt content over the next five years. Itβs a start.
Another persistent problem is the lack of access to quality food outlets in poor neighborhoods. Healthy foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables are not only more expensive, they are literally out of reach for many low-income families. More initiatives to attract grocery stores and supermarkets with fresh produce departments to these areas are needed. Urban farms and farmers markets in inner cities must be promoted and, if necessary, financially subsidized.
In addition to improving nutrition, the Obama campaign also emphasizes regular physical activity as a central component in the fight against childhood obesity. The importance of exercising has been an often-repeated mantra of the Bush administration as well, but it was mostly regarded as a matter of personal choice. By contrast, the new program considers what structural conditions may be needed for the promotion of physical activity among children. That includes the creation of more public spaces where children can play sports and games, such as parks, pools and recreation areas. Child-friendly improvements of the existing infrastructure are also badly needed, such as safe bike paths and sidewalks in residential neighborhoods and near schools. Needless to say that Physical Education (PE) must be brought back and made mandatory in all public schools.
It is heartening to see government recognizing that it can (and should) play a role in the promotion of public health, especially when it concerns our youngest members of society. The hands-off policies of the past have been left in place far too long. The damage is now plain to see and will be for a generation or more.
