| The Community Confronts a Crisis |
|
 Childhood
Obesity |
|
 C. Everett Koop, MD, DSc, former Surgeon General of the United States and pediatric surgeon, has warned parents for decades about the dangers of childhood obesity. Dr. Koop, speaking on behalf of Shape Up America!, a nonprofit educational campaign, recently called attention to the issue: “As a nation, we cannot ignore the pressing problem of childhood obesity, which threatens the health of children as they grow and mature, and significantly increases the risk of disabling diseases of adulthood which now affect our children.”
The statistics are alarming. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that a child with a body mass index of 95 percent is considered overweight or obese. Statistics released by the Academy in late 2003 show that 15 percent of 6- to 19-year-olds are at or above the 95th percentile and therefore are obese.
Childhood obesity is associated with significant health problems, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and depression. “These are the children we see in our clinics now, children who are being diagnosed with diseases that once afflicted only aging patients,” says Deborah Nelson, RN, MS, member of the Board of Directors of the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System (SVMHS) and a nurse practitioner at Doctors on Duty and PrimeCare. “The height and weight of a child are routinely recorded when a child seeks medical care and we’re seeing a huge mismatch between height and weight. This wasn’t the case when I became a nurse 30 years ago. Look at what’s happened over the past three decades: affordable fast foods, moms in the workforce with little time to prepare healthy meals and snack foods loaded with fats and sugar. Families juggle busy schedules and their meals lose out to grab-and-go fast food.”
Childhood obesity is a hot topic in the schools and the community. A new program, Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Principles (HELP) [See Sidebar], has been established to address nutrition, physical activity and positive lifestyle practices among youth in Monterey County. Recently, Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) of SVMHS approved a grant to HELP to create a Nutritional Policy Parity Program in the county’s schools beginning later this year.
Kendra Howell, Children’s Miracle Network Director, says the HELP program “goes right to the core of good health. We’ve heard so much about childhood obesity and how poor eating habits affect kids and their ability to become healthy adults. HELP will work with families to emphasize the long-term value of a healthy lifestyle that begins with the five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day rule.”
 “Children are apt to practice healthy eating habits if their parents set a good example,” says Cynthia Poole, MS, RD, Chief of Nutrition at SVMHS. “Actions speak louder than words. Parents model good habits by eating the right types of food in the right quantities at the right time. I believe family mealtime is important when everyone gathers at the table to eat healthy foods. Let kids help prepare the meals so they have some ownership in the process. Discuss healthy cooking styles and how to make food taste good with low-fat, low-salt and low-sugar menus. An overweight child is not only the child’s issue; it’s a family issue and it takes the entire family to correct it.” Poole advises families to educate themselves about healthy food choices and what to purchase and what to avoid.
Christina Varela, Manager of Purchasing and Food Services of the Salinas Union High School District, understands the seriousness of childhood obesity. Menus served at schools in her district are based on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutritional standards, but in addition to hot meals she offers a la carte items some students prefer such as gourmet (mandarin, chicken, chef and noodle) salads, fruit and healthy beverages.
“We can see the effects of what has happened. There are more kids and adults that are larger and heavier-set than ever before. When our cafeteria staff see a student making a poor food choice, they’ll encourage him to take a piece of fruit, but do it in a nonjudgmental way. Our cafeteria managers are great in the way they encourage students to choose healthy foods. Kids want sweets so I won’t completely remove them. They’ll just go to nearby convenience stores to get what they want. I’m big on choice and I believe we can influence their choices. We also need to teach lifestyle changes to take home, and practice to really be successful at beating this crisis,” Varela says. She is teaming with the HELP program in hopes of addressing the need for nutrition awareness.
Nelson agrees that families can learn to make choices that affect healthy eating habits and regular physical exercise. “Parents, who provide the food, are key players and so are their children who often help educate their parents. Everyone has to pitch in. We know that smoking and teenage pregnancy have decreased due to hard-hitting public education programs over the past two decades. We—the home, the schools and the community can work together to reverse childhood obesity by taking positive, corrective action.” |
| |
| HELP Is
On the Way— |
 Basil Mills, a leader in Salinas Valley’s agricultural industry and President of Mills Family Farms, has a dream. “My vision is healthy kids who eat healthy food, have physical activity and feel good about themselves,” says Mills, who is promoting the Monterey County Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Principles (HELP) program as its Chairman. “This is an all-inclusive effort to counter obesity, which is the biggest health crisis our country is facing. HELP targets youngsters up to age 18, but in doing so, we will bring their families to the table. Everyone will benefit.”
HELP emerged as an initiative from the Competitive Clusters Project, which is a public/private partnership between the Monterey County Office of Economic Development and the Monterey County Business Council. “Part of our mission is to encourage people to eat five to nine servings per day of fresh fruits and vegetables and increase physical activity. The result is two-fold: a healthier community and an economic boon to the Salinas Valley’s ‘salad bowl of the world,’” Mills says.
Mike Pippi, Executive Director of HELP, has planned a variety of energetic “Growing Healthy Communities” programs to influence the way Monterey County students eat, study and play. The first step is to set a model of countywide school policies for healthy eating, physical activity and positive personal values. This Nutritional Policy Parity Project program, which will identify six pilot schools districts in 2005, has received grant support from the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) of Salinas Valley Memorial Heathcare System (SVMHS).
HELP’s goal to set healthy eating guidelines includes school meals, food used for fundraising, after-school snacks and school vending machines. “We will involve families through informational programs and fairs and partner in schools with the Big Sur Marathon’s ‘Just Run’ program and the ‘Farm to School’ partnership program, offered by California State University at Monterey Bay,” says Pippi.
“When Congress reauthorized the Child Nutrition Program this year, they added a mandate requiring each school district in America to have a Wellness Policy in effect by July 1, 2006. As we establish the parity project for HELP, we’ll be available free to school districts to help them create and implement their mandated programs to comply with federal law by the deadline,” he says.
Suzanne du Verrier, a food services consultant, will work directly with the school districts to set up their programs. She created and now manages the “Five a Day” program for the Alisal Union School District. “My role with HELP comes from my experience with school nutrition programs and federal Child Nutrition Program regulations. As Alisal’s Food Services Director until last year, we successfully applied to the State of California to fund the ‘Five a Day’ program, now in its eighth year. Changing the way children and their families eat takes a long time. I’m committed to good childhood nutrition, not just in the clinical sense but also in the everyday life experience. If children are healthy, they learn better and function better in life,” says du Verrier.
“This is exactly what I envisioned when I volunteered to assist in founding HELP,” says Mills. |
| |
|
|
|
