Over the past three decades, childhood obesity has become a national epidemic in this country and if we do nothing to help this generation of kids to learn to embrace healthy habits now they face the potential risk of developing adult diseases such as type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and even heart disease at a very young age. Sadly some of these kids have already met this fate. The American College of Sports Medicine in conjunction with several other prominent organizations, such as the NAACP, the American Society for Nutrition, the Cleveland Clinic and HealthCorps, just to name a few, are waging a battle against childhood obesity by declaring September National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. On March 26, 2010 the United States Senate passed this declaration to help raise awareness to parents and educators that action needs to be taken now if we hope to curtail this growing trend. The statistics are alarming. According to the American College of Sports Medicine over 23 million children ages 2 to 19 are considered overweight or obese. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that the number of overweight/obese children has more than tripled in just 30 years. It is estimated that one third of children born after the year 2000 face the risk of developing diabetes in their lifetime, not to mention the complications that follow from having this disease. So how did we get to this point in such a short time? Our kids are not living the active lifestyle we did as kids. Television, computers, video games and lack of physical education classes in school bear some of the responsibility. This coupled with many kids eating out at restaurants, whether sit down or fast food, on an almost daily basis where portion control is hard to manage, is also a contributing factor. First Lady Michelle Obama has taken on the mission to get our children active and eating healthier by launching the Let's Move! program earlier this year. This program is designed to help parents, grandparents and educators in guiding our youth toward healthy habits so that this generation may be able to avoid many of the complications that accompany being overweight and obese. I like to think that hope is not lost. SparkPeople is playing a role in helping change the course we are on as a nation. SparkTeens and SparkAmerica are two sites that can help our youth and their parents learn to embrace healthy habits, and more importantly learn to look at this journey as lifestyle and not just a diet to lose weight. Making healthy living a family activity is what I believe will help us to transform this generation of kids. As a parent, grandparent or educator do you help the children in your life to embrace a healthy lifestyle? What actions have you taken to guide your children? What do you believe it will take to change the childhood obesity epidemic? |
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