This blog will provide readers with my final word on this week's children's health news, as well as links to the most relevant health topics impacting what's most important to you--your children. In order to create a coherent blog, I will normally focus on one area of children's health that's making headlines (this week--obesity).
As you may be aware, childhood obesity is an epidemic in our society. In recent weeks, the topic continues to make headlines with several new studies on the matter and even Shaq weighing (no pun intended) in on the matter (i.e. "Shaq's Big Challenge"; see http://www.abc.com/ for t.v. times in your area). A recent issue of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine revealed what we in this business have assumed to be true for many years--that food branding impacts kids' taste perceptions (see an insightful article published in last week's New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/health/nutrition/14nugg.html?ex=1188619200&en=9e8e2de89b6584ca&ei=5070). In the study, children (ages 3 to 5) from a low socio-economic area tasted five identical foods and beverages in McDonald's and unbranded packaging; the researchers concluded that children preferred McDonald's packaged food over unbranded food (77 percent of the children sampled preferred McDonald's french fries and 54 percent preferred carrots in McDonald's packaging). In related news, a study in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association concluded that among 14,000 children diagnosed with hypertension only 26 percent of the cases were properly documented by pediatricians (http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-web_hypertensionaug22,1,6951803.story; http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/298/8/874). Obesity is dramatically impacting our youth increasing their likelihood of suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and heart attack. In plain English, obesity issues could cut short the life of your child. If you doubt me, chew on this link (http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-sci-obesity28aug28,1,2527430.story?coll=la-headlines-health&ctrack=1&cset=true) That's all for now!
About Me
- Amber Roessner
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- Amber Roessner is an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee's School of Journalism and Electronic Media. Her first book, Inventing Baseball Heroes: Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson & the Sporting Press in America, was released by LSU Press in June 2014. Her research involves the cultural history of (sports) media and its intersection with race, gender, and class. She also serves as a freelance writer for local newspapers and magazines covering a variety of topics from health and education to sports-related issues.
5 comments:
Nice start on your blog!
Here is a link to an old ABH article about the Wellness Policy committee:
http://onlineathens.com/stories/111505/opinion_20051115017.shtml
There is a meeting of the local Wellness policy committee on Oct. 2nd. if you are interested.
This is all happening because of the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004.
http://www.frac.org/html/federal_food_programs/cnreauthor/cnrc_highlights.htm
Wow, these stats are startling. All the advances that the industrial revolution brought us in time-saving devices is beginning to take its toll. Technology and progress have brought about an overweight America.
I like the return to more physical education that I see some schools are doing now.
It is amazing how much just walking will do to keep weight down.
Speaking of how much walking will do....
There is a group in Athens promoting Safe Routes to community schools. They are identifying the major intersections that parents cross when walking or cycling their kids to school and hoping to get crossing guards posted at them and other safety precautions. The idea is to eventually map out the major routes and encourage more parents to use them.
You got the health and medical consortium off to a great start with this top-down view of childhood obesity.
But how to translate into policy and practice? That's where the going gets tough.
Check "student portfolios" on the knighthealth page for stories about Safe Routes and school nutrition in Athens, written by Tom Zimmerman last Fall.
The current issue of Atlanta Magazine also has a provocative piece about a school principal in Metro Atlanta who turned her magnet school into a sugar-free zone. Could that be done in an Athens-Clarke County school? What would it take for that to happen?
Speaking of obesity, I just read an article on MSNBC.com today about researchers revisiting a study done on obese flies that targeted a "skinny gene." The article was fascinating in that it described a gene found in all animals that more or less determined an organisms' likelihood of turning energy into fat. While most people I talk to everyday say they wish they could be as skinny as I am and eat the way I do, the article did a pretty good job of trying to give the other perspective. That is to say that it's not easy for some of us to gain weight and in times of famine it could mean our lives.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20535978/
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