..Two-thirds of American adults are too fat, and a major overhaul of US policies -- from schools to restaurants to urban planning -- is needed to stem the epidemic, medical experts said Tuesday.
In a hefty, 400-plus page report, the Ins ute of Medicine (IOM) called for urgent action to reverse national obesity trends that are costing the US $190.2 billion a year in illness-related costs.
Peppered with terms like "synergies," "empower" and "systems approach," the report called for a renewed focus on schools as the place where eating habits take hold for life, noting that 17 percent of US children are obese, a figure that has tripled in 30 years.
Offering lunches packed with veggies and whole grains and limiting access to sugar-sweetened drinks were among the recommendations for kids age six to 18.
States and local schools should also make sure all children and teenagers have the opportunity for 60 minutes of exercise per day, said the report led "Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of a Nation."
Other top goals for all ages included making physical activity a daily routine, making healthy food and drink choices widely available, and expanding the role of doctors, insurers and employers.
"Because obesity is such a complex and stubborn problem, a bold, sustained and comprehensive approach is needed," said the report.
"Action must occur at all levels -- individual, family, community, and the broader society."
The IOM report reviewed past strategies for obesity prevention in order to come up with new recommendations to speed progress, it said.
"Left unchecked, obesity's effects on health, health care costs, and our productivity as a nation could become catastrophic," added the report.
People who belong to ethnic minorities, who have lower incomes and less education are more susceptible to obesity, partly due to policy decisions that result in limited access to healthy foods and places to enjoy exercise.
For instance, one third of children born today -- and half of Hispanic and black children -- will develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime, according to projections cited by the IOM.
"Some communities may have no safe place to walk or play, no shops offering affordable healthy food, and widespread advertisements of unhealthy food and beverages," said the report.
Community planners could work harder to make sure there are safe places for exercise, for example by converting an unused railroad bed into a running and biking trail, said the report.
"People only have a certain, limited ability to control their weight in an environment where there is a lot of food available," said IOM committee member Shiriki Kumanyika, professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania.
"One of the main reasons (for obesity) has to do with people being presented with large quan ies of food -- tasty food -- in a culture where more is better, portion sizes are getting larger and heavily advertised," she told AFP.
Separate research presented Monday at a related conference on obesity in the US capital warned that 42 percent of US adults could be obese by 2030, and the number of severely obese people could more than double from five to 11 percent.
Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, urged governments, the food and health care industries and schools to implement the IOM's recommendations, calling it an "excellent blueprint for solving America's costly obesity problem."
"But policy makers will have to invest both money and political capital to convert the advice into reality," he added.
Despite the report's repeated urging of more ins utional measures to make sure healthy foods are readily available, Kumanyika said the report's authors were not seeking new laws or mandates.
"We can't rely on mandatory solutions where they are not likely to be put into place. There a lot of things that government can do voluntarily," she said.
"Many of the things we recommend are in the control of people," she added. "They just require energy, focus and leadership to get things done."
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http://news.yahoo.com/major-overhaul...175148279.html
its simple, the red meat based diet and processed/sugary foods have to go. its too damn expensive to actually buy real food, and no one has time to do so while working 60 hours a week to barely keep their heads above water. good luck making real food affordable.
Real food being affordable isn't the problem. The unwillingness of Americans to sacrifice couch/TV time to exercise and cook for themselves is.
Like the VRWC, the obesity epidemic is unstoppable.
BigFood sells only toxic, dead, food-like substances that are low-nutrient, high-calorie- density, and cheap (but still suitably profitable).
There are some positive moves:
Student fitness improves with anti-obesity program
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...=Google+Reader
But let us know when (southern) red/Repug states (lots of obese blacks and browns, poor) actually do something for their 99%'s diseases.
"too damn expensive to actually buy real food"
It's not easy to buy fresh plant-based food every 2 or 3 days, but it's not really that expensive. I guarantee you, trying to make your co-pays (if you even insured) for CVD, diabetes treatment for years is much more impoverishing.
;LMAO LMAO LMAO are u some sort of ? btw, aren't the GMO crops linked to obesity amongst other things? (such as organ failure) good luck buying organic chicken and vegetables, you have any idea how much that stuff costs? a good 75% of the country lives check to check and can't afford it.
Don't be a dumbass. America is fat because too many people eat fast food 10 times a week and never exercise, not because everyone is buying non-organic produce.
I don't think that's nearly as much of a problem as lots of Americans' unwillingness to drink water not containing sugar or syrup in it. Then there is snacking, which has become the national pastime. It's the easiest thing in the world to tear through a big bag of chips when your attention is focused on watching a game.
Both legitimate concerns.
Miraculously, my entire family is thin, and without any govt intervention.
Counting calories and exercise is a great start to losing those pounds. It doesn't mean you have stop eating those delicious high calorie foods, it just means you can't do it everyday. Being overweight is not good for anyone. God bless
"But the fruit of the spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law."
Avoiding simple carbohydrates and heavily processed food ain't that hard once your body has become accustomed to less and you get reacquainted with real food.
Took me 5-6 weeks of being hungry all the time and clocking my diet meticulously (with a well known online app) before I got used to the lower caloric load and less carbs in my diet. The real key, though, was that I began to eat less and enjoy eating more...
Something similar obtains for exercise: it feels great to get a little fitter.
now if you'll all excuse me, I'm off to ride my bike.
The real problem is that the S.A.D. standard American diet as defined by USDA and BigFarma is so far from a healthy, lean-weight diet that most Americans don't have a clue about how to modify from SAD to healthy.
eg, the low-fat bull the govt has pushed for decades has failed terribly, because at the same time, overweight/obesity, for 30+ years, has exploded, while BigFood stuffed damn near everything full of HFCS, synthetic sweeteners, sugar (it's natural!).
eg "whole grains" is basically bull , too, since grains are almost totally fast carbs with a little bit of good stuff retained, vs the 100% pathogenic refined grains.
USDA pushes it subsidizes, naturally. Why is USDA in the food marketing business at all?
Lots of people hate exercise, and almost nobody can maintain exercise over a life time (eg, most health club members stop going after 6 months). So exercise is not an efficient weight-loss public policy, while eating a mostly plant-based diet while avoiding industrial food-like substances, snacking, etc. can work for everybody.
btw, here's an great example of how the Repugs vote against Americans' health:
Congress battles over car-free transportation
The Senate bill passed on a rare bipartisan vote of 74-22 after partisan differences were worked out between Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and the top committee Republican, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla.
Inhofe sought to cut the pedestrian and bicycle programs, but Boxer preserved most of them, with some concessions.
Bicycle and pedestrian programs "believe it or not, caused the most anguish and were the hardest to come to an accord on," Fowler said. She said the Senate bill scales back each of the programs to some extent, such as allowing governors to opt out of spending for recreational trails to divert the money to highways.
Fowler said that while Oklahoma City has started its first bike-share program with the full support of its mayor, Republicans such as Inhofe from rural states remain adamant that federal transportation money go to highways alone. She insisted that cycling and walking can work in small towns, too.
http://mobile.sfgate.com/sfchron/db_...tguid=iM005aqO
Repug assholes (sorry for the redundancy) like climate-denier James InBred are own by the oil/gascos.
crossfit and paleo my nikkas. Sucks but it's worth it.
being obese is just like being lower class (excluding medical conditions). You either sacrifice and become disciplined for the grand payoff, or you be fake happy and suffer forever.
Grabbing the soda instead of the ozarka is nothing more than natural selection. Government needs to quit trying to best natural selection. There are so many resources, free resources, support groups, communities out there to beat obesity...95% don't have an excuse.
99% of people won't/can't do something extreme like crossfit.
My diabetic ass has had to make lifestyle change but I still don't like people pushing their "you have no self esteem" at udes on me or others. I cook every night for our family and we go on nightly walks. Kids don't exercise like they did before. Well, it wasn't really exercise but we used to run and ride our bikes all day long. Now it is rare to see kids riding bikes or just doing things like being outside. Without a damn cell phone or electronic toy that is. Too much sitting around playing video games instead of participating in real games.
You don't have to do the P90X or Insanity workouts to be fit.
You can lose most weight just skipping rope and doing bodyweight exercises for 20 minutes every day in a crossfit style wod setup. Crossfit is death, but extreme laziness is far more scary.
Mic e Obama is doing it right aiming her fit craze at the kids. The trick is to not get addicted to easy cheap processed poison that is so abundant and tasty. Once you're hooked on the "norm" it's super hard to pull a 180.
I rode 20 miles this morning. Feels damn good, and beats the outta a stationary in a gym.
there is no reason to grab an ozarka either, just a glass of water will do.
I loves Ozarka, tho.
Not everyone can respond well to exercise (though most can get something out of it), but certainly anyone can cut out the Dr Pepper and Ruffles.
Good for you. But should not someone step in if parents allow their children to eat out every day? Certainly you would agree that someone should regulate, and hopefully do a better job of ensuring that people no longer eat pink slime.
There is a role for government when it comes to food. And there is going to continue to be a need for government to get involved if the trends in obesity continue to skyrocket. Telling people they are fat and lazy doesn't work.
Eating healthy is something that needs to start at a young age. My parents were educated, one being a doctor and the other a nurse. family was well to do growing up but we ate out way too much. It took a long time to get my eating habits under control. I used to think that because I ran daily and played basketeball 3-4 times a week that would be enough.
When I hit about 25-26 I started gaining weight for the first time in my life. I started increasing my exercise to 5 miles running every day. I lifted weights 3 times a week and still found time to play ball at least 2 a week and I still gained weight because of my diet. After putting on about 45 pounds, I forced myself to eat healthy. It took about 5 years of struggling but I was able to lose the 45 pounds. It was not easy to do and is still hard to do today. Plenty of times I would rather pick up a McDonalds burger and fries on the way home as oppossed to eating veggies.
My kids eat fast food about 5 times a year. My wife and I will take them during holidays. If we eat out at a restaurant, no soda or deserts, no french fries, always a vegitable and we won't go anywhere unless they can accomodate us. My kids do not struggle with their diet, they don't ask for the junk food. This is why I say that it has to start with good eating habits at an early age.
Moms when I was a kid packed us a lunch of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, Twinkies, potato chips, cookies, apples & a canteen of water & told us to not come home until the street lights came on…There were no fat kids riding 50 lb Schwinns exploring the outside world back then….
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