Childhood obesity isn’t an issue that strikes only when adolescents explore their independence and start making their own food and lifestyle choices, it unfortunately also strikes children at a much younger age. According to the recent study “Prevalence of Obesity Among US Preschool Children in Different Racial and Ethic Groups” (Arch Pediatr Adolesc Me 2009; 163(4):344-348), the obesity prevalence of 4-year old children in the United States is a disturbing 18.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.1%-19.8%), with the ethic/racial breakdowns as follows:

American Indian/Native Alaskan, 31.2% (95% CI, 24.6%-37.8%); Hispanic, 22.0% (95% CI, 19.5%-24.5%); non-Hispanic black, 20.8% (95% CI, 17.8%-23.7%); non-Hispanic white, 15.9% (95% CI, 14.3%-17.5%); and Asian, 12.8% (95% CI, 10.0%-15.6%)

Childhood obesity can lead to a myriad of physical and psychological health problems, among them diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, low self esteem, harassment and discrimination.

Ideally parents should lead the charge in reversing this disturbing trend of obesity in children, but sometimes themselves contribute to the problem due to ignorance or their own poor health practices. Fortunately there are number of concerted efforts being made to combat childhood obesity. A select list of programs/organizations includes:

Alliance for a Healthier Generation

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a partnership between the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation.

It seeks to make a positive impact on children’s health via its four core initiatives — Healthy Schools Program, Industry Program (encouraging restaurants and snack companies to create healthier meals, snacks and drinks for children), Kids’ Movement, and Healthcare Program.

NUTRITION DETECTIVES® “Teaching Kids to Make Healthy Choices”

Nutrition Detectives in a nutrition education program for elementary school children where youngsters learn how to read food labels, how to identify healthy foods, and how to make wise nutritional choices.

It includes a manual/curriculum guide for teachers and a pre- and post food label quiz to measure students’ increased nutritional comprehension.

Food Dudes

The Food Dudes Healthy Eating Programme, which originated in the UK and is available in six languages, is geared towards children 2-11.

It claims a high success rate in getting participating children to eat more fruits and vegetables, with equal effectiveness for boys and girls and children of all socioeconomic backgrounds. The site provides a step-by-step guide to starting a Food Dudes program.

"More Kiwi" from Matt Linehan

“I have long believed that prevention and wellness are the keys to solving our health-care crisis. We must recreate America as a “wellness society” focused on fitness, good nutrition and disease prevention—ultimately, keeping people out of the hospital in the first place. You paved the way for a lot of people, and this is something I have been laboring on for a long time.  We don’t have a health-care system in America; we have a “sick care” system. The problem is that this current system is all about patching things up after the fact.” – recent statement by Sen. Tom Harkin

Fortunately, the importance of preventive health care is gaining traction among the medical community, government and business leaders, and the public at large. Increasingly more people are educating themselves about how to lead healthy lives, and are doing so at a time when there is an immense amount of legitimate and free information about health and illness prevention available online.

Nutritional know-how is a vital component of illness and disease prevention, and these days consumers have an unprecedented opportunity to take their nutritional health into their own hands and develop true nutritional intelligence. Learning the basics, let’s call it Nutrition 101, is a good starting point, and that means knowing what carbohydrates, fats and proteins, vitamins and dietary minerals are, and how they impact and interact within the human body. Making wise choices regarding what foods to eat is another important component of nutritional intelligence. But although most consumers know that there are healthier and less healthy foods to chose from, and are becoming literate in reading food labels, comparing one food item against another can seem daunting.

While not a substitute for trying to keep up with the latest studies and findings in the nutrition field, comparing foods will likely become easier with the newly-launched NuVal Nutritional Scoring System. Although there are several other food labeling systems in place (for a good historical overview of American food and nutrition labeling, see Fooducate’s post), NuVal™ gets points for being easy to use – with a scoring system of 1 to 100 (100 being the highest), consumers can now compare items both within and across categories.

The scoring system takes into account more than 30 different nutrients and nutrition factors.  Nutrients with generally favorable effects are placed in the numerator (fiber, folate, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B6, potassium, calcium, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, total bioflavanoids, total carotenoids, magnesium and iron), while nutrients with generally unfavorable effects on health are placed in the denominator (saturated fat, trans fat, sodium, sugar and cholesterol). Another positive aspect of NuVal™ is that, while its goal is to provide a nutritional score for every one of the more than 50,000 products found in the average grocery store, its Overall Nutritional Quality Index (ONQI™) algorithm underlying the scoring system was created independent of manufacturers and other similarly interested parties.