$1.33M grant to counter childhood obesity Foundation for Healthy Living in Colonie to develop Capital Region program with Health Department aid
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer First published: Thursday, August 2, 2007
COLONIE -- A local health group has received a five-year, $1.33 million state grant to help educate parents about the risks of obesity in young children, the state Health Department said. The Foundation for Healthy Living, which also has offices in Buffalo, will get the message out in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren, Washington, Erie and Niagara counties.
To do that, the not-for-profit group will work with health plans, health care provider organizations, federally qualified community health centers, primary care practice-based research networks, and regional and community-based organizations.
The foundation will be among three anti-obesity centers created statewide with $4 million in grants, Health Commissioner Richard Daines said.
"Childhood obesity has reached crisis levels and threatens the health, well-being, and future productivity of New York's youth," he said. "Obesity prevention must start early in life."
Also receiving $1.33 million grants were:
Research Foundation of the State University of New York, which will locate its center at SUNY Stony Brook. It will help health care providers in Nassau and Suffolk counties encourage pregnant women not to gain too much weight to prevent overweight newborns.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City to assist community, school and clinical efforts to prevent childhood obesity in school-age children in the city. It also will implement a computerized medical record system to screen for childhood obesity.
Daines also announced $625,000, five-year grants for both The Health Association of Niagara County Inc. and The Columbia County Community Health Care Association Inc. to combat obesity in schoolchildren.
The grants are part of a statewide strategy that also includes creation of a Council on Food Policy to promote nutritious food; a requirement that each schoolchild's health report include a Body Mass Index screening, and distribution of a BMI kit to health-care professionals.
Brian Nearing can be reached at 454-5094 or by e-mail at bnearing@timesunion.com.
Friends who eat together get fat . . . Ellen Goodman is a nationally syndicated columnist. Ellen Goodman
Let me rise (from the breakfast table) in defense of Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler. The doctor and the political scientist were used to having a rather meager portion of academic attention. But now their cup and their inbox runneth over with charges of hate-mongering, size-ism and fat discrimination. They’ve been held personally responsible for increasing the social ostracism of the obese. The research documenting the spread of the obesity epidemic from friend to friend to friend leapt from the peer-reviewed, sober annals of the New England Journal of Medicine to the front pages of newspapers everywhere. The message was that fat is contagious. This was reinforced by catchy and catching headlines that declared: “Your Friends Really Are Making You Fat,” and “Your Friends May Be to Blame” and ... well you get the idea. Christakis and Fowler did not use the word “contagious” in their paper. Nor did they use the word “blame.” But crunching the numbers of a long-term study of people who live in a suburb near me — yipes — they found that people were more likely to become obese when a friend became obese. And most likely to upsize when a close mutual friend went up. Their point was that social networks counted a lot more than family or neighbors. Christakis has now responded to some 1,000 e-mails, explaining that he does not believe the first step to weight loss is cutting friends out of your menu. Indeed at a body mass index he’ll describe only as “under 30,” he doesn’t want to be dropped by his best friend: BMI of 21. But if we can get past the “friends make you fat” tagline, there are some fascinating tidbits in this statistical buffet. Consider the notion that people gained weight in tandem with friends even when they lived far away. This led the researchers to conclude that the friendship factor was not just a matter of behavior. It isn’t just that birds of a feather chow down together or order dessert together. Rather, the researchers speculate, close friends fundamentally affect our point of view. They create a norm. Professional anorexics such as Kate Moss, Calista Flockhart and Victoria Beckham may present an incredibly shrinking ideal. But in real life we measure ourselves against our friends. Inch for inch. It should be noted that only friends of the same sex have this effect on each other. And one of the tantalizing hints in the research is that male friends may be quietly sizing each other up more than do female friends. Friends also size each other down, say the researchers, but since the throw weight of our society is on an upward trajectory, there were fewer of those to count. All that said, I wonder: Why exactly should we be surprised — let alone irate — that friendship is a factor? I am the first in my crowd to blame the obesity epidemic on supersizers from McDonald’s to the sugar chefs at cereal companies. I have documented the burgeoning bagel, the shrinking playground, the portion-out-of-control restaurant, as well as the genes that dictate new jeans. They are ground zero in the epidemic. But why resist the notion that this effect is amplified through networks and that the closest friends have something to do with the shape of our lives? We all know teenagers whose sudden desire for a nose ring is not in the DNA but the in-group. We see friends follow each other into marriage and parenthood. And how many times have we been warned that divorce is, um, contagious? Indeed Fowler crunched the same numbers to show similar ties between friends and smoking — from starting to quitting. If the smoking research had been published first, would it have kicked up such a fuss? I doubt it. What’s unique about obesity as a health problem is that it carries a psychological stigma as well as a risk; it’s a matter of beauty as well as diabetes; of hate jokes as well as heart disease. Of course, Fowler, who is still reeling from the reaction, is really interested in the way social networks operate. The world may judge us one willpower at a time, but this research, he says, “shows how much we are in it together.” I have no doubt that the role of friendship is routinely undervalued. We are treated as if we were isolated individuals or encapsulated members of nuclear families. We forget the connections. I’m not about to write the Social Network Diet. But for me, the take-home message is not to keep three degrees of separation from a friend’s jelly donut. It’s to remember how much friendship counts ... on the scale of things.
Oh no...now what do we do? First it's don't eat eggs, or meat or sugar, or salt, or carbs, or whole milk or processed food....don't be in the sun, don't smoke, dont drink, don't run with sissors (just thought I'd throw that in yuks).....now we can't have friends either! Especially fat friends cause then we could catch the fat disease! PALLEEEZZZ!
This is just as rediculous as second hand smoke outside! These people need a real job. These people have way too much time on their hands. And come to think of it, having too much time on your hands can't be very healthy either!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I grew up in an Italian family and that is all we did was eat. We always gathered around the kitchen table for good food and conversation. And the table was always full of home made bread and pasta and of course home made wine. Eating was part of socializing. And now that we are all adults, none of us are overweight. And some of my best friends are overweight, but I'm not. And I also have some friends who weigh less than me, and they are not gaining weight because of me.
CAPITAL REGION Park project targets youth obesity Focus on eating habits, exercise BY SARA FOSS Gazette Reporter
A coalition of groups is trying to revitalize Schenectady’s longneglected Orchard Park, all with a simple goal: getting kids to play there. Last year, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schenectady received a five-year state grant to sponsor a program called Eat Well, Play Hard that aims to reduce childhood obesity by increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables kids eat and creating more opportunities for exercise. Although the program is still in its infancy, one of its first projects is fixing up Orchard Park, with help from the city and the Mont Pleasant neighborhood association, and giving children a safe place to run around. As the problem of childhood obesity worsens, more groups are looking for solutions. Often, this involves finding ways to educate parents about the importance of nutritious food and outdoor activity. Earlier this month, the Foundation for Healthy Living, which has offices in Latham and Buffalo, received a fiveyear, $1.48 million state grant to establish a Center of Best Practices for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity. Two other organizations — the Research Foundation of the State University of New York and New York-Presbyterian Hospital — received similar state grants; the Research Foundation will locate its center of best practices at SUNY Stony Brook, where it will help health care providers encourage pregnant women not to gain too much weight, in order to prevent overweight newborns. According to the New York state Department of Health, obesity among children and adolescents has tripled over the past three decades. In upstate New York, 21 percent of children in grades K-5 are obese; in New York City, that number rises to 24 percent. A state study of low-income children enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children found that the prevalence of obesity among children ages two to five increased from 12 percent in 1989 to 16 percent in 2005. “The number of people who are getting obese and overweight is rapidly growing,” said Dr. Steven Szebenyi, executive director of the Foundation for Healthy Living. The cause of the problem isn’t a mystery: too much food for too little exercise. Much of this food is unhealthy; fast food is ubiquitous while fresh fruits and vegetables are harder to find, particularly in low-income neighborhoods. PRESCHOOL FOCUS The Foundation for Healthy Living will use its new grant to focus on obesity in preschool children. There will be a provider education campaign, aimed at educating doctors and health care providers on childhood obesity and the importance of using Body Mass Index — a measure that shows whether a person’s weight is appropriate for their height — as a tool to determine who is at risk for obesity. This will coincide with an effort to make parents more aware of the problem, and train them on how to prevent obesity in their own homes. Eventually, there will be a Web site with information and kits for physicians and health care providers, as well as educational materials for parents. The foundation chose to focus on preschool children for several reasons, Szebenyi said. “Kids who are obese at a young age tend to become obese later on,” he said. As a result, it’s important to target parents, and give them the skills they need to teach their children how to live a healthy life, he said. “We’re going to have this push to identify children who are overweight,” he said. “We have a long way to go. Most of these children don’t need to go to a specialist — they’re healthy but heavy kids.” When children are born, they tend to be a bit heavy for their height; as they age, they grow more, and their weight evens out, Szebenyi said. Then, between the ages of four and seven, they begin putting on more weight, and their Body Mass Index increases. “If kids gain a lot of weight and it goes unchecked, it can [lead to obesity],” he said. “That’s why it’s so important to get parents involved.” Fewer than 5 percent of medical practices screen for obesity using Body Mass Index, he said. “They do weights and heights, and sometimes tell parents that their child looks a little overweight.” KICKOFF EVENT The foundation will invite experts, members of the community and HMOs to join a planning committee that will determine what the Center of Best Practices for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity will do. During the first three years of the grant, the foundation will focus on children in Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington counties; during the final two years of the grant, the organization will replicate the program in Erie and Niagara counties. “We want to see if we can achieve the same thing in another setting,” Szebenyi said. The Foundation for Healthy Living sponsors other programs focused on childhood obesity. In one program, called Kids Are Runners Too, children in grades K-5 run a marathon — or 26 miles — a half-mile at a time over the course of 10 weeks. At schools that sponsor the program, a kickoff event to launch the project is held, as well as a ceremony at the end where children have the opportunity to cross a finish line. In another project sponsored by the foundation, researchers at the University of Buffalo conducted a six-month obesity treatment program for 50 families with at least one overweight child between the ages of eight and 12; they found that children who behave impulsively are harder to treat using behavior therapy. Elie Ward, director of policy and advocacy for the American Academy of Pediatrics, District II, New York State, said childhood obesity has emerged as a significant health problem, one that requires parents, pediatricians and community groups to work together. “We can’t deal with childhood obesity in isolation,” she said. The AAP is encouraging pediatricians to spend more time talking to parents about what they’re feeding their children; for example, infants shouldn’t be drinking sweetened juices out of the bottle, and giving young children soda is pretty much a no-no. Meanwhile, a new state law will require pediatricians to perform Body Mass Index screenings as part of a routine pediatric exam. Eat Well, Play Hard, the program sponsored by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Schenectady, is a state program focused on making environmental and policy changes to reduce childhood obesity. One of the first things the organization did was assess what’s needed in Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties; researchers found a lack of access to fresh vegetables and a dearth of opportunities to play outside. FAMILY FESTIVAL “In neighborhoods, that are unsafe, parents don’t feel they can let their kids go outside and play,” said Theresa Cohen, coordinator of Capital District Eat Well, Play Hard. The amount of time kids spend in front of the television or computer, and a lack of time, are also issues. “People felt like they were working all day and they didn’t have time to sit down and prepare meals and be physically active,” Cohen said. One project, Cohen said, will be to work with schools to purchase fresh produce from local farms and orchards. Another project is making Orchard Street Park a safe place for kids; at 4:30 p.m. on Monday, the United Way of the Greater Capital Region will sponsor the Mt. Pleasant Family Festival there in the hope of getting people to use the park. Before the cleanup at the park, there was a basketball court, but no hoops. The overgrowth of trees and vines around the park was so thick it was difficult to see in. Soon, there will be hoops and swings, and the overgrowth has been cleared. “There needs to be a societal change, where people feel like supporting their local farmer and eating things that are grown that day and are fresh,” Cohen said. Obesity is associated with numerous health issues, such as the growing problem of Type 2 diabetes in children; previously, the disease was seen only in adults. It is also linked to chronic diseases in adults such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma and some types of cancer. According to the American Heart Association, if trends in childhood obesity continue, the current generation of American children will have a life that’s shorter than their parents by three to five years. “That’s something you can’t ignore,” Szebenyi said.
According to the American Heart Association, if trends in childhood obesity continue, the current generation of American children will have a life that’s shorter than their parents by three to five years. “That’s something you can’t ignore,” Szebenyi said.
Oh my...how did humanity ever pro-create and survive all of these years without ALL of these intellegent people?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
This post contains attachments; to download them you must login.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Report sounds alarm about obesity rates BY KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Loosen the belt buckle another notch: Obesity rates continued to climb in 31 states last year, and no state showed a decline. Mississippi became the fi rst state to crack the 30 percent barrier for adults considered to be obese. West Virginia and Alabama were just behind, according to the Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention. Colorado continued its reign as the leanest state in the nation with an obesity rate projected at 17.6 percent. This year’s report, for the first time, also looked at rates of overweight children ages 10 to 17. The District of Columbia had the highest percentage — 22.8 percent. Utah had the lowest — 8.5 percent. Health officials say the latest state rankings provide evidence that the nation has a public health crisis on its hands. “Unfortunately, we’re treating it like a mere inconvenience instead of the emergency that it is,” said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy devoted to improving health care. Officials at the Trust for America’s Health want the government to play a larger role in preventing obesity. People who are overweight are at an increased risk for diabetes, heart problems and other chronic diseases that contribute to greater health care costs. “It’s one of those issues where everyone believes this is an epidemic, but it’s not getting the level of political and policymaker attention that it ought to,” said Jeffrey Levi, the organization’s executive director. “As every candidate for president talks about health care reform and controlling health care costs, if we don’t home in on this issue, none of their proposals are going to be affordable.” At the same time, many believe weight is a personal choice and responsibility. Levi doesn’t dispute that notion, but he said society can help people make good choices. “If we want kids to eat healthier food, we have to invest the money for school nutrition programs so that school lunches are healthier,” he said. “If we want people to be more physically active, then there have to be safe places to be active. That’s not just a class issue. We’ve designed suburban communities where there are no sidewalks for anybody to go out and take a walk.” To measure obesity rates, Trust for America’s Health compares data from 2003-2005 with 2004-2006. It combines information from three years to improve the accuracy of projections. The data come from a survey of height and weight taken over the telephone. Because the information comes from a personal estimate, some believe it is conservative. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study last year noting a national obesity rate of about 32 percent — a higher rate than was cited for any of the states in the Trust for America’s Health report. The CDC’s estimate came from weighing people rather than relying on telephone interviews, officials explained. Generally, anyone with a body mass index greater than 30 is considered obese. The index is a ratio that takes into account height and weight. The overweight range is 25 to 29.9. Normal is 18.5 to 24.9. People with a large amount of lean muscle mass, such as athletes, can show a large body mass index without having an unhealthy level of fat. A lack of exercise is a huge factor in obesity rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found last year that more than 22 percent of Americans did not engage in any physical activity in the past month. The percentage is greater than 30 percent in four states: Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Meanwhile, Minnesotans led the way when it came to exercise. An estimated 15.4 percent of the state’s residents did not engage in any physical exercise — the best rate in the nation. Still, the state ranked 28th overall when it came to the percentage of obese adults. Another factor in obesity rates is poverty. The five poorest states were all in the top 10 when it came to obesity rates. An exception to that rule was the District of Columbia and New Mexico. Both had high poverty rates, but also one of the lower obesity rates among adults. Poverty can lead to less safe neighborhoods, which deter children from playing. It can lead to fewer grocery stores offering fruits and vegetables, and it can lead to greater reliance on fast food, officials said. “It seems the cheapest foods are the worst ones for you,” Marks said. Officials said the report is not designed to stigmatize states with high obesity rates but to stir them into action. “These are the states where the urgency is the greatest. They need not to wait for others to lead. They need to become the leaders,” Marks said. “It’s the only way that they can restore the health of their children and their families. It’s the only way that they can improve their economic competitiveness.”
“It seems the cheapest foods are the worst ones for you,” Marks said.
.........there are no coupons for fresh food, only the packaged crap......look at ketchup-high fructose corn syrup, maple syrup is high fructose corn syrup and the list is endless.....I wonder if these were off the shelves how America would fare/...........probably alot healthier......these products are made with unjust scales and watered down product.....shame shame shame....but, wallstreet likes them......
but, I do have to say, I buy fresh, I avoid the center isles for the most part,,,,my grocery bill has sky-rocketed.....
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
It’s often called an epidemic, but it isn’t treated like one. So, naturally, obesity rates continue to rise across the country, and the South still leads the way. Southern eating habits take some of the blame for the region’s scale-busting ways. But the rankings are what one might expect for states where more than 30 percent of the population hasn’t engaged in physical activity in the past month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The problem is a financial burden on states, as well. Obesity produces an increased risk for diabetes, heart problems and other chronic diseases. Southern governors have launched campaigns to combat the problem, placing much of the focus on cafeteria offerings, mandated physical activity in schools and the like. Still, there is little indication that such measures are given the attention they need to succeed. And it will take action on many fronts to get a handle on the problem — the development of more walkable neighborhoods, more trails for pedestrians and cyclists, more education about the benefits of a healthful diet and exercise. It’s all about the choices that people make, and if obesity is going to be taken seriously as an epidemic, government has a role to play in helping children, especially, make the right choices. -- The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.
Burger King has kids’ health in mind MIAMI — Burger King pledged Wednesday to offer healthier fastfood items for children, with plans to sell and market flame-broiled chicken tenders and apples cut to resemble thick-cut french fries. Burger King Holdings Inc., the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, said it has set nutritional guidelines to follow when targeting children younger than 12 in advertising, including limiting ads to Kids Meals that contain no more than 560 calories, less than 30 percent of calories from fat and no more than 10 percent of calories from added sugars. In that vein, Burger King is building a Kids Meal that will contain the flame-broiled tenders, organic unsweetened applesauce and low-fat milk, for a total of 305 calories and 8.5 grams of fat. It will be available in restaurants sometime in 2008, the company said.
Logged
