Childhood Obesity a National Crisis, Panel Says

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=289

Maggie Fox, "Childhood Obesity a National Crisis, Panel Says",
Reuters, September 30, 2004,
Link: http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle... section=news

America's children are getting fatter and need help from parents,
schools, the government, advertisers and the food industry to get back
in shape, a panel of experts said Thursday.

The report on childhood obesity from the Institute of Medicine paints
a picture of children awash in a society that makes it difficult to
exercise and eat right, from suburbs with no sidewalks to schools that
sell sugary snacks in vending machines.

"At present, approximately nine million children over 6 years of age
are considered obese," the report reads.

It does not call for sweeping legislation but proposes moves such as
clearer labeling requirements for junk foods and getting schools
involved in monitoring students' weight and health.

The institute, an independent group that advises the federal
government on health matters such as vitamin requirements and medical
insurance, appointed a committee of pediatricians, educators, industry
experts and lawyers to look at childhood obesity.

The report says nutritional standards should be set for all foods and
beverages served on school grounds, including those from vending
machines.

The committee of 19 experts also recommended that schools add programs
to get children to exercise at least half an hour a day.

VOLUNTARY RESTRICTIONS

The food, beverage, and entertainment industries should self-regulate
how they sell food and drink to children, modeled perhaps on voluntary
guidelines for promoting alcohol, the panel said.

Restaurants should do more to provide healthy alternatives and should
list calorie content and nutrition information.

"Frankly, how many more of these reports do we need before the
government actually starts adopting some of these policies?" asked
Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which
has been pressing for strong legislation and regulations to limit
junk-food marketing to children.

"Congress should help parents by requiring calories and other
nutrition information on chain-restaurant menus, getting junk foods
out of schools, and by directing the Federal Trade Commission to
restrict the advertising of junk foods to kids."

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said his
department was working to encourage exercise and healthier eating.

"The FDA is examining how to revise food labels to ensure that parents
clearly understand how many calories they and their children are
consuming," Thompson said in a statement.

Parents should encourage healthier eating and should help their
children get more exercise, partly by limiting time in front of the
television or computer to two hours or less a day, the panel said.

Surveys by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation have found that
nearly one out of every four children aged 8 and older spend more than
five hours a day watching TV, and that children 6 and under spend an
average of two hours a day watching television or playing computer and
video games.

The foundation estimated the typical child saw about 40,000
commercials a year on TV, most for candy, cereal, soda and fast food.
The food and beverage industries spend $10 billion or more a year
marketing directly to children and youth, the committee found.

"By the time they are 14 years old, 52 percent of boys and 32 percent
of girls are drinking three or more eight-ounce (225-gram) servings of
soda a day," the institute noted.