food issue position project

1. What is the Best Approach
to Treat the Childhood
Obesity Epidemic?
MADISON PERRY

2. What is Childhood Obesity?
 A serious medical condition that affects children and adolescence
 A growing epidemic in the USA
 Most common chronic disease of childhood
 Obese: BMI-for-age percentile > 95%
 Overweight: BMI-for-age > 85 and < 95

3. Childhood Obesity in USA Overview
 For children and adolescents aged 2-19 years in USA
 18.5% obese (CDC, 2019)
 13.7 million children and adolescence (CDC, 2019)
 Highest rates among Hispanic and African Americans
 In the lowest income group 18.9% are obese (CDC, 2019)
 In the highest income group 10.9% are obese (CDC, 2019)
 Rates continue to rise

4. Dr. William Dietz
 Led the division of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity at the
CDC for 15 years
 Currently the director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for
Prevention and Wellness at George Washington University, and the
director of STOP Obesity Alliance
 He will take the stage at FoodNavigator-USA’s FOOD FOR KIDS
Summit in Chicago on November 18-20th

5. FoodNavigator-USA Summit: Food for
Kids
 Will explore
 How millennial moms are thinking about the plant-based trend
 The changing dynamics in the baby food category
 How to conduct product testing with the kids
 Whether ‘brain food for kids’ is an underexplored segment for
product developers
 Potential strategies to approach and treat childhood obesity

6. Dr. William Dietz at FoodNavigator-USA’s
FOOD FOR KIDS summit will discuss:
 Is small decline in obesity among 2-5 year olds attributable to the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)?
 Why are community-based nutritional and exercise programs limited to upper
white income populations?
 How can we make healthy unprocessed foods as available, inexpensive, and
desirable as sugary drinks and pizza?
 Why are the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) likely to increase food insecurity and
obesity?
 Might concerns about climate change incentivize milennals to tackle obesity?

7. Key Viewpoints
 ”Fat Shaming” wont solve obesity, science might
 The treatment for obesity can’t adopt a ”one size fits all” approach
 A key to a healthy weight may lie deep inside the brain, in the endoplasmic
reticulum of cells that produce the “grandfather” of appetite-regulating hormones
 Raise awareness among parents about their children being obese
 Weight issues addressed by a family’s pediatrician
 Prioritize prevention over treatment

8. Raise awareness among parents about
their children being obese
 Dr. David Dunkin, an assistant professor of pediatric
gastroenterology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount
Sinai in New York City states:
 "While I feel that the intention is good [to] raise awareness
among parents about their children being obese, and thus
instilling motivation for behavioral changes or lifestyle
modifications, this is unlikely to have effects in and of itself, to
bring about change, notifications should include referrals to
programs that could help parents make lifestyle modifications
for their children "
 Dunkin would prefer to see weight issues addressed by a
family's pediatrician

9. The treatment for obesity can’t adopt a
”one size fits all” approach
 Using a model created from data on 111,799
Massachusetts students, the University of Michigan
Health System showed that:
 As poverty rises, so does the rate of obesity among
children in 68 of its public school districts
 Although obesity rates were higher among African-
American and Hispanic kids, the relationship disappeared
when factoring in family income
 Fewer resources like recreational programs and parks and
access to full service grocery stores appear to have a
great impact on the nation’s childhood obesity rate

10. Prioritize prevention over treatment
 The lack of success of clinical approaches to treating
obesity has led some to suggest that efforts to tackle
the obesity epidemic should focus exclusively on
prevention rather than treatment (Reilly, 2006).
 Obesity is already a major health burden for children
and and many health professionals are unaware of, or
even unsympathetic to this burden. Childhood obesity
also contributes substantially to later (adult) health
problems. It is therefore unethical as well as unwise not
to offer treatment where treatment is sought (Reilly,
2006).
 From a public health perspective, treatment and
prevention are indistinct in children and adolescents
(Reilly, 2006).

11. My Position
 Prevention in early childhood
 Focus on low income areas since they have the highest rates of childhood obesity
 Place the healthier options in school cafeterias in more convenient spots for students to
grab,
 The addition of farmers markets in low income areas
 Educate youth and parents (risk factors, healthier alternatives, etc.)
 Create public outdoor recreational spaces for children and families to utilize

12. Works cited
 Low-income communities more likely to face childhood obesity. (2016, January 7). Retrieved from
https://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201601/low-income-communities-more-likely-face-
childhood-obesity.
 Mozes, A. (n.d.). 'Fat Letters' Take the Stage in Childhood Obesity Debate. Retrieved from
https://www.webmd.com/children/news/20130821/fat-letters-take-the-stage-in-childhood-
obesity-debate#1.
 Reilly, J. J. (2006, September). Tackling the obesity epidemic: new approaches. Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2082930/.
 Watson, E. (2019, October 18). FOOD FOR KIDS: Are we making progress on childhood obesity?
Retrieved from https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2019/10/18/FOOD-FOR-KIDS-Are-we-
making-progress-on-childhood-obesity#.
 Welker, E., Lott, M., & Story, M. (2016). The School Food Environment and Obesity Prevention:
Progress Over the Last Decade. Current Obesity Reports, 5(2), 145–155. doi: 10.1007/s13679-016-
0204-0