Childhood Obesity In America

Obesity among American children has reached epidemic proportions. Laura Dawes traces changes in diagnosis, treatment, and popular conceptions of the most serious health problem facing American children today, and makes the case that understanding the cultural history of a disease is critical to developing effective public health policy.

Children's health has made tremendous strides over the past century. In general, life expectancy has increased by more than thirty years since 1900 and much of this improvement is due to the reduction of infant and early childhood mortality. Given this trajectory toward a healthier childhood, we begin the 21st-century with a shocking developmentâ€"an epidemic of obesity in children and youth. The increased number of obese children throughout the U.S. during the past 25 years has led policymakers to rank it as one of the most critical public health threats of the 21st-century. Preventing Childhood Obesity provides a broad-based examination of the nature, extent, and consequences of obesity in U.S. children and youth, including the social, environmental, medical, and dietary factors responsible for its increased prevalence. The book also offers a prevention-oriented action plan that identifies the most promising array of short-term and longer-term interventions, as well as recommendations for the roles and responsibilities of numerous stakeholders in various sectors of society to reduce its future occurrence. Preventing Childhood Obesity explores the underlying causes of this serious health problem and the actions needed to initiate, support, and sustain the societal and lifestyle changes that can reverse the trend among our children and youth.

The prevalence of childhood obesity is so high in the United States that it may reduce the life expectancy of today's generation of children. While parents and other adult caregivers play a fundamental role in teaching children about healthy behaviors, even the most positive efforts can be undermined by local environments that are poorly suited to supporting healthy behaviors. For example, many communities lack ready sources of healthy food choices, such as supermarkets and grocery stores. Or they may not provide safe places for children to walk or play. In such communities, even the most motivated child or adolescent may find it difficult to act in healthy ways. Local governments-with jurisdiction over many aspects of land use, food marketing, community planning, transportation, health and nutrition programs, and other community issues-are ideally positioned to promote behaviors that will help children and adolescents reach and maintain healthy weights. Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity presents a number of recommendations that touch on the vital role of government actions on all levels-federal, state, and local-in childhood obesity prevention. The book offers healthy eating and physical activity strategies for local governments to consider, making it an excellent resource for mayors, managers, commissioners, council members, county board members, and administrators.

In the 2001 Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, former Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, warned of the negative effects of the increasing weight of American citizens and outlined a public health response to reverse the trend. The Surgeon General plans to strengthen and expand this blueprint for action created by her predecessor. Although the country has made some strides since 2001, the prevalence of obesity, obesity-related diseases, and premature death remains too high.

Understanding the relationship between energy balance and obesity is essential to develop effective prevention programs and policies. The International Agency for Research on Cancer convened a Working Group of world-leading experts in December 2015 to review the evidence regarding energy balance and obesity, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries, and to consider the following scientific questions: (i) Are the drivers of the obesity epidemic related only to energy excess and/or do specific foods or nutrients play a major role in this epidemic? (ii) What are the factors that modulate these associations? (iii) Which types of data and/or studies will further improve our understanding? This book provides summaries of the evidence from the literature as well as the Working Group's conclusions and recommendations to tackle the global epidemic of obesity.

Promotes the recognition, treatment, and prevention of conditions of overweight and obesity in the United States.

Understanding the complex factors contributing to the growing childhood obesity epidemic is vital not only for the improved health of the world's future generations, but for the healthcare system. The impact of childhood obesity reaches beyond the individual family and into the public arenas of social systems and government policy and programs. Global Perspectives on Childhood Obesity explores these with an approach that considers the current state of childhood obesity around the world as well as future projections, the most highly cited factors contributing to childhood obesity, what it means for the future both for children and society, and suggestions for steps to address and potentially prevent childhood obesity. This book will cover the multi-faceted factors contributing to the rapidly growing childhood obesity epidemic The underlying causes and current status of rapidly growing obesity epidemic in children in the global scenario will be discussed The strategies for childhood obesity prevention and treatment such as physical activity and exercise, personalized nutrition plans and school and community involvement will be presented

Childhood Obesity Prevention in Texas summarizes the information gathered at a workshop held February 5-6, 2009, in Austin, Texas. At this workshop, committee members met with Texas lawmakers, public officials, and community leaders to exchange ideas and to view first-hand strategies that are being implemented effectively at the state and local levels to prevent and reverse childhood obesity. Texas leaders at the workshop expressed the strong belief that the state's economic vitality and security depend on the health of its population. Accordingly, the state is no longer simply describing the personal, community, and financial costs of its obesity crisis; it is taking proactive steps to address the problem through strategic initiatives. An overarching strategy is to address obesity by targeting the state's youth, in whom it may be possible to instill healthy behaviors and lifestyles to last a lifetime. A guiding principle of these efforts is that they should be evidence based, community specific, sustainable, cost-effective, and supported by effective partnerships. Moreover, the goal is for the responsibility to be broadly shared by individuals, families, communities, and the public and private sectors.