Childhood obesity accounts for about 9 million children in the U.S. A series of social, economic and environmental changes have occurred over the past few decades contributing to childhood obesity. As a society, we have reacted to those changes, but we have not managed our reactions. Some argue that the root of our nutritional problems began with the Regan administration’s encouragement of Wall Street rewarding firms for hitting short term gains, regardless of the methodology used to get there. The processing, refinement and other adulterations that lengthen the shelf life and decrease the nutritional value of food, and add calories and weight are largely a result of this economic policy. Also contributing to the obesity epidemic is the fact that on average, a child watches 4 hours of TV, spends one hour using a computer, and 49 minutes playing video games per day.

If childhood obesity  is rooted in mindless choices, then mindfulness may be the first step for each of us , to take. Making thoughtful, healthful decisions in our nutritional choices is a first step towards mindfully managing our reaction to stress and change Let’s make food decisions based primarily on their impact on the mental, emotional and physical impact they have on us, and not primarily on their economic impact. Take the “Vision for California” example, which includes a Ten Steps Towards Healthy Living statement for every Californian. You can view the statement at  http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/cwh/PDFs/Summit_Governors_Vision.pdf. If, like the IOM said in 2005, “the prevention of obesity in children and youth should be a national public health priority”, then we need national-level marketing about the issue as well as action. Instead of a vision for California, what about a vision for the USA? The obesity epidemic is deserving of marketing at the level of the anti-smoking campaigns funded by the tobacco companies as part of their class action settlements. Healthy people, and in the case of childhood obesity, healthy future generations lay the groundwork for a healthy nation. The time for collective action, for each of us individually and for society as a whole, is now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Patients. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.