One in five children is predicted to be obese
by the end of the decade. But efforts to turn
that tide are scattershot and underfunded, and
the government killed one of the few programs
proven to work, specialists said.
Programs that target youngsters'
growing waistlines are sprouting around the country,
an encouraging sign that the threat to children's
health is being taken seriously, said the report
by the Institute of Medicine.
But no one knows which programs really help kids
slim down, said the institute said in calling
for research to identify best methods.
More troubling, the country lacks the national
leadership needed to speed change, lamented an
expert panel convened by the scientific group.
"Is this as important as stockpiling antibiotics
or buying vaccines? I think it is," said Dr. Jeffrey
Koplan of Emory University, who led the IOM's
panel. "This is a major health problem. It's of
a different nature than acute infectious threats,
but it needs to be taken just as seriously."
To reinforce that point, the report spotlighted
the government's VERB campaign, a program once
touted as spurring a 30 percent increase in exercise
among the preteens it reached. It ended this year
with Bush administration budget cuts.
VERB encouraged 9- to 13-year-olds to take part
in physical activities, like bike riding or skateboarding.
Slick ads, at a cost of $59 million last year,
portrayed exercise as cool at an age when outdoor
play typically winds down and adolescent slothfulness
sets in.
The demise of the program "calls into question
the commitment to obesity prevention within government,"
the panel concluded.
Koplan was more blunt, calling it a waste of
taxpayer money to develop a program that works
and then dismantle it.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, which ran the program, did not
immediately comment.
The report cites other examples of promising
federal programs that have yet to reach their
potential. Kids gobbled fruits and vegetables
in an Agriculture Department school snack program,
but it only reaches 14 states. And CDC's
main anti-obesity initiative had enough money
this year to fund just 28 states starting childhood
nutrition and exercise programs.
"We still are not doing enough to prevent childhood
obesity, and the problem is getting worse," concluded
Koplan, a former CDC director. "The current level
of public and private sector investments does
not match the extent of the problem."
More than individual programs, a full-scale social
change is needed so that healthful eating and
physical activity becomes the norm, added panelist
Toni Yancey of the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Some 17 percent of U.S. youngsters already are
obese, and millions more are overweight. Obesity
can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure and
cholesterol, sleep problems and other disorders.
The report shows "what the country is doing
is like putting a Band-Aid on a brain tumor,"
said Margo Wootan of the consumer advocacy Center
for Science in the Public Interest.
