Obesity report cards put brakes on bad habits

< Prev | 1 | 2

Kids and parenting videos

Whoa, baby! Pair welcomes 15-pound boy
Nov. 29: Proud parents Wendi and Mike Dolton join CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla to discuss the family’s big bundle of joy.

One girl’s wish for an organ transplant

Supporting St. Jude’s Children Hospital

Toxic lead found in toys

Family experiences the other side of giving

It’s still a little early to see big results from the state’s weigh-in program. After the first year, the percentage of overweight schoolchildren remained where it was at the start — 38 percent.

“We think probably, since there’s been no change, that’s probably good news,” said Jim Raczynski, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “We may have stopped the increase.”

And the state has found that most parents and children are comfortable with the weigh-in program — 71 percent of parents and 61 percent of adolescents, according to a survey.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

“Once they realized we didn’t hand (the letters) to kids to wave around the schoolyard ... a lot of the original concerns were alleviated,” said Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has championed healthy diets after dropping more than 100 pounds himself. “This was not an invasive procedure where a child is asked to lift a shirt and be pinched with calipers.”

Health odds and ends

Virginity pledgers often fib about past

Raczynski noted that only a tiny percentage of parents — 6 percent — have put their overweight children on diets that aren’t medically supervised.

Schools are reacting, too. Following state Board of Education guidelines, schools in the last two years have banned using food as a reward, are offering more fruits and vegetables on lunch menus, have removed deep fryers and increased low-fat and low-sugar drinks and snacks.

Huckabee and former President Bill Clinton — known for his Big Mac excursions while Arkansas governor — helped announce this year that soft drink manufacturers had voluntarily agreed to remove sugary sodas from school vending machines.

Childhood obesity, Huckabee said, is “a real serious health and economic issue.”

Arkansas’ effort provides a scientific baseline to look for progress. Over time, “we’ll honestly be able to know if this is something that has lasting value.”

< Prev | 1 | 2