Preventing childhood obesity

by Alan Cooper
(Editor, Obesity Cures)

Policymakers, educators, health professionals and parents working to curb the pandemic of childhood obesity now have a new tool at their disposal. Preventing Childhood Obesity: A School Health Policy Guide, a new publication from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), distills volumes of the most recent developments in the field into an easy-to-access policy brief essential for education decisionmakers.

Preventing Childhood Obesity distinguishes itself from other policy guides by synthesizing research on obesity and physical activity to deliver useful integrated policy models for stakeholders. Key elements from sections on Physical Activity, Physical Education, Competitive Foods, and Nutrition and Health Education are woven into model policies that can be adapted by state and local authorities based on their specific needs.

“Thirty years ago, the obesity rate for students hovered around 5 percent. Today it has tripled: depending on the group, between 14 and 18 percent of all students are considered obese,” said Colin Pekruhn, NASBE’s Obesity Prevention Project director.

“The next step is for stakeholders and policymakers to actually take this information and use it to guide the decisions they make when it comes to school meals, health education, physical education standards, and other related issues. Certainly, no one expects the problem of childhood obesity to be solved in schools alone, but schools can and should play a significant role in abating the problem.”

For more info visit www.nasbe.org