A forum to promote discussion and awareness of childhood obesity proved that children’s waistbands are not the only thing expanding — now parental, governmental and administrative efforts to combat the problem are too.
About 200 people attended the American Association for the Advancement of Science event at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Sunday to gain a better understanding of obesity and childhood nutrition and discuss solutions to the national problem.
Mark Fenton, host of PBS’s America’s Walking series, called childhood obesity “the epidemic of physical inactivity and poor nutrition.” He cited the social acceptance for a kid to go home after school and watch TV as one of the leading factors of obesity.
AAAS President David Baltimore, a California Institute of Technology biology professor, said the town hall-style event was organized to promote discussion about childhood obesity and nutrition among scientists, teachers, policymakers and others.
Mayor Thomas Menino said the prevalence of cheap, high-fat, processed foods and the high cost of fruits and vegetables have led to poorer overall nutrition. The sedentary nature of school and work and a national transition from rural to urban environments have spurred inactivity, resulting in “the perfect storm” for childhood obesity, Menino said.
The percentage of overweight children has been raising nationally, a trend that has lasted for more than two decades, and those who are overweight as children are more likely to be overweight as adults, he said.
Low-income families struggle the most with obesity because they lack the education to know what decisions are healthiest for their kids, the disposable income for more expensive but fresher and healthier foods and the time to promote calorie-burning activities, he said.
For instance, it costs 20 cents for 200 calories worth of doughnuts, but $2.50 for 200 calories of grapes or baby carrots, Menino said.
Audience members were given buzzers to participate in the event. When asked what they thought the most attractive option to improve their and their family’s health was, the majority of the audience chose the option of exercising for 30 minutes every day.
Parents in the audience said they thought outdoor activities should be safer for their children to participate in them. Many said they would feel more comfortable about allowing their kids to play outside if sidewalks, bike lanes and outdoor playgrounds were improved.
Audience members were not as responsive to the suggestion of removing junk foods from schools. Although foods like soda and potato chips are unhealthy, Menino said measures to remove them from schools do not receive much support because the foods are extremely popular.
“The combination is particularly lethal,” said Philip James, senior vice president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity. “We get not only social handicaps for those children but economic, long-term handicaps and indeed the whole array of diseases” including heart disease, diabetes and early death.
Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy assistant professor of nutrition Christina Economos said childhood obesity has become so pervasive that it has changed even everyday things not typically considered a part of the problem.
“[Obesity] impacts the economics of everything involved in daily life, such as creating bigger seats in classrooms because children are bigger now,” she said.
She suggested other methods of combating childhood obesity, including increasing the amount of time a child needed to spend in physical education classes and physical and nutritional curriculum at school.
“We want to prevent it from occurring rather than focus our energies on treatment,” Economos said.
