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The $500-million diet

By CRISTINA SILVA
Published April 16, 2007

The announcement was striking in its ambition: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said recently that it will spend half a billion dollars to reverse childhood obesity by 2015.

"This is a very urgent public health crisis that deals with our future," said Dwayne Proctor, childhood obesity team leader for the Princeton, N.J., philanthropy. "If we know that our children are the first generation to live sicker and die younger than any other generation, then we need to take action."

The foundation, which is dedicated to improving Americans' health, has already spent $80-million to help jump-start healthy-eating programs in poor school districts and neighborhoods across the country.

So what will it do with $500-million? Here's a look.

- Use advertising campaigns to prod food companies into offering healthier products. In 2005, the foundation supported an Advertising Council campaign aimed at consumers that included slogans such as "Being stuffed only makes sense if you're a turkey. Bigger isn't always better." By changing public opinion, the foundation says it can persuade food companies to change their packaging and ingredients.

- Fund grass roots efforts to create safe places for children to exercise or play in unsafe neighborhoods. This could include low-tech solutions such as building youth community centers or encouraging parents to walk with their children to school.

- Join with minority organizations to help make their communities healthier. Launch a media campaign to let African-American, Latino, American Indian and Asian-American families know that their children are more likely to be overweight than their white counterparts. Educate parents to teach their children about healthy eating and exercising, including how many hours of play it takes to burn off a certain number of calories.

- Make fresh fruits and vegetables more accessible in poor communities, perhaps through health food stores and farmers markets. Promote healthy foods in marketing campaigns to encourage low-income people, who are at greater risk of being overweight, to ask their supermarkets for a wider variety of fruits and veggies.

- Support research on childhood obesity and rally legislators to address the problem. Ongoing research is investigating how changes in schools or neighborhoods could increase exercise and healthy eating for kids.

- Launch reforms in schools. In Arkansas, an initiative required schools to provide nutritious foods and 150 minutes a week of physical education in all grades. The schools kept track of each student's body mass index, a measure of body fat based on height and weight, so parents could receive updates on their children's health. Last year, the number of overweight children in Arkansas public schools plateaued. The foundation would like to extend this success nationwide.

ON THE WEB

Childhood obesity

To learn more about the fight to reverse it, see the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Web site at www.rwjf.org.Facts about childhood obesityDuring the past four decades, obesity rates have soared among all age groups, more than quadrupling among children ages 6 to 11. Children who develop diabetes in their teens or early 20s are more likely to suffer ailments such as kidney failure, heart trouble and amputation by middle age. Heavier children also have increased rates of asthma, high blood pressure and arthritis.33 percent of children and adolescents today, or approximately 25-million kids are overweight or obese. Childhood obesity carries a price tag of up to $14-billion per year in direct health care costs to treat kids.As these kids become adults, their ailments could overstress our health care industry and lead to a weaker workforce, Dwayne Proctor, of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said.

[Last modified April 16, 2007, 07:48:49]