Children with poor hand control and coordination are more likely to become obese adults, researchers said on Wednesday. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence linking poorer cognitive function in childhood to obesity and type 2 diabetes in adults.
Archive for category Physical Activity
Does your neighborhood have a lot of fast food outlets, few sidewalks, and no parks? If yes, your physical neighborhood may be hampering your ability to be physically active and placing you at increased risk for obesity.
Boys from low socio-economic schools and those who slept for less than 6 h at night were less active. Girls from middle school were found to be more physically active than girls from high school, and girls with less educated parents were also less physically active. No clear relationship was found between the level of obesity and physical activity. Interventions should therefore focus on gender, age, social status, sleeping habits and parental educational status.
Dr. James Levine studies environment-changing innovations in a real-life to increase daily physical activity. The innovations include: ‘¢ Removing chairs and traditional desk seating ‘¢ Introducing walking tracks ‘¢ Educating and encouraging staff to conduct walking meetings ‘¢ Replacing traditional phones with mobile sets
In January 2008 the UK government published their comprehensive obesity prevention plan entitled ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a Cross-Government Strategy for England’.
The vision is to be the first major nation to reverse the rising tide of obesity and overweight in the population by ensuring that everyone is able to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Our initial focus will be on children: by 2020, we aim to reduce the proportion of overweight and obese children to 2000 levels.
The major targets include:
A) Every child grows up eating well and enjoying being active.
B) The food is far healthier
C) Everyone is as active as they feel able
D) Government, businesses, local communities and others will create environments that make activity accessible, safe and the norm.
It is stated that the Government has a clear role to play in providing leadership for society to achieve this vision. (Thank you!)
Specific targets include:
Children
- Ask all schools to develop healthy lunch box policies, so that those not yet taking up school lunches are also eating healthily
- Invest to ensure all schools are healthy schools, including making cooking a compulsory part of the curriculum by 2011 for all 11–14 year-olds
- Invest £75 million in an evidence-based marketing program which will inform, support and empower parents in making changes to their children’s diet and levels of physical activity
- Invest in improving cycling infrastructure and skills in areas where child weight is a particular problem.
Healthier food choices
- Healthy Food Code of Good Practice, in partnership with the food and drink industry to reduce to the content of saturated fat, sugar and salt
- Allow local authorities to regulate the proliferation of fast food outlets in particular areas, e.g. near parks or schools
- Restrict advertising of unhealthy foods to children.
Physical activity
- Invest in a campaign to get a third of England walking at least 1,000 more steps daily by 2012
- Invest £30 million in selected towns to develop best practice models for whole-town approaches to promoting physical activity
- Encourage the entertainment technology industry to help parents manage the time that their children spend playing sedentary games.
Workplace health
- Explore how companies can best promote wellness among their staff and make healthy workplaces part of their core business model
- Pilot and evaluate a range of different approaches to using personal financial incentives to encourage healthy living, such as individuals losing weight and sustaining weight loss, eating more healthily or being consistently more physically active.
Funding
- The Government will make available an additional £372 million for promoting the achievement and maintenance of healthy weight over the period 2008–11. This is over and above the £1.3 billion investment in school food, sport and play and the £140 million further funding for Cycling.
The UK ministers obviously are committed to act and invest in the fight against obesity. I wish more countries would be as explicit, concrete and committed.
You can download the report here.
The government of Great Britain in July 2008 published this 144 page strategic report on the need for healthier food systems.
The report sets out to determine what the objectives of future food strategy should be and the measures needed to achieve them. The challenges are centred around A) economics B) health C) safety and D) environment. So the The future strategic policy objectives are to secure: fair prices, choice, access to food and food security through open and competitive markets; continuous improvement in the safety of food; a further transition to healthier diets; and a more environmentally sustainable food chain.
The UK Government has agreed to all the proposals set out in this report and will take them forward with immediate effect, including:
1) Bringing together, for the first time, integrated information and advice for consumers on the impacts of food on health and the environment.
2) Making it easier for consumers to make healthy choices when eating out.
3) Recognising that community groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises have an important role to play in supporting activities that promote healthy eating and more sustainable production and consumption, and in encouraging public debate about food issues, and thus in promoting new social norms that facilitate behavioural and cultural change.
4) In view of the evidence of its importance for diet and health outcomes, making further progress with the 5 A DAY campaign is a priority. Renewed focus is needed on targeting groups where intake remains low, such as low-income families, and on working with industry to take the campaign forward.
5) The public sector in England should be leading by example. More nutritious, environmentally sustainable food will be delivered through new minimum standards ensuring healthier food across the public sector.
6) Well-functioning, competitive markets should provide fair prices for consumers and a fair deal throughout the supply chain. Reducing distortions in agricultural trade and raising agricultural productivity in the developing world would improve global food security.
7) Recent rises in food commodity prices call for a concerted international response.
8) The Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser is commissioning a major new study to examine how the global food system needs to evolve in a world adapting to, and mitigating, climate change.
9) On-farm GHG emissions are set to be the focus of increasing attention in the years ahead.
10) UK consumers spend an average of £420 per household each year on food that they then throw away. Eliminating household food waste would deliver major benefits.
The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Office to establish and support a Food Strategy Task Force to drive forward the implementation of all the measures in this report.
Selected high lights from reading the report:
On actions against the obesity epidemic this report is refers to the evidence base developed by the Government’s Foresight programme. The Government has set out a separate strategy to tackle obesity in England – Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives. This establishes a framework for action in areas including: children, food and activity incentives (p 79).
A surprisingly detailed plan for making CO2 footprint labeling scheeme is included on page 59. The report also cites a survey finding 60% of consumers thought that retailers should make it easier for them to make sustainable choices by introducing higher standards in some product areas. This is termed “Choice editing” (p 61).
On page 52 you can read: ‘Behaviour (i.e. personal choices) will need to change over time if the societal challenges such as climate change and obesity are to be addressed, but the Government’s licence to influence these behaviours or limit the options has boundaries. Over time such boundaries may move as social norms change, as happened with seatbelts in cars and smoking, but the process of cultural evolution takes time’. An urging task is how this process of much needed cultural evolution best can be facilitated. Any suggestions?
Finally I’m looking very much forward to reading the results of the following three commitments:
- By December 2008 the first proposal for a new programme to make it easier for consumers to make healthy choices when eating out.
- By September 2008 the new 5 A DAY action plan will be finalised.
- The government will commission research to develop a smarter system for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. This research will be completed by 2013.
All in all this is an impressive report. Even though the report does not mention speciffic new funding for the many priorities, one can hope that the endorsement by Government of all the proposals will make a difference. I wish many other governments would make similar reports.
Public health specialists all mentioned education, better sports facilities, mandatory food labeling, and controlling food and drink advertising. Some also support institutional reforms, use of medicines to prevent obesity, and activity monitoring devices.
Cycling Route Planner
Jul 30
New web service for bikers in Vancouver, Canada.
27.230 students reported physically activity, reduced calorie or fat diet, and TV viewing habits. Only 21-25% ate sufficient F&V. Being physically active was associated with sufficient F&V intake.
Polish researchers investigated 1222 adults smoking, ruit and vegetable intake, healthy weight, and sufficient physical activity status. And coorelated them to self-rated health.