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UC Berkeley and California Department of Health Services Convene Childhood Obesity Conference
15 March 2001

By Catherine Zandonella, Media Relations

San Diego - Should overweight children be on diets? Does an obese child automatically become an obese adult? Are schools to blame for the alarming increase in childhood obesity?

These are some of the questions to be addressed when more than 900 researchers, educators and public health professionals meet in San Diego next week to address the urgent challenge of childhood obesity.

The March 19-20 conference, convened in response to the dramatic rise in the number of overweight children during the past few decades, will be co-hosted by the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) and the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Weight and Health in the College of Natural Resources.

"The past few decades have seen an alarming increase in the risk for being overweight in Californian children and nationally," said Patricia Crawford, cooperative extension specialist in the UC Berkeley Department of Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology and co-director of the Center for Weight and Health.

The recommendations to be discussed at the conference include:
* Dieting among children should be discouraged in favor of an emphasis on physical activity, healthy eating and body satisfaction
* Schools should provide healthy meals and snacks, not on-campus fast food
* Successful obesity prevention requires environmental changes that make physical activity and healthy eating easy and affordable.

These recommendations will be presented in a new policy document produced by the Center for Weight and Health and the California Elected Women's Association for Education and Research (CEWAER).

"Addressing childhood obesity with appropriate interventions is critical," said State Health Director Diana Bontá. "California is grappling with the growing incidence of typically adult health problems that are occurring in children, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes and hip and joint damage."

Poor health is not the only consequence of obesity. A society obsessed with thinness can devastate an overweight child's self-esteem. And nutrient-poor diets can affect children's ability to concentrate in the classroom.

The risk of being overweight has doubled among U.S. children in less than 15 years. The risk to California children may have surpassed the national average, according to statistics from a 1997 California Department of Health Services study. A 1998 study found that among Californian teenagers, 31 percent are either at risk or already overweight. Among these, Latino and African American teens were at greatest risk, at 36 percent and 50 percent respectively. Males were at higher risk (35 percent) than females (26 percent).

Schools, television and the suburban landscape have been named as some of the culprits. Healthy food choices at schools must compete with the lure of on-site fast food and vending machines. High school students spend an average of over two hours per day viewing television or playing video or computer games. And sprawling neighborhoods located far from schools make it difficult for children to walk or bike to school.

In devising their policy recommendations, the Center for Weight and Health conducted a survey of recent children's health studies. One of its major findings was that dieting should come second to promoting increased levels of physical activity and healthy eating.

Dieting can be dangerous because it can deprive children of nutrients they need, said Sharon Fleming, professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology at UC Berkeley and co-director of the Center for Weight and Health. Even if dieting can be done safely, it rarely works, she said. Metabolic changes that come with childhood obesity make it more difficult to lose weight and maintain weight loss. Dieting also can fail because it can put psychological stress on a child by singling him or her out.

Instead, said Fleming, researchers are learning that children and adults can live healthy lives without taking the weight off. "We aim for what is known as metabolic health," she said. "An overweight person can be physically healthy if he or she embarks upon a lifestyle that includes increased physical activity and a healthy diet."

If children stay active and eat healthfully even while overweight, the chance that they will develop into overweight adults is greatly reduced, said Fleming. Obesity in childhood is a strong predictor of obesity as an adult, but the relationship becomes even stronger with age. Among overweight preschoolers, 26 percent to 41 percent will remain obese into adulthood and 50 percent to 70 percent of obese 10- to 18-year-olds will remain obese as adults.

"Given that weight loss is so difficult, prevention is the preferred option," said Bontá. "Public health officials need to create incentives for schools to provide appealing, healthy meals, and parents and educators need to help their children include healthy eating and physical activity as part of their day."

Funding for the conference was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Stamp Program through the California Nutrition Network for Healthy, Active Families.

More information about the conference can be found at http://cnr.berkeley.edu, click on "Center Activities."
A copy of the policy document, "Improving Children's Academic Performance, Health and Quality of Life - A Top Policy Commitment in Response to Children's Obesity and Health Crisis," produced by CEWAER and the UC Berkeley Center for Weight and Health, will be available soon at www.caelectedwomen.org.

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