National Program Aims To Fight Childhood Obesity In GeorgiaYour ...

From The Augusta Chronicle?..

Experts fear that this generation of kids may be the first to live shorter life expectancies than their parents, in large part because of the childhood obesity epidemic.

Today, more than 23 million of our nation?s children and teenagers are considered overweight or obese. It?s an epidemic that continues to plague this country. Not only is it debilitating physically, but it significantly affects our already-fragile health-care system. Simply put, we can?t afford to let this epidemic grow.

THOSE AFFECTED with childhood obesity are at serious risk for developing health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer and other problems that usually affect adults. Each year, childhood obesity costs $14 billion in direct health costs! In Georgia alone, this disease affects 21.3 percent of your children, the second-highest in the nation.

Over the years, I?ve dedicated my efforts to raising awareness about childhood obesity and have made progress on this front. However, we have a long way to go. September is Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, and it provides us with a great opportunity to openly discuss this disease and share insights into what?s being done, and what can be done, to combat it.

Fighting obesity isn?t easy, and it will take a lot of helping hands to get, and keep, us on the right track. Parents, health-care providers, organizations, educators and others are key to making a positive impact in the health of our children.

In fact, all of these groups were instrumental in supporting my efforts to launch a fitness campaign in California that grew in 2011 to 1.4 million students, who all took part in a monthlong fitness challenge. Over the course of seven years, we saw a decrease in childhood obesity rates in California, and as a beneficial side effect, schools that participated in the campaign witnessed increased academic scores!

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Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=3705

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