Childhood Obesity

It never fails. As I make my way to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children each morning, I get stuck at a traffic light in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The intersection is a hub for several elementary and high schools and a large YMCA. Lately I have become obsessed by a small store with a line of children waiting at the counter, wiping the sleep out of their eyes and taking away black plastic bags full of doughnuts. Why this obsession? To me, it is a small piece of a great health epidemic facing our nation and our city: childhood obesity.

Tantalizing evidence that America's epidemic of childhood obesity might be starting to subside was presented Sunday by researchers who also found that the trend could be speeded up through school programs. Several recent studies reported that rates of overweight and obese children plateaued after rising rapidly since 1980. But this is the first major study to detect a decline - of 4 percent - and it was in a national sample dominated by low-income blacks and Hispanics, the groups at highest risk.

A FEW WEEKS ago, I did a health and wellness presentation to a group of concerned parents and their children at the Christian Stronghold Baptist Church in West Philadelphia. Many of the participants were surprised about what they didn't know about general health and fitness and even more surprised when it came to facts about children's health. Parents were shocked when I said many American teens have arteries so clogged they could suffer a heart attack. "Are you serious?" one parent asked.

Philly celebrated March Madness by applying a full-court press on childhood obesity last month. Just last week, officials cut the ribbon on a gleaming, 71,000-square-foot ShopRite in Hunting Park West, one of those parched "food desert" communities in North Philly where there's a corner store at every intersection but no supermarket to be found. To add to the bounty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Temple's Center for Obesity Research and Education (CORE) a five-year, $3.7 million grant to study the link between what parents feed their children and why kids get fat. For the first time, CORE researchers will be able to put everything they've studied about children's eating behavior over the last decade into a nutrition education program that will teach parents how to healthily feed their children.

More exercise, less soda. This has been a mantra among those battling childhood obesity, and many school health initiatives have taken it up. But why? While exercise is important for health, studies show the childhood obesity epidemic has little to do with lack of physical activity. And while sodas, candy bars, and other typical vending-machine items clearly aren't health foods, the majority of children don't buy food from vending machines on any given day. However, 31 million American children do eat in school cafeterias, and many of them are from the poor households that are most likely to suffer from obesity and obesity-related illnesses.

Kris Sumey went to Temple University's Liacouras Center yesterday because, she said, "My whole family is overweight. " Sylvaneta Lewis' motivation was her 8-year-old daughter, who "is overweight for her age. " The two mothers were among 550 people registered for a conference run by Shaping America's Youth (SAY), a nonprofit group based in Portland, Ore., aimed at educating parents and other caregivers about childhood obesity. For years the medical community has urged overweight Americans to eat less, eat healthy and exercise.

In 1946, George Orwell wrote a rant on the "silly words and expressions" he was observing in the world around him. He worried that the language was being used, not as an instrument for expression, but as a tool for "concealing and preventing thought. " He could have been writing about today's cultural politics of weight and food. Right now, a committee of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association and others is considering changes to the language used to describe children with weight problems.

Pennsylvania schools have a terrific opportunity to confront one of our nation's most pervasive public health problems: childhood obesity. One in three American kids is overweight, and national health experts such as former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher agree that the associated health problems are threatening to make this generation of children the first in our history who will not outlive their parents. So why should schools, already overburdened with government mandates and high-stakes testing, be charged with addressing the problem?

Despite the growing alarm about obesity, children in Southeastern Pennsylvania are still getting heavier. Forty-three percent in the five-county region are now obese or overweight, compared with 38 percent just two years ago, according to a new survey by the Philadelphia Health Management Corp., a nonprofit public-health group. The situation is even bleaker in Philadelphia, where the majority of children - 51 percent - weigh too much for their height and age. That figure jumped from 45 percent when the survey was last conducted, in 2002.

National worries about childhood obesity have compelled a 60-year-old Philadelphia candy company to rethink its business for the second time in less than a decade. Since 2000, Frankford Candy & Chocolate Co. had escaped hard times in seasonal candy by licensing popular characters, such as Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants, to boost year-round candy sales. But that success appeared to be in jeopardy at the beginning of 2005. "There was a lot of talk at the time about entertainment companies' exiting the candy business," said Stuart Selarnick, Frankford's president and chief executive officer.

Saturday-Monday Salute the presidents, taste chocolate Historic Philadelphia is offering two special events this weekend: marking President's Day Weekend from 2-5 p.m. Saturday-Monday, and Colonial Chocolate-Making from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. those same days. Young visitors will hear Once Upon a Nation storytellers relate the lesser-known stories of U.S. presidents at Historic Philadelphia Center, Sixth and Chestnut streets. The history of chocolate and free samples of the confection will be given at the Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch St. Information: 215-629-4026, www.historicphiladelphia.org . Saturday Raise dollars to reduce obesity Ahmir Khalib "?

DALLAS - In just the last few days, she has danced with cheering schoolchildren, chatted with troops, swapped ideas with busy parents, and engaged in a friendly cooking competition with stars from Top Chef . Michelle Obama is on a national tour to promote the second anniversary of her campaign against childhood obesity. The images have been disarming, intriguing, and nonpolitical - just the type of thing her husband's reelection campaign can't get enough of. Michelle Obama's travels this week offer fresh evidence of what an outsize role she has assumed in the public eye and how powerful a political ally a first lady can be. She said she was "incredibly enthusiastic" about making the case for her husband's reelection.

TARIQ TROTTER , a/k/a Black Thought, of The Roots , hosts Let's Move It Philly, a charity concert/party for his GrassROOTS Community Foundation Feb. 18 at Sigma Sound (212 N. 12th), a place near and dear to his heart, as it is where the Roots rehearsed and recorded their first few albums. He'll also perform at the event along with Roots drummer ?uestlove , who will DJ along with Rich Medina , Power 99's Diamond Kuts . Nikki Jean and the Money Making Jam Boys are also among entertainers that night.

Can you imagine Social Services storming into your home like Special Ops and seizing your children because of what you've fed them? Taking them away because you've allowed them a steady diet of Doritos and Twisters? Declaring you unfit because you put sugary juice in your toddler's bottle instead of milk? Seems extreme. But it has come to that. Last year, social workers in Cleveland removed a third grader - who topped 200 pounds and suffered from sleep apnea - from his mother's home, citing his increasing weight as a form of medical neglect.

When Nancy Henkin created the Intergenerational Center at Temple University in 1979, she knew she'd be bucking conventional wisdom. After all, society is so quick to dismiss the elderly. You know how we do. We age-segregate seniors by warehousing them in nursing homes. We isolate old folks by leaving them posted in front of the TV, that trusty electronic babysitter. We miss a golden opportunity to benefit from elder wisdom because we equate old age with incompetence.

It never fails. As I make my way to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children each morning, I get stuck at a traffic light in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The intersection is a hub for several elementary and high schools and a large YMCA. Lately I have become obsessed by a small store with a line of children waiting at the counter, wiping the sleep out of their eyes and taking away black plastic bags full of doughnuts. Why this obsession? To me, it is a small piece of a great health epidemic facing our nation and our city: childhood obesity.

WHEN SLEIGHTON Farm School for adjudicated youth closed in 2001, Arnett Woodall, a teacher's aide at the Delaware County facility for 17 years, started a landscaping/construction business and dreamed of building a fresh-produce store in his produce-starved West Philadelphia neighborhood. He bought a vacant lot in 2004 and put everything he had into his dream - life savings, a home-equity loan, the sweat from him and his teenage son, Devante. Finally, after seven years of building while working two jobs, he finished West Phillie Produce, on 62nd Street near Ludlow, in summer 2009.

SOME DAY, right-wing ideologues are going to choke on their hatred of Michelle Obama. The latest line of attack against the first lady was facilitated by the Washington Post, which breathlessly reported a week ago that she had ordered a hamburger, french fries, a chocolate shake and a Diet Coke at a D.C. restaurant: 1,700 calories, the report calculated (then later corrected its estimate to 1,500.) The investigative reporter was not able to learn whether the first lady actually ate the whole thing or maybe shared it, but what's the difference?

OBESITY, particularly childhood obesity, has become a combustible issue in our society. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box pulled toys from its kids' meals last week, according to news reports, winning praise from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. CSPI is suing burger-chain behemoth McDonald's to stop it from using toys to attract kids to its unhealthy Happy Meals. Over the weekend, I found out just how combustible the issue is when I got into a heated debate with a friend about the causes of childhood obesity.

The 10th grader curiously eyed the well-coiffed Campbell Soup Co. executive standing in her classroom. "I'm an unhealthy person, and I want to lose weight," blurted India Harris, a 15-year-old at MetEast High School in Camden. Not expecting the heartfelt declaration, Kim Fortunato nevertheless had an answer: "What can we do for you? We don't want to lose another generation of kids to obesity. " Harris smiled and nodded. Fortunato had won another heart and mind. Poised and affable, Fortunato, 54, may be the only corporate executive in America with the title "director of childhood obesity and hunger.