By Patricia Carter
August 11, 2008

Senator Chris Dodd (CT), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, held the first of two hearings on childhood obesity on July 16. In his opening remarks, Dodd characterized the childhood obesity problem as a problem “that affects all of us—whether we have kids or not.”

Nearly one out of three American children are obese or at risk of becoming obese—23 million children in all, with minority families at even greater risk. The obese spend 36 percent more on health care—they spend 77 percent more on medications. According to Dodd, “This means the costs for all of us are going to keep heading up. Health care spending has exploded in the last 20 years—and one out of every four of those added dollars has gone to treat obesity-related problems.”

The Subcommittee heard testimonies from Dr. Francine Kaufman, past national president of the American Diabetes Association; Bruce Lesley, president of the kids advocacy group First Focus; Dr. Jeff Levi, executive director of the non-profit health group Trust For America’s Health; and Dr. Margaret Grey, professor at the Yale School of Nursing. All those who testified stressed the urgency of the problem and the need for a coordinated national response.

Levi noted that, “As a nation we tend to over-medicalize health problems. In fact, given the state of today’s science, medicine can only address the consequences of overweight and obesity, not prevent it. Real prevention requires changing the communities in which children (and adults) live and approaching this as a community-wide, not just an individual, challenge.” Levi pointed to Shape Up Somerville, an initiative led in part by Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, as an example of an effective community-based initiative that has been evaluated and shown to positively impact health outcomes for children.

The second Senate hearing will include testimonies from: Joseph Thompson, Arkansas Surgeon General, Arkansas Center for Health Improvement Director; Philip Dwyer, President and CEO, Central Connecticut Coast YMCA; and Susan Neely, president and CEO, American Beverage Association.

On July 24, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing on the benefits of Physical and Health Education for our nation’s children. The committee heard testimony from Richard Simmons, Fitness Expert and Advocate; Tim Brown, Former Oakland Raider Wide Receiver and Nine Time Pro-Bowler; Dr. Russell Pate, Associate Vice President for Health Sciences and Professor, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina; Lori Rose Benson, Director of the Office of Fitness and Health Education, New York City Department of Education; and Robert M. Keiser , Student Advisor to Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Council on Physical Fitness.

In her testimony, Benson noted that, “Under Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership in New York City, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene are collaborating in new ways to pool resources and work together to leverage changes in health and fitness habits.” Benson highlighted a program called NYC FITNESSGRAM, which measures components of health-related fitness in students: their aerobic capacity, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Last year about 640,000 public school students in all grades took home NYC FITNESSGRAM reports in one of nine home languages. The FITNESSGRAM reports are a new curriculum called Physical Best, that shifts the focus of physical education class away from competitive games, and toward exercises and activities that help students improve their fitness levels and learn about the benefits of physical activity. The data from FITNESSGRAM reports are shared with the NYC Department of Health, which is creating the country’s largest longitudinal database of student fitness.

The data from FITNESSGRAM reports are shared with the NYC Department of Health, which is creating the country’s largest longitudinal database of student fitness.

Earlier in July, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing on “The Rising Costs of Food and Its Impact on Federal Child Nutrition Programs.” In his opening remarks, Committee Chair Congressman George Miller (CA) noted that nearly fifty million children each year are served by the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and summer food service programs, which provide free meals and snacks to children in low-income communities over summer vacation. But with food prices continuing to rise it is becoming tremendously hard for these programs to continue providing healthy, low-cost meals that children will want to eat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the cost of basic essentials like bread, milk, and cheese rose by a staggering 17 percent in 2007. The School Nutrition Association reports that school lunches cost an average of over $2.90 to prepare. Even with the recent adjustment announced last month, the federal subsidy for free meals will still only reimburse schools $2.57 – leaving school districts to cover the difference.

Mayors’ Healthy Cities Campaign

To learn more about what other localities across the country are doing to fight childhood obesity, join the Mayors’ Healthy Cities Campaign. The Campaign is addressing the nation’s childhood obesity epidemic by educating leaders about the impact of public policies on the health of children and providing information about policies and programs that support active living and access to healthy foods. To join the campaign, go to the website: http://www.usmayors.org/chhs/healthycities_registration.asp or contact Patricia Carter at PCarter@usmayors.org.