Experts: Government changes to environment can make us fit
You drive to the office, sit at a computer all day, drive home and then park yourself on the couch.
If that's your life, leading obesity experts say, the government should be changing your environment and making it possible for you to become more active.
There has been a big reduction in "muscle-power transportation," such as walking or biking to work or to the store, says Russell Pate, an exercise researcher at the University of South Carolina-Columbia. This is partly because of sprawling communities and long commutes, but he says it's also because people don't have safe places to walk.
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"If we have safe routes, sidewalks, bike trails that go to
destinations that people need to get to, then those trails will be more
heavily used," Pate says. The government's responsibility to get Americans moving will be discussed at the three-day Weight of the Nation conference next week. Public health advocates, government leaders and obesity researchers will meet in Washington, D.C. |
Target: Policymakers
One goal of the conference, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is to convince policymakers of the importance of preventive initiatives to combat obesity and inactivity.
"Almost 30% of the rise in medical costs is attributable to obesity, so prevention and control of this problem is critical to reducing total medical costs," says William Dietz, director of the CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. "We tend to view obesity as a consequence of individual choices, but it's clear that the environment is a major contributing factor. Place matters. Where people live, work, learn, play and pray affects their nutritional and physical activity opportunities."
Americans are fighting an uphill battle to maintain a healthy weight and be active enough because too many factors in the environment are working against them, obesity experts say. A recent study showed that only about 17% of workers walk or bike any portion of their commute to work.
Some communities are building "complete streets," which incorporate places for cars, bikes and pedestrians, says Robert Ogilvie, program director for Public Health Law & Policy in Oakland. He works with governments to create healthier environments. Streets that have buffers, such as hedges, that separate and protect pedestrians from cars, and designated places to cross are safer places for people to be active, he says.
How government can help
There is a need for safe parks, playgrounds and public recreation facilities, especially in poorer neighborhoods, says James Sallis, director of the Active Living Research Program at San Diego State University. Lower-income people often have the least access and the highest obesity rates, he says.
Other suggestions that will be presented at the meeting:
•Make schools healthy places for children.
"We need all junk food out of schools," says pediatrician James Marks, a senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. "We need kids to have only food that's good for them in school cafeterias, vending machines and even fundraisers."
Plus, schools need to be places that allow children to be active and that turn them on to enjoying physical activity for the rest of their lives, he says.
On school days, children get 30% to 50% of their calories there, says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer group. "Selling junk food and sugary drinks in schools fuels the rising childhood obesity rates and sends kids the message that good nutrition isn't important."
•Tax sugary beverages.
Federal lawmakers have discussed the possibility of attaching a federal tax for the first time to soda and other drinks sweetened with sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners. Some have argued that any extra tax on these beverages would hurt poor and middle-class families. "People would save money if they stopped drinking sugary beverages and just started drinking water," says Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University.
•Make sure everyone has access to healthful foods.
Several studies show that some people, especially in poorer communities, don't have easy access to a major grocery store, so they have to rely on small stores, convenience markets and hybrid gas stations where there is a smaller selection of healthful food items at higher prices.
Local governments could give incentives to corner markets to offer healthful fare, and they can encourage farmers markets and bigger grocery stores to come to their communities, Ogilvie says.
Right now, he says, in many places across the country, "the healthy choice is the hard choice, but it's possible to make the healthier choice the easier choice."