Information about the Aspen Ideas Festival is here. I am scheduled for a session, The American Wellness Paradox, currently scheduled from 11:00-11:50 a.m., at the East Lawn Tent. This will be a discussion with senior HHS policy advisor, Calley Means. Here’s the blurb on it: “Americans are spending more than ever on healthcare, supplements, wellness trends, and “clean eating,” yet rates of chronic disease and metabolic illness continue to climb. As skepticism fuels the rise of movements like MAHA, debates over what Americans should eat have become deeply cultural, political, and economic. Two influential voices with sharply different perspectives on nutrition and food science explore how food systems, farming practices, consumer culture, and the wellness industry collided to create one of the defining public health debates of our time.”
by Marion Nestle
Nov
22
2016
Some good news: childhood obesity declines in low-income children–a bit
The CDC and USDA are collaborating to track the prevalence of obesity in children ages 2 – 4 who participate in the Special Supplemental Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
In a new report, the agencies find obesity prevalence to have increased from 14% in 2000 to 15.9% in 2010. But here’s the good news: it dropped to 14.5% in 2014.
More good news: it decreased significantly among toddlers in these groups:
- Non-Hispanic whites
- Non-Hispanic blacks
- Hispanics
- American Indian/Alaska Natives and Asians/Pacific Islanders
- 61% of the 56 agencies in states, DC, and US territories
The not-so-good news is that obesity in WIC kids is still higher than the national average among kids 2 – 5 years (8.9%), but this trend is in the right direction.
What accounts for it? The report lists several possibilities:
- Revision of the WIC package in 2009 to align with Dietary Guidelines and infant feeding guidelines from the Pediatric Academy.
- Local, state, and national obesity initiatives
- Let’s Move
- The White House Childhood Obesity Task Force report
- Institute of Medicine recommendations
Let’s keep doing more of the same and keep that trend heading downward.
