Boost education, encourage exercise and healthy eating
An editorial opinion from the Times-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va.:
Obesity is a serious problem in West Virginia and most other states, and efforts to reduce the rates of overweight people have brought few significantly positive results.
At the school level, there have been various initiatives to tackle the issue and try to bring the rate of childhood obesity down. West Virginia, for example, has implemented minimum requirements for exercise for students, and the state has won some recognition for the participation rates of its students in national exercise initiatives. County school systems have put an emphasis on offering healthier school lunch options.
A couple of years ago, there was evidence that the effort was paying off, to a degree. The West Virginia University School of Medicine’s CARDIAC Project found that the state’s obesity rate among fifth-graders had remained steady, albeit at a still far-too-high level, at 28 percent. At least the rate was not heading higher.
But a recent report suggests that efforts to help children avoid becoming obese needs to begin even before they head to school. A study published this month in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that West Virginia’s obesity rate among young children from low-income families increased from 14.4 percent in 2010 to 16.4 percent in 2014. The study was produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and it tracked obesity rates in children 2 to 4 years old enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.
West Virginia’s rate was ninth highest in the nation, and one of only four states that the study found to have significant increases in their rates, which were all well above the national prevalence of 8.9 percent.
To address the issue, the government should review its requirements for the WIC food packages to see whether more can be done to steer parents toward healthier food purchases for them and their young children. In addition, policy makers at all levels should seek to boost education programs aimed at parents of young children to encourage more healthy eating and increased exercise for their youngsters. The extra attention to those details could help our toddlers avoid a future plagued by poor health.