Former President Clinton Leads Charge to Fight Child Obesity

Former President Clinton is leading the charge in the fight against childhood obesity by spearheading a new program called the Alliance Healthcare Initiative – a joint project of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation.

Currently, more than a third of all children in the United States are overweight or obese, which not only puts the children’s health at risk, but can also mean skyrocketing healthcare costs for their parents. The initiative would provide funding to reimburse doctors and registered dietitians for providing healthcare and nutritional counseling to obese children and their parents on an ongoing basis.

Billed as the first of its kind, the project links medical organizations, like The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Dietetic Association, with major insurance carriers and large, privately-held companies to provide benefits that are designed to stop the trend of childhood obesity. The project is expected to help address the healthcare needs of about 1 million children in the first year and more than 6 million children within three years.

Fast Food Format Failure for Fitness

Here’s a shocker…kids tend to eat what their parents eat. A crack team of researchers at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research has determined that teens are more likely to eat a healthy diet if their parents do. On the other hand, kids whose elders favor a fast food diet are more likely to be junk food junkies themselves.

According to the California Health Interview Survey – a recent quiz of thousands of California teenagers – 43% of West Coast teens eat fast food every day, but only 38% eat their “daily five” – which are the five or more daily servings of fruits and vegetables that nutritionists recommend.
Researchers admit that the zillions of fast food restaurants in Southern California help lure many youngsters away from a healthy diet – but they say that parents can counter the siren song of hamburger-hawking clowns and fried-fish pirates by setting a good dietary example for their kids.
In short:  parents should eat the things they want their kids to eat, and avoid stuff they want their kids to avoid.

Modeling healthy eating habits, and giving them increased access to fruits, vegetables and other healthy fare, can go a long way toward helping teens make smarter food choices themselves.