Battle against childhood obesity is complicated
Maureen O’Hagan and her colleagues at The Seattle Times have put together a sprawling package of stories on the fight against childhood obesity in their new series, “Feeling the Weight.” We’ll break it down story-by-story.
Kids battle the lure of junk food
Local agencies are spending millions to provide healthy alternatives to Seattle-area youth, but they — to say nothing of the youth themselves — are faced with a seemingly insurmountable deluge of tasty treats that tempt teens at every turn.
State still seeks winning strategy against childhood obesity
For a decade, Washington’s anti-obesity strategy has focused on providing kids with access to health alternatives.
So far, the results are discouraging. A push to put more fresh produce in poor neighborhoods’ corner stores, for instance, is struggling. And recent studies suggest the proliferation of farmers markets has done little to change diets or behavior. The number of overweight and obese kids continues to climb.
In other words, we might be spending a whole lot of money on efforts that miss the mark.
How to help your kids lose weight healthfully
The trick, she writes, is to focus on healthy behavior rather than on weight loss.
Parents stand between kids and junk food
O’Hagan’s profiles of parents of obese children shatter a few stereotypes and illustrate just how complex the issue is.
What readers had to say about childhood-obesity topic
Readers weighed in with advice, criticism, observations and more.
Related
Covering Obesity: A Guide for Reporters
The prospect of covering such a broad, engaging and important topic as obesity can be overwhelming. This guide, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is designed to help journalists cover a wide range of stories, whether writing on deadline or researching a multipart series. It offers assistance on calculating body mass index, finding obesity statistics on the state level, gauging the quality of school district wellness policies, finding innovative school nutrition policies and much more.
Journalists diet and write about it
Personal anecdotes seem to seep into the blogs of just about every health care journalist out there; given the subject matter, it’s inevitable that quite a few stories health journalists cover are going to hit home.
Now, Jaclyn Schiff, writing for Mediaite, has rounded up a recent rash of reports and blog posts in which journalists have chronicled their own weight loss efforts – a popular subgroup of the personal anecdote – and dubbed it a “trend.” Those cited include The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, The New York Times‘ Brian Stelter and, of course, New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni.
Vegetables, healthy food on Obama agenda
In yet another break with the Bush family legacy, the Obamas, led by matriarch Michelle, have embraced broccoli and other local greens and encourage others to do the same. New York Times reporter Rachel L. Swarns chronicled the pro-vegetable, pro-local eating agenda of the first family. Swarns leads with the First Lady praising a local soup kitchen’s steamed broccoli and homemade mushroom risotto, then digs deeper into her struggles to promote a healthy agenda both around the country and around her own dinner table.
White House officials say the focus on healthy living will be a significant item on Mrs. Obama’s agenda, which already includes supporting working families and military spouses. As the nation battles an obesity epidemic and a hard-to-break taste for oversweetened and oversalted dishes, her message is clear: Fresh, nutritious foods are not delicacies to be savored by the wealthy, but critical components of the diets of ordinary and struggling families.
Some healthy-eating advocates want the Obamas to go even further, Swarn found.
(Gourmet magazine Editor Ruth) Reichl would like the White House kitchen to issue regular news releases that describe what the first couple and their daughters are eating. (Then parents across the country could tell their children, “You know, Malia and Sasha were eating salad yesterday. …”)
Mercury may lurk in high fructose corn syrup
In the Columbia Daily Tribune, dietitian and columnist Melinda Hemmelgarn discusses a 2005 study recently published in Environmental Health in which researchers found detectable levels of mercury in nine out of 20 samples of high fructose corn syrup.
Hemmelgarn says the neurotoxin get into high fructose corn syrup when “processors use mercury-grade caustic soda to separate corn starch from the corn kernel.” Most processing plants now use mercury-free technologies, she said, but consumers have no way to distinguish between syrup made with mercury and syrup made without it.
Renee Dufault, who directed the 2005 study, said her findings were ignored by the FDA and, until this January, unpublished by scientific journals. According to Dufault, the Corn Refiners Association called the study outdated, saying that they haven’t used mercury in syrup production for years.
Dufault responds by pointing to a 2008 small-scale regional study conducted by the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy that tested 55 consumer products containing significant amounts of high fructose corn syrup and found mercury in almost a third of them.
Related resources:
- “The Mercury Connection,” by Tony Bartelme, Doug Pardue, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C., won a 2007 Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism
- Study finds health hazards in Great Lakes; CDC blocks publication, by Sheila Kaplan, The Center for Public Integrity
- NYC-HANES finds elevated mercury levels in a quarter of NYC adults
- Enviro-Health Links - Mercury and Human Health
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