Childhood obesity accounts for about 9 million children in the U.S. A series of social, economic and environmental changes have occurred over the past few decades contributing to childhood obesity. As a society, we have reacted to those changes, but we have not managed our reactions. Some would argue that the root of our nutritional problems overall began with the Regan administration’s encouragement of Wall Street rewarding publicly traded firms for hitting short term gains, regardless of the methodology used to get there. The processing, refinement and other adulterations that lengthen the shelf life and decrease the nutritional value of food, and add calories and weight are largely a result of this economic policy. On average, children watch 4 hours of TV, spend one hour using a computer, and 49 minutes playing video games.
If our current childhood obesity epidemic is rooted in mindless choices, then mindfulness may be the first step for each of us, as individuals, to take. One definition of mindfulness is, “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment – and, letting go of judgment” (Jon Kabat-Zinn). Making thoughtful, healthful decisions in our nutritional choices is a first step towards mindfully managing our reaction to stress and change Let’s make food decisions based primarily on their impact on their mental, emotional and physical impact, and not primarily their economic impact. Take the “Vision for California” example, which includes a Ten Steps Towards Healthy Living statement for every Californian. You can view the statement at (http://ww.preventioninstitute.org/sa/documents/VisionStatement_000.pdf . If, like the IOM said in 2005, “the prevention of obesity in children and youth should be a national public health priority”, then we need national-level marketing about the issue as well as action. Instead of a vision for California, what about a vision for the USA?
The obesity epidemic is deserving of marketing at the level of the anti-smoking campaigns funded by the tobacco companies as part of their class action settlements. Healthy people, and in the case of childhood obesity, healthy future generations lay the groundwork for a healthy nation. The time for collective action, for each of us individually and for society as a whole, is now.
http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/cwh/PDFs/Summit_Governors_Vision.pdf
