Bad news on youthful obesity

Statewide the number of children who are overweight and obese has gone down in the last 5 years, but Del Norte County cannot boast the same trend.

In fact, nearly half of all Del Norte children in a new study were overweight or obese — an increase of 16.2 percent since 2005.

According to the study of fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders released this week, “A Patchwork of Progress: Changes in Overweight and Obesity,” the percentage of overweight and obese children in California decreased by 1.1 percent from 2005 to 2010.

However, 38 percent of California children in the study were still overweight or obese. In Del Norte, the number was more staggering: 45 percent as of 2010.

Del Norte has one of the highest rates of overweight and obese children in the state, the study found. The county also had the highest percentage increase from 2005 to 2010 of all 58 counties, according to the report.

“It think it really verifies that there’s a continuing trend,” said Don Olson, superintendent of the Del Norte County Unified School District.

Deborah Kravitz, program director of the Network for a Healthy California in the school district, said the study provides “data that can help us further our cause and to help us prioritize.”

A local group of educators, parents and medical professionals have formed the Children’s Health Collaborative (CHC) to focus on childhood obesity.

Meanwhile, The California Endowment has selected Del Norte to be part of its 10-year Building Healthy Communities initiative, which aims to improve the health of all Del Norters.

The study was conducted by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy (CCPHA). Data was drawn from  the California Fitness Test administered to the three grades. Students’ height and weight were used to calculate body mass index (BMI), which determines if a person is of normal weight, underweight, overweight or obese.

‘Astronomically high’ numbers

In Del Norte, test results of 793 students were used in the study. Small numbers can easily skew data one way or another, said Harold Goldstein, the executive director of CCPHA, a non-profit organization, but “it’s still a picture that things are getting worse.”

In Del Norte, the numbers are “astronomically high, approaching half of all kids,” Goldstein said. Being overweight or obese is affecting children’s health now and could cause health problems throughout their lifetimes — “it is scary,” he said.

To Angela Reese-Goughnour, the parent of school-age children and the chair of the CHC, the numbers weren’t shocking because the problem in this community is well known. The CHC is trying to make sure children eat healthy foods and exercise in and outside of school.

“We know it’s an issue,” Reese-Goughnour said. “It’s bittersweet because it validates the work we’re doing.”

“We can do better, we can take this on,” she added.

In the northwest region of the state, Del Norte had the highest rate, but not by much. It was 40 percent in Humboldt County and 43 percent in Mendocino.

The number of overweight and obese children in Trinity County actually decreased 29 percent from 2005 to 2010, and it had one of the lowest percentages in the state at just under 27 percent.

“If you look at what’s known about regions that have higher rates, the environment is less likely to have access to healthy foods and opportunities to be physically active,” Goldstein said.

Overweight or obese children are at increased risk of serious disease, such as diabetes, cardiovascular problems, stroke and cancer. Each year, $21 billion is spent in California treating the effects of obesity, according to the study.

“Obesity has become second only to tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States,” the report states. “The rise in obesity and related diseases has led experts to predict a decrease in life expectancy and productivity for today’s youth, as well as increased individual and societal costs.”

It is also a problem with adults. Over the last 30 years, nationwide, the number has doubled from 15 percent being obese to 32 percent recently, according to the study.

Governmental changes

California banned sugary drinks and junk food from public schools in 2004. At the end of the 1990s, this was a “crazy idea and now it’s the norm,” Goldstein said.

In 2005, the federal government updated its nutritional guidelines for school meals to include more whole grains, low-fat milk, fruits and vegetables. In 2010, the guidelines were revised again, requiring more whole foods and limiting calories.

California now requires chain restaurants to post nutritional information about their food, Goldstein said.

A previous study done by the CCPHA found that communities with more fast-food restaurants were less healthy than those with fewer chains, Goldstein said. There is a direct correlation to what kind of food is available in communities to children’s weight, he said.

“There has been a sea change  in understanding there is an epidemic,” Goldstein said. “That gives us the hope that what we’re doing is working. We need to re-double the efforts.”

The characteristics of a community — economic, social, environment and access to food — could cause children to be overweight and obese.

“Living in an unhealthy food environment has been linked to unhealthy eating behaviors, such as greater consumption of fast food and soda, and to a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes,” the report states.

Cutting soda out of children’s diet can greatly improve their health, Goldstein said. Also, he added, children need an hour of physical activity each day to stay in a healthy weight range.

Schools are required to provide physical education, but a CCPHA study found that not all schools in California meet the minimum requirement of 200 minutes in 10 school days (an average of 20 minutes a day). It’s important that schools offer enough PE time each day and have teachers trained to teach the class so it’s a fun learning opportunity, but also gets kids active, Goldstein said

Del Norte efforts under way

Locally, the CHC has been focused on offering more wholesome meals at schools. One of the group’s first accomplishments was to get salad bars at every school with the help of funding from the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative.

But the group is “still in the discovery stages,” Reese-Goughnour said, and is working on a study of what’s causing the problem in Del Norte.

The study would take information from children in kindergarten, first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth grades. It wouldn’t just include BMI data, but children’s attendance, grades, ethnicity, socio-economic status, where they live in the county, whether they have health insurance and what access they have to food, Reese-Goughnour said.

“I’m hoping that it will show our community that there’s an issue we need to address immediately,” she said of the study. “We need to make the parents more aware and prompt more effort to teach kids how to cook. They need to become aware of what they’re eating.”

Other efforts to reverse the trend have been made in Del Norte and are continuing, but proponents agree that more could be done.

“Our program has made great strides in getting our kids to try new fruits and vegetables and incorporate physical activity into lessons,” Kravitz said. “We’re constantly promoting physical activity.”

Students are required to participate in PE classes, but the district could make sure students are taking PE every day and minutes in class could be extended, Olson said.

The district offers nutritional meals and has eliminated soda and junk food, but more could be done like offering salad bars at every school five days a week, Olson said.

Knowing what constitutes healthy behavior could become a requirement in school, Olson said.

“We want students to show evidence they’re making healthy lifestyle choices,” he said. “We want every student to leave our schools with the knowledge of how to make good choices.”

Kravitz said that the next step could be eliminating the sale of sports drinks like Gatorade and Propel, which contain sugar. Healthy snacks could also be offered at sporting events, she said.

Community cooking classes could teach parents and children how to cook, said Reese-Goughnour, adding many young people want to learn how to cook for themselves.

“There’s an ongoing effort to bring families in on this and help them by educating them and providing them information so they can make healthy choices,” Kravitz said.