We made the national Web site!
September 28, 2010Positive outcomes result from Environmental Education
October 5, 2010BY ALVIN D. JACKSON ‘¢ September 30, 2010
Thirty teenagers sit in a classroom, in six evenly spaced rows of desks, heads down, pencils diligently scratching at the day’s lesson. But something’s different about the kids in the back two rows — not something, rather almost everything. Each of these 10 kids takes at least one pill every day to control diabetes, and a few take shots. Several take other pills as well for high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
In class, these children are more likely to have a more difficult time learning and focusing. They are more likely to miss school or drop out. Outside of the classroom, they face bullying and their lives are dampened because of depression. When asked about their quality of life, their answers resemble those of children with cancer.
They are told to be more active, but when they try, the pain in their legs and difficulty breathing makes them stop. They try to eat healthier, but those healthy foods aren’t in the stores that are near their homes. These 10 teenagers potentially might not outlive their parents.
This is a glimpse of what our children face today, a scenario not sobering because of its potential, but because of its reality. In Ohio and across most of the nation, more than one out of three children is either overweight or obese, and the same number will develop diabetes in their lifetime. According to the Trust for America’s Health’s latest “F as in Fat” report, people living in poverty and minorities are most at risk, with childhood obesity rates as high as 50 percent in these populations.
As childhood obesity moved from a less-common condition to a national epidemic, common advice from both heath care and public health arenas was to eat healthier, be more physically active and decrease time spent in front of the television. But the premise that providing knowledge will be enough to stimulate personal change is rooted in several assumptions, the most important being that all people have an opportunity to act on that knowledge.
This assumption proves to be incorrect for too many of Ohio’s families. The Ohio State University Extension and the Ohio Department of Agriculture recently reported on the growing number of food deserts — or areas without access to fresh fruits, vegetables and other foods — in stores throughout Ohio’s rural communities. Almost half of the state’s residents live in a rural setting, and almost a quarter of these rural Ohioans live at least 10 miles away from a retail grocery store.
In addition, 75 percent of these residents live more than a mile away from one, making access more difficult. This is a significant barrier if transportation is not available.
The report also notes about 25 percent of people living in rural Ohio live closer (within 10 miles) to fast food restaurants than to grocery stores.
Ohio leaders already have taken the first step to address these startling statistics with a program called the Neighborhood Harvest Initiative. The purpose of this program, which was announced by Gov. Ted Strickland in his 2010 State of the State address, is to design a statewide strategy to improve availability of and access to Ohio-grown products and affordable, healthy food to people in every neighborhood in Ohio.
As the Ohio Department of Health and our public health partners work on ways to help reduce the rates of obesity throughout the state, we will make it a priority to provide all Ohioans with the opportunity to make healthy decisions. To learn more about our efforts to combat Ohio’s childhood obesity epidemic, visit www.healthyohioprogram.org.
Jackson is the Ohio Department of Health director.
