Schools may play a critical role in establishing a safe, supportive environment with policies and practices that support healthy behaviors. They also provide opportunities for students to learn about and practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviors that they would otherwise potentially not have an opportunity to learn about at home or in other settings. Interestingly, education may also play a factor in contributing to obesity later in life. Studies show that nearly 33 percent of adults who did not graduate from high school are obese, compared with 21.5 percent of those who graduated from college or a technical school.
One school in particular, Michigan State University, is leading a $4.7 million effort to tackle childhood obesity. The five-year project is part of a nationwide endeavor to address childhood obesity through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, authorized under the 2014 Farm Bill. Specifically, the study will look at healthy family mealtimes among low-income families - seen as a key practice in obesity prevention and the development of healthy lifestyles.
Making Breakthroughs
In 2014, BBC news published the article, “Have the Danes Cracked Childhood Obesity?” The article was a feature profile of pediatrician Jens Christian Holm, who has intruded a protocol to help children achieve successful weight loss by adjusting various elements of their lifestyles.
The program, called the Children’s Obesity Clinic’s Treatment, has been used on nearly 2000 patients and helped 70 percent of them maintain normal weight. This effort is now being rolled out to other districts in Denmark. According to Dr. Holm, one of the keys to success in managing childhood obesity is parental involvement.
“You can’t treat a child of 4 to 8 years old when their parents or legal guardians are not involved in the process. It’s totally impossible. So we say that if the child cannot drink soda, there should be no soda in the house,” he explained.
As for the reach of his research? Dr. Holm adds, “The problems I’m addressing are universal. Mothers are getting desperate all over the world. So we’re talking about a universal condition. Obesity is a chronic disease regulated by a hormone system and that has nothing to do with the culture here or in the USA. If American society - that is the mothers and the children in themselves - want to lose weight, I can help them.”