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EDITORIAL: Child obesity is getting attention from local professionals, but more is needed

Buffalo News - 9/27/2022

Sep. 27—Obesity continues to undermine the health of New Yorkers.

According to federal data, roughly one of three high school-aged children across New York is obese or overweight, as well as almost two of every three adults.

There is mild good news in the fact that New York does better than most other states in this regard, but the obesity epidemic has all of America firmly in its grip. There's no room for complacency. And it's more than concerning that, while New York child obesity percentages are at 13.6% overall, the percentages grow higher with the ages of the students, with upper grades at 16.3%, a figure right in the middle of the national average.

When New York's overweight/obese adult percentage is considered — 63.3% in 2020 — it's clear where the trend is headed.

Where to begin?

Anyone who's ever tried to lose weight knows that single-focused strategies — especially those involving extreme diets — are usually doomed to long-term failure. A three-month crash diet is unlikely to create lifelong healthy weight, a goal that requires change on multiple levels.

Recognizing this, a holistic, multidisciplinary approach in attacking the obesity epidemic is recommended by many physicians, including the University at Buffalo's Dr. Leonard Epstein, whose family-based weight loss approach involves pediatricians, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, psychologists and social workers. Epstein's group trainings last three months or more and aim to create lasting weight loss for parents, children and siblings.

Parents who participate in the program tend to lose 20 or more pounds, while children typically drop about 20% of their body weight.

Programs like Epstein's and Oishei Children's Healthy Weigh clinic, led by Dr. Carroll "Mac" Harmon, recognize the primary drivers of the epidemic, which break down like this:

—Lack of healthy food: One in 10 New Yorkers — nearly 2 million people — didn't have good food access before the pandemic, and a recent survey by the New York Health Department indicated that 70% of respondents who were food insecure also reported at least one chronic physical or mental health condition.

The authors of the study stress the importance of New York's food benefit programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the extension of universal free school meals as essential to reducing food insecurity and child obesity. It helps that school dietary programs now follow more rigorous nutritional standards, thanks to Obama-era regulations.

On a local level, Buffalo is lucky to have such entities as the Massachusetts Avenue Project, Freedom Gardens, Buffalo Go Green, the African Heritage Food Co-op and others dedicated to widening healthy food options among Buffalo's most underserved populations. Inequitable food access is a central reason low-income Black and Latino populations are disproportionately affected by obesity.

These organizations not only make fresh food available, they help give city residents greater control over the means of food production through growing their own at home or participating in local urban farms and community gardens.

—Behavior and family dynamics play a large role: As Epstein states, "We see this as a family problem, not as a child problem, and we target the parent as well as the child."

Positive ways of reinforcing healthy activity and reducing screen time need to be a family affair.

Oishei's Healthy Weigh clinic works with parents and children to stress fun activities, personalized plans and fitness guidance — with no mention of diets and a focus on body composition rather than weight.

Programs like Healthy Weigh and the UB study offer progressive, practical approaches toward reducing child obesity. We need more like them.

With smart — not scolding — guidance and consistent access to fresh, healthy food, Western New York kids can avoid the scourge of obesity into adulthood.

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