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Officials taking action to curb obesity

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By Michael D. Pitman, Staff Writer 10:05 PM Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The growing number of people who are overweight or obese in Ohio has garnered the attention of state lawmakers and local school districts who are actively addressing the issue.

The number of Ohioans who are obese is 29.2 percent according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

That number is nearly triple what it was in 1986, according to data collected by this newspaper.

“Overweight and obese kids often become overweight and obese adults,” said Dr. Bob Siegel, medical director for the Center for Better Health and Nutrition at the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“And the lifestyle and patterns you have as a kid are the lifestyle and patterns you have as an adult,” he said.

And if someone — a child or adult — is overweight and obese, then they are at risk for hypertension, fatty liver disease, type 2 diabetes or orthopedic problems, he said.

By the time children are in middle school, Siegel said close to 40 percent nationwide are either overweight or obese as measured by body mass index. Overweight is classified as having a body mass index, or BMI, greater than 25, which is 20 to 30 pounds overweight. You are considered obese when your is BMI greater than 35 and translates to being about 40 pounds overweight. A BMI higher than 45 is morbidly obese.

Data and trends like this prompted state legislators to pass Senate Bill 210 last year which outlines how school districts should include healthy and wellness education into their curriculum to help curb the increasing number of people who are considered overweight or obese.

The Healthy Choice for Healthy Kids Act was passed in Sept. 2010 and includes requirements for physical education and curriculum about proper nutrition in Ohio schools.

The legislation outlawed vending machines in classrooms, altered standards on beverages sold on school property and established a BMI screening program for students. Parents have the option of declining participation in the BMI screening.

The bi-partisan bill was brought on by Sen. Eric Kearney, D-Cincinnati and now-former Cuyahoga Falls Republican senator Kevin Coughlin.

“I introduced a version of the bill because I visited an elementary school in my district and there were a number of kids that were pre-diabetic,” Kearney said of a school in the St. Bernard area of Cincinnati.

He said the experts testified that a third of kids in Ohio are obese or extremely overweight “and that was concerning.”

The law falls in line with how an area doctor believes that early lifestyle patterns are hard to break when we become older.

Butler County school districts have addressed the changes in the state law and some districts had been preparing in anticipation of the changes.

Middletown Schools Superintendent Greg Rasmussen said learning and nutrition “go hand in hand” and the district has implemented a wellness plan “to address concerns of healthy meals being offered to our students, and it is working well. Our students are taught good nutrition and the value of making healthy choices. We offer a wide variety of healthy choices for breakfast and lunch, such as, baked items versus fried, all flavored milk is skim, and white milk is 1 percent.”

According to the United States Dept. of Agriculture choosing a low-fat or non-fat milk helps reduce your intake of ‘empty calories’. Those are calories in foods and beverages which provide very little if any nutritional value. Sugar-sweetened cereals, whole milk and ground beef (75 percent lean or less) are all foods which add very little in terms of nutrition according to the USDA sponsored website choosemyplate.gov.

Everett Mann, Hamilton’s administrative assistant for business and planning, said the district is “aware of the national focus on obesity and works to educate our students to make healthy food choices,” he said. “We participate in a fresh fruits and vegetables program.”

Eating a diet rich in fruits in vegetables provides several health benefits and can reduce one’s risk of some chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes according to the USDA.

Middletown Schools contracts its cafeteria services to Sodexo, which started to run the district’s cafeteria services six years ago. At that time, a wellness committee was formed and it was charged with “improving lunches, snacks, and overall general health education for the district,” said Vicki Greider, Middletown Schools assistant food service manager.

The changes made in Butler County’s school cafeterias have been met with mix reactions, according to school officials. They say most younger students seem to like the changes, or don’t mind them, but some high school students are upset with some of the items that were removed.

Hamilton High School senior Shelby Moore, 17, said the most noticeable change is they don’t have French fries or cookies at lunch.

“Everybody’s griping about them taking away the cookies because they were really good cookies,” said Moore, who buys lunch a few times a month.

But the food is “better than it used to be,” she said. Hamilton Schools contracts its food services to Chartwells School Dining.

“We all have been going the extra mile to ensure we provide healthy meals,” said Fairfield City Schools’ Services Director David Foster, who’s in charge of the district’s cafeterias. “We experienced resistance from the kids at first.”

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