Sometimes you get lucky and blog posts almost write themselves. Today was that sort of day. The combination of two interesting bits of information that crossed my path this morning really got me thinking. First, there was the news blurb I heard on Q104.3 on the way in to work. It was that most Americans will be obese within the next two decades. Here's the story as it was written up in the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/us-obesity-2030-americans-obese_n_1893578.html
This amazed me for so many reasons. First, it just has me wondering when - or if ever -we'll find that all the current interventions, including programs like Teens Run Yonkers are making a difference. Obviously programs like TRY focus on exercise as one degree of the healthy habits that are necessary for young people to avoid and/or fight the trends in obesity.
But consider the growth of programs that focus on more fresh foods (i.e. farmers markets) food education such as that of my former employer Spoons Across America which teaches kids how to make fresh, healthy foods and the recent and growing celebration of chefs that are cooking up delicious but healthy foods.
Most interestingly - and not to get too political - with all of the attention that Michelle Obama has showered on this issue through the Let's Move effort, we've yet to hear of the impact. Having worked for organizations that you think would have benefitted from the attention, (and this is personally speaking) I'm not clear how, when or where the national attention manages to help organizations that are right here in the communities that are impacted.
And so - as this story would have it - we're not catching up, we're moving backwards. A quick read on this article gives lots of the resulting spillover effects i.e. hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. The list goes on. By the way, since it's my blog, I will state outright that I don't believe efforts like Mike Bloomberg's Stop the Soda Campaign - though now approved - will help one bit. Locking down, overcharging or reducing access without educating individuals doesn't solve problems, it just leads to other ones and/or creative solutions i.e. 16 oz refills.
I mentioned there were two interesting items. The other was Seth Godin's blog this morning. I have noticed that when I've included them, I've received dire warnings from blog central that I am not supposed to be reposting his stuff - so I won't. His basic notion though today was the idea of doing one thing every day. Do one thing that will change the trajectory of your business. Do one thing that will help a nonprofit (here's the link to TRY's donation page if you're so inclined http://www.teensrunyonkers.org/donations.html. Or do one thing today to help yourself to better health. Now that's some logical thinking.
Maybe it's idealistic but that might be a good start. Get everyone to pick one healthy habit - walking, running, eating five or six fruits and vegetables a day - if we all did that, and could pass on the word to one more, well, we might start getting somewhere. I'm going to keep on thinking as I'm convinced this isn't about throwing money at the problem, it's about inspiring action everywhere we can..
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