The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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July 13, 2007

Parents, government must be active in fight over weight

It’s no real surprise a recent study has found overweight children face widespread stigma and bias over weight issues.

A study by researchers at Yale University and University of Hawaii has found the stigma is so overwhelming, it can lead to the same kind of stress faced by children with cancer.

The paper was based on a review of all research on youth weight bias over the past 40 years, and it comes amid a worldwide epidemic of childhood obesity. According to some statistics, by 2010, nearly half of the children in North America will be overweight.

So what do we, as a society, do about this problem?

First of all, adults who are overweight need to address their problems. Some of these children have parents who also are overweight. Parents need to take responsibility to get their own weight under control and work alongside their kids to get more exercise and eat more nutritious food.

Another issue is poor people often have more complications with weight. Some adults dependent on food stamps find they are not able to afford food with higher nutritional quality. A recent exercise by a state representative showed how hard it is to buy nutritious food on a limited budget.

This is an issue we need to take seriously. There are many avenues to educate people on better nutrition. But, the first line of defense falls to the parents, who need to make it a priority to provide their children the most nutritious diet they possibly can.

Programs that provide food stamps or food supplements also need to concentrate efforts on finding ways to provide more nutritional food. Food banks must seek donations of food items that have higher nutritional value.

This is a cycle that can be stopped, and it has to start now.

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