Two of the world’s foremost metropolitan cities have joined together to fight childhood obesity. In a report titled “A Tale of Two ObesCities” researchers from London Metropolitan University and City University of New York have found demographic similarities between obese children in both cities. Notably, both cities are characterized by high levels of income disparity with the poorest children having the highest rates of obesity. In London 36.3% of children are obese by the age of 11, compared with 40% in New York. The report demonstrates that the two cities can benefit from collaboration and learning from each other’s experiences in combating childhood obesity. The main recommendations of the report include:
- Build active design principles into building codes, housing strategies
-Promote and support urban agriculture as a sustainable and health promoting use of green spaces
-Promote access to places where people can by physically active and promote walking and cycling
-Implement a universal free school meal program with nutritional standards
-Promote research to help cities understand how the beat health inequalities
[via Medical News Today]
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Tags: childhood, London, New York, obesity, Pediatrics
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Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
January 27th, 2010 at 7:55 am
Like I’ve said on several posts, government needs to get out of the health business. They have virtually no idea about how to solve the problems of health and worse yet create most of them. In pusuit of lobbyist from agriculture and food processors, government approves the addition of substances in or foods to secure support of dollars over health. See the following for addtional information:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/26/Sugar-May-Be-Bad-But-This-Sweetener-Is-Far-More-Deadly-Part-2.aspx
January 27th, 2010 at 8:02 am
i think its good that they are joining together. now maybe they will start watching what they feed their people and what they put in the stores to sell to people.
January 28th, 2010 at 12:57 am
I WAS NOT IMPRESSED WITH WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT THE VAARIOUS
SWEETNERS, I DO NOT BELIEVE YOUR REPORT, AND I SAY THAT AS A
RESULTS OF HOW THEY AFFECT MY BODY. THE FDA DOES NOT GIVE A DAM
ABOUT THE HEALTH OF THE USA CITIZENTS, AND THEY SHOW IT BY THE
MEDICATIONS THEY APPROVE.
FRANKLIN D. TURNEY, M-DIV/PSY
F
January 28th, 2010 at 9:16 am
Franklin, did you actually read Dr. Mercola’s report with a critical eye or with an eye to try to refute it? After all the report was based on other studies which showed actual results and definite conclusions. If you have studies or information to refute the report, please post them for us to read and evaluate.
February 1st, 2010 at 8:21 pm
[...] consumption of calories and fat and help combat the childhood obesity epidemic (40% of New York City children are obese by the age of 11). This simple change means that a milk-drinking student was exposed to [...]