Childhood Obesity

This public service announcement comes from an after-school team in the DC Scores program at MacFarland Middle School in Washington, D.C. They are hoping to use their PSA and what they learned to educate elementary school students about childhood obesity. Eligible entrants were asked to submit videos that highlight the problem of childhood obesity, and/or possible solutions. This video was the winning entry.

D - Ohio Representative Marcia L. Fudge is a committed public servant who brings a hard-working, problem-solving spirit to Congress and to the task of creating jobs, attacking predatory lending, and improving health care, small business, and education. These characteristics were honed while serving as Warrensville Heights' first African American female Mayor.  As the city's top executive, Representative Fudge led Warrensville Heights in building 200 new homes and shoring up a sagging retail base.

Almost 1 in 3 The proportion of American children who are overweight or obese Nearly 40% The proportion of African American and Hispanic children who are overweight or obese Tripled The childhood obesity rate in the United States over the last 30 years 31% How many more calories Americans are eating now than they were 40 years ago. That includes 56 percent more calories from fats and oils and 14 percent more from...

Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, who is poised to announce next month that he is running for governor, is in discussions with Howard County Executive Ken Ulman about joining his ticket, according to several people familiar with the talks. The pairing of Democrats Brown and Ulman — who has been gearing up to run for governor himself — would shake up a highly competitive Democratic primary to succeed Gov. Martin O'Malley just as it gets underway in earnest. By adding Ulman as the...

Childhood obesity is a huge national problem; but when we asked KidsPost readers for their solutions, we received more than 300 entries as part of Solutions for Childhood Obesity contest. Winner Jack Mead and five runners-up came to The Post's Childhood Obesity Summit last week where they shared their ideas with government leaders and sports stars. Here are edited versions of the winning entries. Let kids cook A big reason children become obese is that people don't know how to cook healthful food.

The obesity epidemic may have peaked among U.S. children, halting a decades-long trend of inexorably expanding waistlines among the nation's youngest and most vulnerable, federal health officials reported yesterday. A new analysis of the most recent data collected by an ongoing government survey, considered the most authoritative on the subject, detected the first sign since the 1980s that the proportion of 2-to-19-year-olds who are overweight may have stopped rising, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.

In front of a packed audience in the State Dining Room at the White House on Tuesday, first lady Michelle Obama rolled out her national initiative to combat childhood obesity with a show of force that included medical, business and government leaders, grassroots activists, celebrity public service announcements, cartoon characters as nutrition experts, as well as those most directly affected -- the kids themselves. Dubbed "Let's Move," the project also received a presidential nod of support, to be backed up with...

NEW YORK -- Some children get severely obese because they lack particular chunks of DNA, which kicks their hunger into overdrive, researchers report. The British scientists checked the DNA of 300 children who became very fat, on the order of 220 pounds by age 10. The researchers looked for deletions or extra copies of DNA segments. They found evidence that several rare deletions may promote obesity, including one kind found in less than 1 percent of about 1,200 severely obese children.

TUESDAY, May 27 (HealthDay News) -- In what may be the first good news in the battle against obesity among America's children, federal researchers report that the latest data suggest that the number of overweight kids may be leveling off. However, experts caution there's still much to be done to improve the health of American children because the number of youngsters who are overweight today is still triple what it was in the 1960s and 1970s....

Just call her a mini Michelle Obama . Like the FLOTUS, Jodi Evans, a fourth-grader from Bowie, is on a mission to improve the eating habits of the nation's children. Jodi, 9, is one of 21 students nationwide who were selected to serve on the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Youth Advisory Board. The board is one of the only youth-led groups in the country that focuses on issues related to childhood obesity, according to the American Heart Association and the William J....

The campaign against childhood obesity that has become Michelle Obama's signature program will ramp up again this week as she begins a three-state tour focused on boosting physical activity and healthy eating. The Let's Move initiative, which Obama has made nearly ubiquitous , has served to elevate the issue of children's health and fitness. As the program enters its third year, questions remain about whether the efforts the first lady has backed will be long-lasting. Still, Obama...

The entrepreneur Maggie Croushore researched the subject of childhood obesity for her undergraduate thesis, but it wasn't until she joined the Teach for America program in D.C. Public Schools — where 30 percent of children struggle with obesity — that she saw firsthand the impact it can have on student achievement. Croushore taught English and coached track. She saw the classroom benefits fitness had in keeping her students engaged in learning. And she...

President Obama's disrespect for women is evident beyond the white male Cabinet appointments and photo-ops [" Picturing diversity in the White House ," In the Loop, Jan. 15]. Female staffers and appointees already serving in his administration are underutilized and often invisible. Has anyone seen Regina Benjamin , the surgeon general, recently? Where is her leadership in critical national health-care challenges: Medicare reform through pay-per-visit, hospice-like treatment during the costly last 18 months of life, the...

What advice do kids have for President Barack Obama as he starts his second term? Helping h omeless people and pets, having schools start later and improving school lunches are just a few of the ideas submitted in letters written by thousands of kids in honor of National Handwriting Day on January 23. In partnership with Handwriting Without Tears' Mail to the Chief program , KidsPost selected some letters written by Washington area kids....

Before she sings for a TV audience of an umpteen-kerzillion at next month's Super Bowl halftime show, Beyonce has booked herself a warm-up gig on the chilly steps of the U.S. Capitol. She'll appear at President Obama's Jan. 21 inauguration ceremony to perform the national anthem. Go ahead and scan American pop music's starry skies — you'll find no better choice. At Obama's first inauguration, "Star-Spangled Banner" duties were handled by enlisted members of the U.S. Navy Band.

Howard County Executive Ken Ulman moved Tuesday to ban the sale of high-sugar drinks such as soda in parks, libraries and other county properties and at county-sponsored events — hoping yet again to make the county a progressive model. "I believe Howard County government should lead by example," Ulman said. "That's why today I've signed an executive order to increase the availability of healthy beverage options in our county departments and programs. "The vending machines will...

One in three children in this country are overweight. But, until now, it was unclear how much the nation's largest food and beverage companies spent influencing kids to eat unhealthy foods. The companies spent about $1.6 billion marketing their products -- mainly soda, fast food and cereal -- to children in 2006, according to a Federal Trade Commission report on food marketing to children released yesterday. The biggest category, $492 million, was carbonated-beverage advertising.

What advice do kids have for President Barack Obama as he starts his second term? Helping h omeless people and pets, having schools start later and improving school lunches are just a few of the ideas submitted in letters written by thousands of kids in honor of National Handwriting Day on January 23. In partnership with Handwriting Without Tears' Mail to the Chief program , KidsPost selected some letters written by Washington area kids....

Just call her a mini Michelle Obama . Like the FLOTUS, Jodi Evans, a fourth-grader from Bowie, is on a mission to improve the eating habits of the nation's children. Jodi, 9, is one of 21 students nationwide who were selected to serve on the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Youth Advisory Board. The board is one of the only youth-led groups in the country that focuses on issues related to childhood obesity, according to the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation,...

Chef/Owner, ThinkFoodGroup Named "Outstanding Chef" by the James Beard Foundation in 2011, José Andrés is an internationally-recognized culinary innovator, passionate advocate for food and hunger issues, author, television personality and chef/owner of ThinkFoodGroup. TFG is the team responsible for Washington, DC's renowned dining concepts Jaleo, Zaytinya, Oyamel, and minibar by josé andrés, as well as The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills. His recent restaurant openings include Jaleo, China Poblano, and é by...