I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
This week, as Congress wrestles with the issue of health care reform, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is hosting what it says is its inaugural conference on obesity prevention and control, called “Weight of the Nation.”
Obesity costs Americans $147 billion per year and makes up about 10 percent of the total cost of health care, according to a study published this month in the journal Health Affairs and presented Monday at the conference. The study, conducted by researchers at CDC and others, showed that we’re spending more to care for the obese — not because that care costs more, but because there are so many more obese people. According to the report, “The rise in obesity prevalence accounted for 89 percent of the increase in obesity spending.”
As part of the conference, CDC has released a list of recommended strategies for combatting obesity. The list includes including increasing the availability of healthy, affordable foods in communities, helping people choose healthy foods, increasing physical education classes in schools, encouraging the breast feeding of infants, and designing communities that make it easy to get around by walking.
Specifically, CDC suggests that local governments try to make sure that healthy, affordable foods are served in public venues such as after-school programs, child care centers, community recreational facilities (e.g., parks, playgrounds and swimming pools), city and county buildings, prisons and juvenile detention centers. That would also mean restricting less healthy foods in those venues.
Other recommendations suggest that communities limit junk food advertising, ban sugar-sweetened drinks in day care centers, and make physical education classes mandatory in schools.
Former President Bill Clinton spoke at the conference Monday, saying that those most at risk for obesity are the “non-rich in a rich society.” The Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association recently launched a childhood obesity initiative called the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.
You can get see live updates from “Weight of the Nation” on Twitter, as attendees are using the hashtag #WON09 to share news from the conference.
