Joint forces to help kids cut the fat.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Like their counterparts across the nation, local pediatricians have been fretting for years over the escalation in childhood obesity.

But they're no longer the only community leaders responding to the alarm. Earlier this fall, at the invitation of the Lane County Medical Society, a coalition of representatives from local school districts, youth recreation programs and social service agencies began monthly meetings with physicians to brainstorm tactics for battling the problem.

The 30-plus member task force, which does not yet have a formal name, will meet for a third time Thursday to better define its goals and time line.

"We're trying to come up with some different community strategies to raise awareness, and come up with things we can do in our individual arenas to address it," said Eugene School Board member and middle-school parent Anette Spickard, who volunteered to represent the school district because of her firsthand observations and concerns.

Spearheading the effort is Dr. Jimmy Unger, a pediatrician with PeaceHealth Medical Group and chairman of the Lane County Medical Society's Community Health Committee. He expects the group to meet for at least the next two years.

"I think, like most pediatricians, I'm feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the ever-increasing incidence of childhood obesity," he said. "And on a personal level, I felt that the idea of an individual doctor talking to an individual family and trying to tackle it that way is not very productive. In my mind, it's more of a societal problem."

The medical society board voted to make childhood obesity a focus for the next two or three years, Unger said. The incidence of obesity in American children has tripled in the past 30 years; at the same time, there's been an alarming rise in the number of obese children diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, a potentially life-threatening disease that used to be relatively rare among children.

With their charge of feeding children and teaching them physical and health education, schools will surely be a key player in whatever recommendations come out of the process. For many children, the school lunch is the primary meal of the day.

The Eugene district and its food services contractor of the last two years, Sodexho, are already taking steps to improve the quality and nutritional value of school lunches. For example, students now can choose every day from meat and at least two vegetarian entrees. Cinnamon rolls, sugary cereal and donuts are off the breakfast menu. Ranch dressing - a perennial favorite - is nonfat.

There's also talk of forming a nutrition advisory council of parents, school officials, physicians, dentists, dieticians and others, one of several recommendations that came from a letter to local school districts last August from a group of PeaceHealth pediatricians.

The focus on nutrition also raises the issue of soft drinks in the schools, a point of sharp controversy four years ago. That's when the Eugene district, looking to generate funds to pay for bleachers at new artificial turf fields, signed lucrative contracts with local Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola bottlers that boosted the number of soft-drink vending machines in high schools. Public hearings drew loud criticism over commercialism and nutrition, but the board approved the eight-year contracts.

At a meeting in August, the board discussed the option of buying out the contracts early, but there seemed to be little interest in doing so, as it would cost nearly $300,000.

Spickard, who was not on the board in 2000, said she'd at least be interested in trying to negotiate a healthier mix of offerings in the vending machines.

Other committee members early on include officials from the Springfield and Bethel school districts, the YMCA, the city of Eugene, Lane County Public Health, Head Start of Lane County and Centro LatinoAmericano.

"My main concern, and why I'm there, is how do we also target Latino youth," Centro's Carmen Urbina said. "Statistically we see that we have a very high incidence of specifically diabetes, and high cholesterol and high blood pressure."

One of the challenges for the Hispanic community, she noted, is the expense of high-quality, nutritious food.

"We're dealing with poverty issues, and what we've found out, particularly with our clients with diabetes, is we recommend they eat healthier foods and they look at us and say, `How do we do that? I prefer to just open a can - it is cheaper and that is what's provided to us at the food bank.' "

Unger said he's hopeful that a concerted, communitywide education campaign might make a difference.

"I think there's some precedent in changing the public's mind-set on public health issues," he said, citing attitudes about tobacco use and child car seats as examples.

Inactivity and poor nutrition, he said, "are similar public health threats."

CAPTION(S):

Holt Elementary second-grader Kyrel Jefferson takes a squirt of juice to the eyeball while peeling an orange. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a big part of the menu in Eugene schools, where the food contractor, Sodexho, offers vegetarian options and nonfat salad dressing. A student gets a helping of fruit during lunch at Holt Elementary in Eugene. A countywide task force is examining how to keep kids healthy.