Schools, public must cooperate on fighting child obesity.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Jimmy Unger and Mary Lou Hennrich For The Register-Guard

The Register-Guard has devoted considerable space to the epidemic of childhood obesity and its implications. Most readers are well aware of this epidemic and its importance.

According to the 2005 Healthy Teens Survey, nearly 25 percent of Lane County eighth-graders and 27 percent of 11th-graders are obese or at risk for obesity.

These numbers are even more alarming when you consider that they represent increases of nearly 25 percent from just three years ago.

Columns previously published on this page have discussed the long-term health implications of childhood obesity: increasing incidences of Type II (once called `adult-onset') diabetes, premature heart disease, strokes and cancer.

Children born today stand a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes in their lifetimes - unless the child is female or a member of a minority group, in which case diabetes is even more likely.

If this isn't enough to get your attention, consider the staggering thought that, due to obesity and its complications, children born today face the probability of shorter life spans than their parents.

While experts debate how many deaths obesity causes, assuming Lane County is roughly representative of the rest of the country, obesity or its complications claim the life of a Lane County resident once every one to three days.

In any crisis, some finger-pointing is inevitable. Fairly or unfairly, school districts have been blamed, even while they struggle for survival in an era of budget cuts and a stream of new initiatives, mandates and requests for added services.

Although they didn't ask for this new reality, students take in between one-third to one-half of their calories at school, and they expend one-half of their calories during the school day.

Since obesity arises from energy imbalance (too many calories consumed and not enough calories burned), schools play a key role in any solution to the epidemic.

In addition, a California Department of Education study in 2002 showed a direct link between physical activity and academic performance.

These data lend support to the concept that schools need to do more than just teach kids. In fact, schools will need to be key players if we are to make strides against the `poor diet/inactivity' epidemic.

Improvements in physical activity, nutrition, health and nutrition education and the environment at schools will be instrumental in slowing down and, eventually, reversing this epi- demic.

Schools, however, are not in this alone.

The magnitude of this crisis is such that every sector of society that touches the lives of kids should be asking, `In what ways can we improve children's habits of nutrition and physical activity?'

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently authorized the Child Nutrition Act, which funds the national school lunch and breakfast programs.

The new authorization requires that local school districts have in place a wellness policy that, by the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, addresses nutrition education, nutrition and physical activity.

It also requires the districts to include parents, students, teachers and pertinent school personnel in policy development.

Thanks to the collaboration between the Lane County Public Health Department and the Community Health Partnership, Lane County residents will have an opportunity to participate in a workshop designed to help the public learn more about the development of school wellness policies and discuss their concerns.

Participants should then be better equipped to help the school districts meet the shared goal of a more healthful and active school environment.

Locally, school districts are in various stages of this process. Many are already hard at work; other are just starting.

In the best case scenario, the development of school wellness policies, while being sensitive to the plight of the already financially strapped districts, can use creativity, volunteerism, a spirit of cooperation, incorporation of successes elsewhere and kid-friendly values to promote the goal of obesity prevention.

Jimmy Unger, a Eugene pediatrician, is chairman of the Lane Coalition for Healthy Active Youth. Mary Lou Hennrich is executive director of the Community Health Partnership.

The Lane County Public Health Department and the Community Health Partnership are sponsoring a workshop on school wellness policy development from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at the Michael Rogers Conference Room of the Lane County Mental Health building, 2411 Martin Luther King Blvd.