By DENAE BYBEE

A recent Utah Department of Health study reported that if something isn't done immediately, this will be the first-ever generation with a shorter life expectancy than their parents because of the rising trend of childhood obesity.

A rise in soft drink consumption, larger food and beverage portions, an increase in daily computer and TV time and a decrease in breast-feeding and recommended physical activity all contribute to our nation's health emergency.

Nearly a quarter of the 261,089 elementary children are overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, according to the 2006 report, and boys outnumber girls.

Gov. Jon Huntsman wanted to know what government, families, schools, healthcare and the media could do to change the environment causing obesity in Utah.

The result of his inquiry was an action plan for those five areas to address this deadly curse of obesity.

Dr. Tamara Lewis, Utah medical director for Community Health and Prevention, has been working for several years on planning the care for children with obesity.

Doctors are seeing more children with "adult" diseases secondary to obesity such as Type II diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, Lewis said.

Questions about the clinical management of these patients spurred Lewis to research national guidelines and recommendations. Armed with hard evidence, she has educated physicians, guiding them to effective treatments, Lewis said.

"We are a healthcare system," said Janet Frank, public relations director for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. "We care about the health of our community. Obesity is now classified as a disease. If we are going to make progress on this disease, we've got to prevent it as well [as treat it]."

Intermountain dieticians from Idaho to Dixie are using the core information of the LiVe program for their new nine-month weight management program for families beginning in September.

As part of the program, a dietician will provide specific guidelines for nutrition, an exercise physiologist will workout with the families and a social worker will teach behavior modification.

Usually, an overweight child has low self-esteem, Kantor said. The advantage to participating as a family versus individually is that the focus is off the behavior of the targeted child and on teaching healthy living for everyone.

Healthy lifestyles are learned in the family as a whole. Therefore, successful treatment depends on changes from everyone.

"Generally people are more health conscious, they just don't know how to go about it," said Jalaine Kantor, director of Dietician Services at UVRMC.

The LiVe program geared to adults is called Weigh to Health. It also punctuates nutrition, exercise, behavior modification and weight loss, Kantor said. Dedicated individuals in the last group lost about six to seven pounds in 12 weeks.

Frank points out that when young adults get married and establish healthy lifestyles early, it will do much toward preventing their children from becoming obese.

A serving of meat, for example, is three ounces - the size of a deck of cards.

"Be aware of portion sizes," Kantor said. "Our idea of sizes is not good. If we just use correct portion sizes, we could compensate for what we're eating and not gain weight."

Larry Tucker, co-director of BYU wellness and professor of exercise sciences at BYU, said the more significant problem with obesity is food consumption and activity.

"There are environmental constraints associated with physical activity such as time, fatigue and weather," Tucker said. "No matter how much we exercise, we can always over-consume."

Eating low energy density foods such as watermelon or broccoli doesn't give as many calories as a high energy density food like ice cream, which has a lot of sugar and fat - thus many more calories. This is why eating fiber is important; you can eat more food with fewer calories, Tucker said.

"To be healthy young adults, you need to eat lots of fiber and low-energy density foods [fruits and vegetables]," Tucker said. "You can over-consume high fat, high calorie foods and you simply can't get enough activity to counter that. We get into eating patterns and eat similar foods and about the same portions each week."

Tucker said the food industry's goal is to sell a lot of food. Every major food company has stockholders and needs sales returns.

Advertisements encourage people to eat more by selling them on a better value, better taste and more convenience so food manufacturers make it cheaper, tastier and more convenient.

"When was the last time you saw an ad for broccoli or squash?" Tucker said.

UVRMC has a Wellness Center open 24/7 for public use.

INFO BOX

Lewis has teamed up with Intermountain to increase public awareness about how to prevent obesity. The new "LiVe" campaign (see insert) is launching a four-pronged education attack aimed at 11-15 year olds as part of the "awareness-building" stage: a media campaign will include humorous TV spots, posters and billboards, a comprehensive website, www.intermountainlive. org already running, an education program will assist physicians with treating children with obesity, an award-winning professional acting group will perform interactive assemblies at every junior high school in Utah.

Copyright Brigham Young University 6 Aug 2007