NEWSOBESITY

[This post comes from Kerala Taylor, Online Content Manager at KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit dedicated to saving play for America's children. --Eds.]

In this simultaneously uplifting and disheartening story from the National Post, four teenagers took a stand against a decades-old law in Toronto, Canada that bans children from playing hockey on residential streets.

Andrew Polanyi, age 13, insisted, “Roads aren’t only for cars.” He said of street hockey: “It’s fun for us, and it keeps us active, not to always play video games.” Andrew and three friends brought a petition with more than 125 signatures to City Hall a few weeks ago to request that the ban be lifted.

Frosted pop tarts are not generally considered to be a health food, but Kellogg's is hoping to convince consumers otherwise. This past month, they unleashed strawberry frosted pop-tart mini crisps in 100-calorie packs, boasting of vitamin-fortification.

The Valentine-inspired packaging was meant to be a limited promo, but according to the company's website, they've decided to add them to their permanent collection. And like other 100-calorie packaging, it's meant to imply that weight-conscious folks can indulge in junk food while still maintaining their diet.

But a closer look at the ingredient list reveals that there aren't many redeeming qualities in these bites. In fact, like other Kellogg's products that claim to be made with real fruit, there are no strawberries in the so-called "strawberry" mini crisps.

They do contain flour, sugar, soybean and palm oil and corn syrup. But even though they picture strawberries on their packaging and claim that the strawberry flavor is "baked in," most of it is derived from flavoring and Red #40 Lake, along with five other artificial colorings.

If you paid attention to the food-related commercials during this year's Superbowl, you'd notice a trend in the ads: soda, oversized sweet tea, soda and just to drive the point home, an ad by the Americans Against Food Taxes, showing a woman loading her cart with a two-liter of pop while going on a tirade about government control of our lives.

It's no surprise that the group behind the ad is comprised of companies that profit off the sale of sweetened drinks -- Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill (in the corn business), 7-11, fast food chains and the American Beverage Association, just to name a few. All are inherently vested in encouraging more Americans -- nay, the world -- to continue their unabated penchant for sugary beverages, health outcomes be damned.

The commercial aims to generate an outcry that the government is taxing our soda, even though we don't have a national soda tax or even a proposal for one. But the fight is heated at the local level, as many cities and states propose soda taxes as a way to curb obesity and its attendant health costs.

In Vermont, a penny-an-ounce soda tax was first proposed last year by Attorney General Bill Sorrell and has garnered support from various health groups. This includes the Alliance for a Healthier Vermont, who have started a petition on Change.org urging the state legislature to pass the bill. They have support from a diverse coalition of health care providers, the Vermont Cancer Society, consumers advocates, dentists and teachers.

Last year, when San Francisco banned toys in unhealthy, fast-food meals, many advocates predicated the movement would spread. And it seems they were right. This week, halfway across the country, Senator Bill Avery of Lincoln, Nebraska introduced a measure that would prohibit toy giveaways in children's meals that don't meet certain nutrition requirements.

The measure, LB 126, "The Children's Health and Responsible Corporate Marketing Act," would curb the inclusion of Shrek, Darth Vader and other popular icons in kid's meals that have more than 500 calories. In addition, the meals can't exceed 640 milligrams of sodium and have to include at least one cup of fruit or vegetables that haven't been fried. It would also place limits on saturated fats, trans fats and sugar.

With 31 percent of Nebraska's children overweight or obese, curbing predatory marketing seems like a good idea. But, just as in San Francisco, the legislation has already been met with strong opposition from restaurant and food groups, including the Nebraska Restaurant Association and the Nebraska Petroleum Marketers, according to Bloomberg News.

And there's a reason why food giants spent so much money trying to defeat these types of proposals -- this type of advertising works.

Like the rest of the nation, Vermont faces an obesity problem with a disturbing upward trajectory: the number of Vermonters who are obese has more than doubled over the past two decades, and nearly tripled among youth. But state legislators and advocacy groups have come up with way to at least partially curb the rising tide, and all they are asking for is a penny.

A penny-an-ounce soda tax, that is. The idea was first proposed last year by Attorney General Bill Sorrell and has garnered support from various health groups. This includes the Alliance for a Healthier Vermont, a diverse coalition of health care providers, the Vermont Cancer Society, consumers advocates, dentists and teachers. The group is asking that legislatures support the issue in the upcoming legislative session.

The plan calls for adding a once-cent-tax for every ounce of "sugar sweetened beverage" -- drinks like sodas, Kool Aid and Snapple. The tax would cut back on excessive calories, and raise approximately $30 million a year for the state. The new money would be used for various health-related programs -- more fruits and vegetables for the state's food program, increased dental services for low-income families,  making school lunches free for more kids.

Vermont isn't the first state to propose a soda tax; it is becoming an increasingly popular -- if highly contested -- idea for curbing obesity.

Just in case you weren't satisfied with Starbucks' largest size,  the 24-ounce Venti, the company has recently decided to introduce something even bigger -- the "Trenta", coming in at a whopping 31 ounces.

While some Starbucks fans might consider this an awesome move, it doesn't bode well for the fight against obesity. At 916 milliliters, the Trenta is just slightly larger than the average stomach size (900 ml) and packs more liquid than a bottle of wine (750ml).

That's a lot of coffee, but certainly Starbucks isn't alone in their supersizing zeal. Over the past few decades, portion sizes of everything from bagels and pizza slices to soda and coffee have grown considerably. Unfortunately, America’s waistbands have reacted accordingly. In the 1970s, around 47 percent of Americans were overweight or obese; now, 66 percent of us are.

While increased sizes haven’t been the sole contributor to our obesity epidemic, large quantities of cheap food have distorted our perceptions of what a typical meal or drink is supposed to look like.

Twenty years ago, a normal cup of coffee was 8 ounces. With cream and sugar it might add to around 45 calories. Today, a Starbucks grande cafe mocha with whip is 16 ounces and 330 calories -- almost a full meal. And that's the medium size.

Recess used to be a staple of elementary school education, but in some cities and states, it's becoming the exception rather than the norm. And parents are increasingly having to fight for their children's right to go outside, exercise and partake in the time-honored tradition of play.

As covered on the Education blog, Meg Rosker, a mom in Florida, is one such parent. She is fighting to bring back recess in her child's school district, where many classrooms are opting not to schedule recess time for kids.

Instead of recess, kindergarteners in Pinellas County, FL, have twice daily "structured activity" breaks, and teachers are left to decide whether kids in first grade and above get free time during lunch. Since many choose not to schedule recess, Rosker decided to take the eldest of her three sons out of his Pinellas County school. Instead, she's homeschooling -- and trying to get 30 minutes of recess re-instated in the schools.

Florida's Department of Education was on the right path when it made the move to ban the sale of flavored milks and other high-sugar drinks in their schools. Chocolate and flavored milks contain more than five teaspoons of sugar -- almost the same amount as a cup of soda -- and the added calories and sugar are helping to fuel the childhood obesity and diabetes epidemics.

But the state's incoming agricultural commissioner, Adam Putnam, has told the board to stop moving forward with the ban until he can weigh in on the topic. As reported in the Orlando Sentinel, he sent a letter to the State Board of Education, indefinitely delaying the decision to rid schools of sugary milk and other beverages.

The reason? Putnam has conflicting interests. The dairy industry contributed thousands to his political campaign. And he's also pushing for the Department of Agriculture to take over school-cafeteria operations. While this could be a good thing -- helping farms get their produce into schools -- the Department of Agriculture's main mission is to promote agriculture, including dairy. That means there's not likely to be a ban on milk of any kind. If anything, there's going to more of it.

It's easy to become mired in the health problems plaguing our society -- rising rates of obesity and chronic disease, millions of uninsured, toxins polluting our air and water. But in 2010, there was major progress on numerous health fronts. For a start, we saw a revamp of health care, the biggest overhaul of our food safety system in decades and a massively improved school lunch program.

All of this signals a shift in the right direction: creating environments where it's easy for people to make the right health choices. With that in mind, here are some of the top reasons to cheer for 2010.

Health Care Reform
It wasn't perfect -- and many continue to mourn the public option -- but the Patient Protection and Affordable Care  Act is helping to bring coverage to more people, end some of the insurance industry's worst abuses and reigning in costs. The law continues to unveil new consumer benefits -- capping insurance hikes by more than 10 percent and stopping the industry from denying coverage for sick people.

But we also saw an out-and-out attack on reform, which will continue well into 2011. But despite the numerous lawsuits against the individual mandate, most judges (at least those without GOP ties) have declared the individual mandate to be constitutional.

And the attacks have launched counter-attacks. Dems and other groups have asked the GOP members opposing health care to give up theirs, and a petition by CREDO Action telling GOP leaders to "repeal their own health care first" currently has over 1,600 signatures.

A good in response to the bad: the GOP's misinformation campaign landed the phrase "government-takeover of health care" as lie of the year. Way to go, liars!

Health Benefits for 9/11 First Responders
Supporters called it a "Christmas miracle," but a last-ditch effort to provide health benefits for 9/11 first responders and survivors paid off as Congress sent the measure to President Obama for signature last week.

Although the $4.2 billion aid package is smaller than originally planned, it is still a major victory. The bill will provide health benefits to Ground Zero first responders and survivors, many of whom were exposed to toxic smoke and dust after the twin towers collapsed.

It's been dubbed "nature deficit disorder" -- lack of outdoor time for our nation's youth leading to a host of ills, including obesity, attention deficit disorder, stress, depression and decreased school performance.

That may seem like a lot of problems just for lack of trees, but the dramatic shift in our society is taking its toll. Lured indoors by screen time and video games, children spend half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago. According to a study by Kaiser Family Foundation, kids 8-18 years old average over 7 hours a day using entertainment media.

"The negative impact of decreased time outdoors includes a doubling of the childhood obesity rate -- accompanied by an incremental hundred billion dollar cost to our health care system -- as well as declining creativity, concentration and social skills," notes the National Wildlife Foundation, which is running a "Be Out There" campaign.

NWF is part of the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK), a national partnership of organizations that wants to expand the number and quality of opportunities for people of all ages to connect with the outdoors.

Their movement recently made its way to Congress. The Moving Outdoors in Nature Act (H.R. 6426), introduced by Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI) in November, would support federal, state and local plans that help connect children with the natural world.