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Politics & Government

San Mateo County Leads State in Fighting Childhood Obesity

New study shows 31 out of 58 California counties have not been able to curb a 30-year-old epidemic.

In the battle to control childhood obesity, San Mateo County is pioneering a path out of a spotty, sometimes dismal statewide picture, a new study indicates.

A Patchwork of Progress: Changes in Overweight and Obesity Among California 5th, 7th and 9th Graders, 2005-2010, reveals much of the state still struggles to get a handle on the epidemic, which took off some 30 years ago. Out of 58 counties, 31 have failed to slow the trend, which has been linked to serious illnesses.

While obesity rates have decreased by 5.6 percent in San Mateo County, they have increased in other Bay Area counties. Marin County, which historically has had the lowest rates, saw a spike of 5.5 percent.

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In 2004, California began implementing a series of laws banning sugary drinks and junk food from public school campuses.

The percentage of overweight children dropped overall by 1.1 percent from 2005 to 2010, although nearly 40 percent of children suffer from the disorder.

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“California led the nation in establishing many of the most innovative programs and policies that are improving our children’s chances for a healthier life,” said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, which conducted the study with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

“But in light of the huge number of counties where childhood obesity rates continue to climb, our efforts must continue and even expand, especially in those areas where we now know children are most at risk,” he said.

California spends more public and private money on the health consequences of obesity than any other state – more than $21 billion annually.

Imperial, Colusa, Del Norte and Monterey counties contend with the highest rates of obesity, and Del Norte and Colusa also saw the highest increases over the past five years.

Overweight children are much more likely to grow into obesity as adults, at risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, strokes, and some cancers and chronic conditions, such as back pain.

"We hope this county-by-county analysis will help community leaders pinpoint and take action in counties in the greatest danger," said UCLA's Susan Babey, the lead author on the study.

A Successful Partnership

But counties that have not been able to reduce childhood obesity are not necessarily doing anything wrong, said San Mateo’s public health chief Scott Morrow.

A problem that was 30 years in the making and incorporates business, agricultural, cultural and nutritional factors will take as long to remedy, he said.

“The reasons for obesity are so complex,” he said. “There is so much pressure, from pushing sedentary behavior to government subsidies for commodity crops. It’s going to take a lot of pressure the opposite way to change this.”

Partly to blame: A landscape of drive-through restaurants.

“We’ve made an environment that’s obeso-genic, that didn’t take into consideration the effect of all this fast food,” he said. “And there is a real disconnection today between kids and agriculture.”

The county health department has partnered with the schools to slow the trend in the 7-year-old Get Healthy San Mateo County initiative, a community-wide effort. The coordinated plan of attack includes improving nutrition both on-campus and off, promoting more physical activity and “making a very strong push for a garden-based education” in which students plan, tend and harvest crops.

“They learn math, science, social studies around that garden,” he said.

The health department not only urges schools to ramp up athletics in an era of diminishing physical education, but also trains teachers how to incorporate physical activities into other kinds of lessons.

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