Approximately 29.3% of Pennsylvania children ages 10-17 years are considered overweight or obese according to BMI-or-age standards.
85 percent of children get less than five servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and a majority of intake comes from the consumption of French fries and ketchup. (USDA, 2002)
Once a person becomes overweight, weight reduction and weight maintenance are extremely difficult to achieve, so prevention is the most effective solution to the problem of overweight and obesity. (Pennsylvania Dept of Health, 2002)
Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. (NIH, 2002)
Students who eat a nutritious meal concentrate better, attend school more regularly, are less aggressive, and show improved behavior overall. (DeRoose, E. and T. Fitzpatrick. School Children: Inactive and Overweight — An Alarming Trend. EpiNorth. 2002)
Pa. needs to go on a diet
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 8, 2011
After 20 years of rising obesity rates, the Keystone State has become the 19th most obese state in the country.
The eighth annual "F as in Fat" report by the Trust for America's Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that 28.5 percent of Pennsylvanian adults are obese. That's more than double the obesity rate for the state in the late 1980s, which was 13.7 percent.
Report: Fight fat even in toddlers, preschoolers
The Associated Press
June 24, 2011
Portion control, diet variety and exercise apply to tots as well.
A food pyramid just for the under-2 set? Contrary to popular belief, children don't usually outgrow th eir baby fat — and a new report urges steps to help prevent babies, toddlers and preschoolers from getting too pudgy too soon. That's a growing problem: Already, 1 in 5 preschoolers — 2- to 5-year-olds — is overweight or obese.
USDA presents new guidelines for nutrition on colorful platter
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
June 3, 2011
Social media sites buzzed Thursday as people tweeted, posted and blogged their reactions to the USDA's new MyPlate icon, a simple image of a plate divided into four colorful sections for protein, grain, fruit and vegetable, with a small circle off to the side for dairy.
Almost everyone seemed to agree that it was an improvement on the 2005 MyPyramid, which NYU nutrition professor Marion Nestle succinctly demolished in a recent column for TheAtlantic.com as "a travesty — hopelessly complicated, impossible to teach, and requiring the use of a computer."
(Also see the Highmark Healthy High 5 Plate Planner 
that you can download and print out.)
Is Fitness All in the Genes?
New York Times
March 16, 2011
Why do some people respond to an aerobic workout routine by becoming incredibly fit, whereas others who exercise just as hard for months end up no fitter than when they began? That question has bedeviled countless people who've started exercise programs. It has also motivated a major new study of the genetics of fitness.
Children and teens seeing fewer television ads for fruit drinks, regular sodas and sweets
Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation
July 6, 2010
Children and teens are seeing fewer television advertisements for fruit drinks, regular soda and sweets such as candy, cookies and pastries, according to a study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. However, youths of all ages are exposed to substantially more TV ads for fast-food restaurants.
The study follows self-regulation pledges by major food and beverage companies to eliminate unhealthy TV ads targeting children ages 11 and younger. Although recent changes in ad exposure indicate certain progress, the study concludes that continued monitoring of food advertising exposure is needed to further assess those corporate pledges.
Study shows major changes needed to support healthy eating and physical activity in U.S. elementary schools
Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation
June 8, 2010
A comprehensive study from Bridging the Gap and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that the nation’s elementary schools commonly offer their students junk food and soda, serve meals that don’t meet current dietary guidelines, and provide little time for physical activity.
Failing the obesity test: Exercise can help Americans confront their fat
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 12, 2010
Want to lose weight? Exercise. Help kick depression? Again, exercise. Increase productivity? Ditto. Sleep better? Improve your quality of life after cancer? Even have a better sex life? Exercise, exercise, exercise. With all those benefits — and more — why are Americans getting fatter?
Intervention lowered obesity rate in youth at high diabetes risk, HEALTHY study finds
Media-Newswire.com
July 2010
An intervention in middle schools lowered the obesity rate in students at highest risk for type 2 diabetes, those who started out overweight or obese in sixth grade, an NIH-funded study has found.
Doctors focus on kids' blood pressure
The Wall Street Journal
July 8, 2010
Amid the world-wide obesity epidemic and broader concerns about improving heart health, blood pressure has emerged as an important question — for kids of any weight. Rising rates of hypertension among overweight kids is driving the concern, but genetics and rare medical problems also may be triggers. While high-blood pressure is generally considered an adult medical problem, its increasing prevalence among children and teenagers is putting many young people on an early trajectory for heart attacks, strokes and other serious problems. "The foundation of cardiovascular disease develops during childhood," says Nathalie Farpour-Lambert, who heads the pediatric exercise medicine and obesity care program at University Hospitals of Geneva, in Switzerland. "There is evidence that from the age of 4 we can see the first signs of atherosclerosis," Farpour-Lambert says. "Forty years later, it results in coronary heart disease." Just as with adults, a large portion of kids in potential trouble don't even know it. "It's an important health issue in youth and it's getting worse instead of better," says Reginald Washington, a pediatric cardiologist and chief medical officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, in Denver.
USDA to revamp School Meat Safety Program
USA Today
May 15, 2010
The U.S. Agriculture Department will require all ground beef purchased for the National School Lunch Program to adhere to new safety standards after July 1. The program supplies ground beef, chicken and other food for more than 31 million schoolchildren.
White House obesity plan mixes carrots with sticks
Wall Street Journal
May 12, 2010
The White House is calling on food makers to curb marketing of unhealthy foods to children, part of a broad assault against childhood obesity. The recommendation is part of an 120-page report that outlines steps to fight the national epidemic. One in every three children ages 2-19 is overweight or obese, the report says. First Lady Michelle Obama has taken up childhood obesity as her signature cause.
Study finds soda pop sales tied to obesity in Allegheny County
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
May 6, 2010
If Allegheny County added a tax of 1 cent per ounce on sugary soft drinks, it would cut consumption up to 8 percent. It would also produce an extra $54 million in revenue that could be plowed back into anti-obesity efforts.
That's the conclusion reached by 21 undergraduate students at Carnegie Mellon University, mostly seniors in the departments of Engineering and Public Policy or Social and Decision Sciences.
Obese kids more vulnerable to bullies
CNN.com
May 3, 2010
Children in Grades 3 through 6 who are obese are more likely to be bullied than their normal-weight peers, a new study has found.
Childhood obesity: A generation at risk
The Patriot-News
The Patriot-News has a four-week series examining the issue of childhood obesity. It began April 18, 2010. It looks at the importance of nutrition and exercise, and what schools are doing — some with grants from the state Department of Health's Active Schools initiative or the Highmark Healthy High 5 School Challenge — to get kids moving during the academic day.
Michelle Obama: You can't mandate healthy eating
ABC News
March 17, 2010
Schools wage weight war
Pittburgh Tribune-Review
March 4, 2010
Does obesity rehab for kids work?
Time Magazine
March 1, 2010
Child obesity risks death at early age, study finds
February 11, 2010
The New York Times
3 simple steps can cut childhood obesity
LiveScience
February 8, 2010