GROWING PAINS

NEA Today, Mar 2005 by Crute, Sheree

You can't miss it. America's children are expanding. Those energetic preteens who once just needed to drop a little "baby fat" have been replaced with a profoundly alarming picture-rotund fifth graders with diabetes and hefty high school seniors graduating with a heightened risk of cancer and heart disease. Health experts call it a national crisis, but educators are fighting back-and in a big way.

DEBORAH MORRIS BEGAN SEEING THE TELLTALE SIGNS IN her Oakland, California, classroom years ago. "The kids came to school every morning with soda, a bag of Doritos, and a candy bar-that was their breakfast of champions," says this resource specialist for special education students at Fremont's Youth Empowerment High School. A stickler for healthy eating, she knew it was all wrong-and the impact became evident the longer she taught. "Their diet was affecting their energy levels and ability to concentrate"-not to mention their waistlines, she says. Now, Morris is facing this stark reality every day: "Almost one-third of the kids in our school," she says, "are overweight."

Disturbing, yes. But Morris knows her students are not alone. Nationally, some 9 million children are overweight or obese, and the numbers are growing so fast that some health experts are calling it a national crisis.

"Epidemic is absolutely the correct word for what we're seeing," says David Ludwig, M.D., director of the obesity program and the Children's Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program, at Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. "In children ages 6 to 19, of all genders and races, we've seen a three-fold increase [since the late 1970s] in the number who are overweight or obese," says Ludwig. And in children 8 to 10 years old, he says, there's been an "extraordinary" increase in type II diabetes-once, but no longer, called adult-onset diabetes.

While the epidemic touches children of all cultures, a disproportionately high number of Hispanic and African-American children are overweight, and now even the youngest of children appear to be at risk. In December 2004, the American Heart Association reported 10 percent of American children ages 2 to 5 are also overweight, a 7 percent increase since 1994.

The situation has become so dire that across the country, school districts like Oakland and educators like Morris are taking matters into their own hands-banning junk food, starting new fitness and nutrition programs, and saying no to high-fat cafeteria fare. What they understand: the unhealthier students are, the more vulnerable their chances for academic success.

A High Price

"If kids aren't healthy, their learning suffers," says Jerry Newberry, executive director of the NEA Health Information Network, "and research shows that sedentary kids who eat high-sugar, high-fat meals may have poorer cognitive skills, higher anxiety levels, and problems with hyperactivity."

Not surprisingly, unhealthy kids also miss school more. Action for Healthy Kids, a group of 40 health and education agencies (including NEA) that partners with schools in every state, recently reported that "tens of millions of dollars" are lost because of absenteeism caused by inactivity and poor nutrition.

Then there are the emotional downsides: overweight children who can't play sports, who can barely fit in their chairs at school, who can't get through a school day without being bullied and ostracized by their peers. "The psychological risks of obesity can be as great as the physical risks," warns Ted Feinberg, assistant executive director of the National Association of School Psychologists. "Low self-esteem and depression can undermine children's learning, behavior, and well-being."

A Cultural Shift

Unfortunately, say health experts, the current crisis only portends graver days ahead. "The rate of obesity in childhood predicts adult obesity," explains David Katz, M.D., a nutrition expert and director of the Yale Prevention Research Center at the Yale School of Medicine. And that, he says, can spell a lifetime of ill-health-in the form of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other diseases. Indeed, some experts estimate that children in the nation's youngest generation may be the first to have shorter lives than their parents.

It all begs the question: How did it come to this? Experts say there are several factors-and for educators, many are obvious. "Genetics may play a role for some," says Ludwig, "but there's the lowering of physical activity and the loosening of family ties. Fewer kids are sitting down to a family dinner with a parental supervisor."

With working parents busier than ever, he says, fast, processed, and prepackaged foods have become the gastronomical delight of choice-but at a price. A 15-year study by Ludwig and Mark Perreira at the Minnesota School of Public Health found that fast food increases the risk of obesity and type II diabetes and that people who chowed down on fast food two or three times a week gained 10 more pounds than those who ate fast food less than once a week.