I've been thinking about writing a post on childhood obesity for quite some time. I put it off because I figured it is a well covered topic that seems to be on local and national news at least once a week. But this week on the local morning news, something happened that made me decide that now is the time.

 Arthel Neville, the news anchor, was talking to the station's "fitness person." This fitness person, who will go unnamed, is someone whose tactics I already strongly disagree with. He made the statement that it's the current administration's(Federal Govt) responsibility to deal with childhood obesity. Arthel stopped him right at that comment and made the point that it's the parents' responsibility. I couldn't agree more.

I see it like this, most children are not doing their own grocery shopping. Most probably don't understand the nutrition labels found on packaged foods. Most kids are not preparing their own meals, and those under 16 are not driving themselves through the fast food drive-thru. As a trainer, one of the biggest challenges is to get people to eat right (healthfully and in the proper amounts) consistently. I'm not a youth fitness specialist, but I would imagine it would be easier getting a child to conform to proper eating guidelines if there is the support of, and even better, the modeling by, the parents. But from experience, I've noticed that most parents with that level of involvement don't have kids with obesity problems. By Involvement, I mean watching the child's diet.

I think school lunch programs should be setting a positive example of good nutrition and proper meal planning, but I also understand how difficult that process must be with keeping it tasty, and within budget. I'm sure a big obstacle is getting kids, who are accustomed to sweet and/or salty fatty snacks at home, to consume something they are not familiar with.

As far as exercise, it will only go so far when combined with a poor diet. 45 minutes of physical education, 2 or 3 times a week, isn't going to cut it. The rest will have to happen outside of school, which is probably not enthusiastically welcomed by the previously overweight, inactive child. Guess who that leaves as the instructor? Hint: they're in the same household, but not the White House.

What is your opinion? Who do you think should be responsible for the childhood obesity problem?

Photo Credit: flickr.com/photos/robadob/CC BY-SA 2.0