Endocrine Insider
September 3, 2009
(See Full Issue)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its recommendations on strategies to prevent obesity in the United States. During the July Weight of the Nation conference, CDC announced its first comprehensive set of recommendations to promote healthy eating and physical activity through environmental and policy changes. The CDC recommendations mirrored the recommendations in The Endocrine Society’s guideline Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric Obesity published in December 2008.
Much like the Society’s guideline, the CDC recommendations focus on strategies and priorities, highlighting influential programs with proven results. The CDC recommends that communities improve the availability of affordable healthier food and beverage choices in public service venues, citing the Rhode Island Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity Program as an example of success. The program provides easy access to low-cost fresh fruits and vegetables at work sites through a partnership with the state’s largest fresh produce distributor. The Society’s guideline identifies a 2005 program of Arizona schools in which vending machines and unhealthy snacks were replaced with fruits and vegetables. A five-month study of the program’s results indicated a decreased fat content in the meals of students in the program.
Other recommendations common between the CDC report and the Society’s guideline include increasing the number of supermarkets and grocery stores in underserved communities and stronger support for breastfeeding. Both documents also call for policymakers to provide incentives to encourage retailers to make high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables more readily available to all. Overall, both the CDC report and The Endocrine Society’s guideline promote a community strategy that encourages the involvement of policymakers, schools, clinicians, parents, and the patients to successfully combat and prevent obesity.
To read the entire CDC report, please click here. Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric Obesity and other Endocrine Society clinical practice guidelines can be found here.
