Michael George, right, plays
baseball with his son Steven in
front of their Petaluma home.
Steven, now a sixth grader, lost
about a dozen pounds on The
PariPlan child weight loss
program.
baseball with his son Steven in
front of their Petaluma home.
Steven, now a sixth grader, lost
about a dozen pounds on The
PariPlan child weight loss
program.
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Increasing awareness about the effects of childhood obesity has forced families across Sonoma County and the nation to
re-examine everything from food they stock in the refrigerator to the quality of their schools' physical education programs.
On May 17, Santa Rosa's middle schools will find how well -- or poorly -- their children are doing when they conduct their annual
weigh-in of several hundred fifth-grade boys and girls, mostly 10- and 11-year-olds.
If the past is a guide, the answer should prove alarming.
Since the middle school weigh-ins started in 1999, the percentage of at-risk and overweight boys has grown from 39 percent to
47 percent, and for girls, it has remained a dismal 44 percent.
Data reported by the health department to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that 40 percent of children
aged 5 to 20 in Sonoma County are overweight or at risk.
"We are putting our children at risk for lifelong health problems," said Dr. Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, Sonoma County's public health
officer.
Health experts say getting parents and children to recognize that being overweight is a serious health problem is not much
different from the cigarette smoking issue they grappled with for four decades.
"Right now, being overweight comes out as a self-esteem issue, but later in life it is a condition that leads to serious health
problems," said Bekins, who also heads the county health agency's Five-A-Day program, which encourages five servings of fruit
or vegetables daily.
For Pari Alexander, a 10-year-old at Hidden Valley Elementary, there was an uncomfortable moment three years ago when she
was in the dressing room at the Target department store. She discovered her size no longer fit and she was embarrassed by
bathing suits her mother was handing her.
"They had some really cute clothes, and I looked in the mirror, and oh my gosh, everything was too small," said Pari, recalling her
concern about her 90-pound weight.
The family's doctor told her parents that she needed their help in adjusting her diet, monitoring her nutrition and encouraging
physical activity. She dropped about 12 pounds and today she weighs about what she did back then -- a weight appropriate to her
current age and height.
"I feel great now," Pari said. "I play soccer and basketball better and run faster."
Obesity, particularly in children, has shaved four to nine months off the average life expectancy, according to a study in the March
issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. And the U.S. government's reconstruction of the food pyramid unveiled three
weeks ago has sharpened the focus on controlling portion sizes and set 30 minutes of daily exercise as a minimum guideline.
Diabetes, anemia and heart disease are the main threats that once were perceived as maladies of the elderly. Now, they are
being viewed as directly related to the lack of physical activity and poor nutrition that start in early childhood.
In Sonoma County, a concerted effort to address childhood obesity began in September, when several dozen educators and
health officials organized at Lehman Elementary School into the Family Nutrition and Activity Task Force.
Since then, some schools have installed gardens to learn about the value of vegetables, many school cafeterias now feature
salad bars and junk food is gradually disappearing.
School boards in Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Windsor are formulating nutrition policies that will ultimately determine what types of
food can be sold on school premises. And that includes the cafeteria, the vending machines and the snacks sold by fund-raising
groups.
That means student groups selling goodies like doughnuts before school will have to find a more nutritious substitute.
This year, two bills are moving through the state Legislature that both aim to set a food policy that dictates standards of nutrition
and fat content schools will have to meet.
"They will probably eliminate chicken nuggets, sodas, fruit drinks with added sugar and most chips that aren't baked," said Cathy
Luellen-Aflague, Santa Rosa schools' child nutrition services director. "We are moving toward offering only a school meal, just like
the old days when every child would get the same thing on the plate."
Last week, Piner High School began an experiment that returns the school lunch line to a one-plate-fits-all concept. "We know
what we want them to eat. But we know they won't go for spinach salads when they see the french fries as a choice,"
Luellen-Aflague said.
Experts say the drive to address child nutrition goes back a decade to when parents and students began clamoring for more
healthful choices in vending machines. That brought more water, juice and pretzels into the machines, but also resulted in lost
income for many schools that profited through a percentage of vending machine sales.
However, the link between nutrition and the burgeoning size of children wasn't made until 2001, when the Santa Monica-based
Rand research institute got everybody's attention by declaring child obesity had become a more serious health problem than
smoking or heavy drinking. In 2003, newly appointed U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona upped the ante, saying Americans
should be more worried about overweight children than the risk of terrorism.
"It is totally because of the obesity issue that schools are now the focus of what children get to eat," said Luellen-Aflague.
The board of the Santa Rosa School District is one of several in Sonoma County that have formed subcommittees to develop food
policies to comply with increasing state scrutiny and to address various aspects of the obesity issue.
The problem, according to the board's "Wellness Committee" chairman, Larry Haenel, is that most boards have not clearly
identified where nutrition education is being delivered.
"Sometimes it is in biology, sometimes in P.E. Some elementary schools have a great garden program for teaching kids, and in
others, zero is being done," said Haenel, who has been a teacher for 36 years.
Ian Alexander, Pari's father and the former CEO of KnowledgePoint, said that since his departure from the Petaluma software
company he has had the time and keen interest to develop a seven-step plan for organizing an entire family's eating and activity
habits. Their family doctor's prescription for Pari's weight problem was that Alexander and his wife, Lisa, do something about it as
a family.
"It used to be the mom's job, but mom is working and isn't home all day," he said. "All those things the schools are doing are
great, but the family has to take responsibility."
re-examine everything from food they stock in the refrigerator to the quality of their schools' physical education programs.
On May 17, Santa Rosa's middle schools will find how well -- or poorly -- their children are doing when they conduct their annual
weigh-in of several hundred fifth-grade boys and girls, mostly 10- and 11-year-olds.
If the past is a guide, the answer should prove alarming.
Since the middle school weigh-ins started in 1999, the percentage of at-risk and overweight boys has grown from 39 percent to
47 percent, and for girls, it has remained a dismal 44 percent.
Data reported by the health department to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that 40 percent of children
aged 5 to 20 in Sonoma County are overweight or at risk.
"We are putting our children at risk for lifelong health problems," said Dr. Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, Sonoma County's public health
officer.
Health experts say getting parents and children to recognize that being overweight is a serious health problem is not much
different from the cigarette smoking issue they grappled with for four decades.
"Right now, being overweight comes out as a self-esteem issue, but later in life it is a condition that leads to serious health
problems," said Bekins, who also heads the county health agency's Five-A-Day program, which encourages five servings of fruit
or vegetables daily.
For Pari Alexander, a 10-year-old at Hidden Valley Elementary, there was an uncomfortable moment three years ago when she
was in the dressing room at the Target department store. She discovered her size no longer fit and she was embarrassed by
bathing suits her mother was handing her.
"They had some really cute clothes, and I looked in the mirror, and oh my gosh, everything was too small," said Pari, recalling her
concern about her 90-pound weight.
The family's doctor told her parents that she needed their help in adjusting her diet, monitoring her nutrition and encouraging
physical activity. She dropped about 12 pounds and today she weighs about what she did back then -- a weight appropriate to her
current age and height.
"I feel great now," Pari said. "I play soccer and basketball better and run faster."
Obesity, particularly in children, has shaved four to nine months off the average life expectancy, according to a study in the March
issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. And the U.S. government's reconstruction of the food pyramid unveiled three
weeks ago has sharpened the focus on controlling portion sizes and set 30 minutes of daily exercise as a minimum guideline.
Diabetes, anemia and heart disease are the main threats that once were perceived as maladies of the elderly. Now, they are
being viewed as directly related to the lack of physical activity and poor nutrition that start in early childhood.
In Sonoma County, a concerted effort to address childhood obesity began in September, when several dozen educators and
health officials organized at Lehman Elementary School into the Family Nutrition and Activity Task Force.
Since then, some schools have installed gardens to learn about the value of vegetables, many school cafeterias now feature
salad bars and junk food is gradually disappearing.
School boards in Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Windsor are formulating nutrition policies that will ultimately determine what types of
food can be sold on school premises. And that includes the cafeteria, the vending machines and the snacks sold by fund-raising
groups.
That means student groups selling goodies like doughnuts before school will have to find a more nutritious substitute.
This year, two bills are moving through the state Legislature that both aim to set a food policy that dictates standards of nutrition
and fat content schools will have to meet.
"They will probably eliminate chicken nuggets, sodas, fruit drinks with added sugar and most chips that aren't baked," said Cathy
Luellen-Aflague, Santa Rosa schools' child nutrition services director. "We are moving toward offering only a school meal, just like
the old days when every child would get the same thing on the plate."
Last week, Piner High School began an experiment that returns the school lunch line to a one-plate-fits-all concept. "We know
what we want them to eat. But we know they won't go for spinach salads when they see the french fries as a choice,"
Luellen-Aflague said.
Experts say the drive to address child nutrition goes back a decade to when parents and students began clamoring for more
healthful choices in vending machines. That brought more water, juice and pretzels into the machines, but also resulted in lost
income for many schools that profited through a percentage of vending machine sales.
However, the link between nutrition and the burgeoning size of children wasn't made until 2001, when the Santa Monica-based
Rand research institute got everybody's attention by declaring child obesity had become a more serious health problem than
smoking or heavy drinking. In 2003, newly appointed U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona upped the ante, saying Americans
should be more worried about overweight children than the risk of terrorism.
"It is totally because of the obesity issue that schools are now the focus of what children get to eat," said Luellen-Aflague.
The board of the Santa Rosa School District is one of several in Sonoma County that have formed subcommittees to develop food
policies to comply with increasing state scrutiny and to address various aspects of the obesity issue.
The problem, according to the board's "Wellness Committee" chairman, Larry Haenel, is that most boards have not clearly
identified where nutrition education is being delivered.
"Sometimes it is in biology, sometimes in P.E. Some elementary schools have a great garden program for teaching kids, and in
others, zero is being done," said Haenel, who has been a teacher for 36 years.
Ian Alexander, Pari's father and the former CEO of KnowledgePoint, said that since his departure from the Petaluma software
company he has had the time and keen interest to develop a seven-step plan for organizing an entire family's eating and activity
habits. Their family doctor's prescription for Pari's weight problem was that Alexander and his wife, Lisa, do something about it as
a family.
"It used to be the mom's job, but mom is working and isn't home all day," he said. "All those things the schools are doing are
great, but the family has to take responsibility."
Weight Woes
A May 17 weigh-in of Santa Rosa children may prove alarming
May 10, 2005
By BLEYS W. ROSE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
For 12-year-old Steven George, the turning point came at a Little League game last
year when he pounded a ball into the outfield and he huffed and puffed his 120-pound
frame all the way to first base. And then the coach subbed him with a base runner.
"I felt so bad because I knew I could have done better," said Steven, a sixth-grader at
Bernard Eldredge Elementary School in Petaluma who is having a very different
season this year weighing about a dozen pounds less.
In his first game, Steven ripped the ball to the wall and ended up with a stand-up triple.
"Grinning from ear to ear" as his father, Michael, described it.
If childhood obesity warnings from health officials are credible, Steven is in one of the
few families these days paying attention to the nutrition and physical activity of thir
children.
"What is really alarming is that parents don't even realize their kids are at risk because
they don't see their kids as being overweight," said Chris Bekins, the Sonoma County
Department of Health Services specialist who also heads a countywide Family
Nutrition Task Force.
A May 17 weigh-in of Santa Rosa children may prove alarming
May 10, 2005
By BLEYS W. ROSE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
For 12-year-old Steven George, the turning point came at a Little League game last
year when he pounded a ball into the outfield and he huffed and puffed his 120-pound
frame all the way to first base. And then the coach subbed him with a base runner.
"I felt so bad because I knew I could have done better," said Steven, a sixth-grader at
Bernard Eldredge Elementary School in Petaluma who is having a very different
season this year weighing about a dozen pounds less.
In his first game, Steven ripped the ball to the wall and ended up with a stand-up triple.
"Grinning from ear to ear" as his father, Michael, described it.
If childhood obesity warnings from health officials are credible, Steven is in one of the
few families these days paying attention to the nutrition and physical activity of thir
children.
"What is really alarming is that parents don't even realize their kids are at risk because
they don't see their kids as being overweight," said Chris Bekins, the Sonoma County
Department of Health Services specialist who also heads a countywide Family
Nutrition Task Force.