Success for UK child obesity plan

A community program which aims to encourage obese children to be more healthy has proved highly successful, a study has found. A year after the nine-week program, 107 moderately obese eight to 12-year-olds were fitter healthier, and more confident. Details of the Mend program (which stands for Mind, Exercise, Nutrition, Do-it!), now running in 100 areas across England, will be presented to an obesity conference in Budapest on Monday.

The program involves the whole family and aims to teach both parents and children about healthy attitudes and behaviors relating to eating and activity, and to help children see being active as fun. Many of them say the fact that their parents are involved gives them extra confidence.

Funding for the program, which will cost £11m in total, is coming from the Big Lottery Fund, Sainsbury's and Sport England. Paul Sacher, research director of the program and an honorary specialist dietician at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said the focus of the program was not weight loss. "We do measure them, but their weight is just one of the things we measure. It's more about living healthily." Mr Sacher said: "We were delighted to see that the results were largely sustained at 12 months. "Obviously sustaining a healthy lifestyle is the Holy Grail of health and fitness."

Steve - wow, is this nice to see! A public health nutrition program completely focused on lifestyle change and prevention! It is so refreshing to hear a public health official say that the program was not focused just on weight loss. Most importantly, I believe the real success of the program comes from getting the entire family involved. Kids take their cues and receive support from their parents. How can a kid change his/her lifestyle if the parents do not change theirs?