Tagged: Obesity

Turn on any news program and you’ll eventually hear about the dangers of obesity. It’s commonly accepted that being heavy is bad, and being skinny is good. Rachel Herrick is challenging that idea with her Obeast project.

Doctors in North Carolina roll out a long-term plan today to reverse the rise of the state's obesity rate.  The proposal recommends thousands of behavioral and policy changes for the next seven years.  The recommendations range from limiting time in front of the television to adding funds for hiring health coordinators at every school district.  Doctor Carolyn Dunn is a professor at N.C. State and lead writer of the plan.  She says the strategy to reduce obesity is shifting from broad reform to one policy change at a time.

State health officials want to help North Carolinians keep the pounds off this holiday season. The annual Maintain, Don't Gain Holiday Challenge launches today. Participants receive email tips, and can download food and activity logs to track their progress. Daniella Uslan is with the Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch of the state Division of Public Health.

New research from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill finds physical fitness around the globe is plummetting.

Asma Khalid: Sure, we may already know a lot of us Americans are overweight. But, the problems aren't limited to our borders. This study finds a growing number of people in the U.K., Brazil, India and China are less active than a generation ago.  Barry Popkin is a nutrition professor at UNC and a co-author of the report.

A Chapel Hill non-profit has been recognized nationally for developing a program that targets childhood obesity while helping students learn.  The program is called “The Walking Classroom.”

Leoneda Inge:  The Walking Classroom Institute is about one year old and was started by former 5th grade teacher Laura Fenn.

Laura Fenn:  What I did is one day, when I was home after school, I went out for a walk and I was listening to a podcast while I was walking and I thought to myself, my students can do this.