While a third of American adults and one in six children are obese, a report last week suggests the rate of increase could be stabilizing in some states.
Colorado had the lowest obesity rate at 22.3 percent, but it was one of four states where obesity rates increased. The rate rose 2.1 percent, up from 20.2 percent in 2015, according to a report by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report recommends focusing on early childhood prevention efforts, including promoting exercise, expanding investments in community-based programs, increasing health care coverage for obesity prevention and treatment, and improving school-based efforts to provide healthy meals and physical activities.
In Montezuma and La Plata counties, about 27 percent of children ages 2 to 14 are overweight or obese, according to 2016 Kids Count Report.
Midge Kirk, a nutrition specialist at the Montezuma County Public Health Department, said one major cause of childhood obesity is an overabundance of processed food that lacks nutritional value. This is especially common in places like Montezuma County, she said, where many families live below the poverty line and don’t have much time to cook.
“Culturally and societally, we have gotten away from whole food,” she said. “It is so difficult for folks to get their heads around preparing food.”
Obese children are at risk for many chronic health conditions, including asthma, and it contributes to social and emotional struggles, according to a July report from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
To encourage young children to eat well in La Plata, Montezuma and Archuleta counties, Cooking Matters is focusing on teaching child caregivers how to cook and shop for healthy meals on a budget, said Rebecca Fleming, a program coordinator with the national nonprofit. Cooking Matters works with low-income families that tend to have higher rates of obesity. “If we want to prevent childhood obesity, one way to do that is to create healthy eaters,” Fleming said.
Some parents have children who are picky eaters. It is natural for children to start rejecting some foods around 3 years old, but it can lead to parent frustration, especially if the parent cannot afford to throw away food, Fleming said. A child may need to be re-exposed to a new food 15 to 18 times before he or she learns to like it, she said.
Another challenge is a culture where quick, cheap calories are widely available, especially in soda and candy.
“The environment doesn’t support our goal to eat fresh, locally grown food,” Fleming said.
Cooking Matters focuses on reaching people who are referred to classes by other organizations such as San Juan Basin Health Department, pediatricians, Axis Health System and others.
Turning around the obesity epidemic may take a cultural shift, similar to the shift in opinion about cigarettes, she said.
To make fruits and vegetables more available to families that receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, a statewide grant program started in 2016 provides matching money to purchase fruits and vegetables at some retailers and farmers markets.
For example, a family that spends $20 in SNAP benefits at the Cortez Farmers Market, will receive an additional $20 for produce.
SNAP (food stamp) recipients are eligible, using an EBT card. The Cortez Farmers Market runs through October on Saturdays from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at 220 S. Elm St. Kirk said the matching program is an important way to help families in Montezuma County get fresh produce and learn about where their food comes from.
Participants also can tour the market on Sept. 9 and Sept. 23 at 9 a.m. to learn more about the program, meet farmers and receive an additional $10 in market bucks. For more information, call Midge Kirk at 970-560-2284
Nationally, the Trust for America’s Health report also showed a few positive trends.
This is the first time in 14 years of conducting the annual report that any state’s rate dropped, and rates of increases in other states have begun to slow, Trust for America’s Health President and CEO John Auerbach said.
The adult obesity rate fell in Kansas and was stable elsewhere.
“We conclude the report with a fair amount of optimism,” Auerbach said on a conference call. “The adult rates are showing signs of leveling off, and the childhood rates are stabilizing. In our review of the policies and strategies, we found that many (states) show a lot of promise for reversing the trends and improving health if we make them a higher priority.”
The report noted that 25 states had obesity rates above 30 percent. In 2000, no state had a rate above 25 percent.
Nine of the 11 states with the highest obesity rates are in the South. States in the Northeast and the West had lower obesity rates.
Auerbach said obesity costs the nation more than $150 billion in preventable health care costs and contributes to many different health problems.
Those problems are particularly acute in the 13-state Appalachian region, which lags behind the rest of the country in 33 of 41 public health indicators, including seven leading causes of death, according to a separate study released last week by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.
Journal reporter Stephanie Alderton and Durango Herald reporter contributed to this article.