Seven things Uncle Sam can do NOW to help fight childhood obesity in America

Childhood obesity is hot and heavy in the news these days with the case in Ohio in which a 3rd grade child has been removed from his mother's home for being obese and placed in a foster home. While many agree that this heavy handed tactic by the local child welfare agency in Cleveland is excessive in scope and reach, the fact remains that the various levels of government in the United States should DO SOMETHING to help stem the tide of childhood obesity in America. Unfortunately, what our government seems to do best on issues like this is to TALK, TALK, TALK... and then never actually getting around to DOING anything.

Instead, there will be symposiums where education experts and health experts will get together and try to impress each other. Then, papers will be written, grants will be awarded, press conferences will be called, and photos of the First Lady Michelle Obama will show her playing with kids in the schoolyard. But, in the end, nothing will change.

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., some of us here in America "Have a Dream" about the health and wellbeing of America's children and what Good Old Uncle Sam can do to help our kids. Here are a few recommendations:

ONE -- Make daily recess and PE mandatory for all Elementaray or Primary schools which receive federal funding.

Kids need to exercise and play is the best form of exercise because it is fun. Physical Education needs to be learning AND doing when it comes to sports, exercise, and games. Sitting around in a classroom discusssing the rules of volleyball and kickball is not a substitute for actually playing the games. They need to breathe hard and they need to sweat and they need to run because it is good for them. The state by state requirement (or lack thereof) for these things is abysmal.

TWO -- Make PE a daily requirement for ALL middle and high school students in order for schools to receive federal funding.

Of course, those kids who are on a school sports team, or the cheerleading squad, or even the marching band, should be excused for this requirement, provided that their sport is "in season." That means you have to go to PE unless you have a prior commitment to games or practices.

THREE -- Ban the sale of drinks with added sugar from schools. No soda, no "juicy" named sugary soft drinks, no sugared waters with the name "vitamin" added. This includes chocolate milk.

Many health experts put the blame for the growing rates of obesity among American children squarely in the court of these kinds of drinks. We know kids are going to drink them sometimes, but we should not make them available at school.

FOUR -- Ban all diet soda products from schools.

This may seem like a contradiction, since the subject is childhood obesity, but artificial sweeteners are known to promote hunger and the chemicals in them are not good for the growing brains of our children.

FIVE -- Make serving a healthy lunch a requirement for schools instead of letting them turn it into a profit making enterprise by selling the "rights" to serve lunch to students by the highest bidding fast food chain.

Most people in their middle age would never think they might one day look back at school lunches with any sort of fondness, but the stuff schools served back in the day had to be better for you than the fast food stuff that is available in many schools nowadays.

SIX -- Quit subsidizing the High Fructose Corn Syrup industry.

The vast majority of the corn produced in the United States goes to making either oil or high fructose corn syrup. The goal when this stuff was created some 40 years ago was to create a product to compete with sugar. It may only be a coincidence that the obesity rate in the US started to climb around the same time that HFCS was introduced. At least that's what industry and government offiicials would like you to believe.

SEVEN -- Stop encouraging the use of psychiatric drugs to sedate our kids while they are in school. The way to address the problem first is to get them outside and running around like kids are supposed to. Get them physically active and they will stop being so fidgety.

If you Google the letters "ADHD" you will find a plethora of information from our National Institutes of Health. Read the list of symptoms and what you will find is list of the way kids have always acted. Only now, the calming of kids is a nearly $4 BILLION a year market.

One might say that it is inaccurate to claim kids have always acted this way. So let's re-phrase the statement: It is the way kids have always acted when they were sugared up, full of fast food, and denied the opportunity to run around and burn off some of that energy.

Kids are not just smaller versions of adults. It takes time for a growing and learning brain to develop the discipline to devote hours on end to school work or other mental tasks. The way to teach them properly has been working for thousands of years. Work a little, play a little, rest. Then you start all over again. You cannot deny them the opportunity to play and expect them to adjust to working more. Consider the current model a failed experiment that has left our kids the fattest in the world and falling behind the rest of the world in math and science scores.

Ok, Uncle Sam, your serve.