DALLAS, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Texas has already changed school menus in its battle against one of the highest rates of child obesity the nation, but experts said Wednesday more action is needed.
Obesity in U.S. children has doubled in the past 20 years, largely due to changes in diet and lack of exercise. About 35 percent of Texas school children are classified as overweight or obese, a rate higher than the national average.
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs has already taken action with her "Square Meals" program that requires public schools to follow strict nutritional guidelines in meals and restrict beverages sold in vending machines.
Combs called on the state to help the 4 million students attending Texas schools "make better choices" than unhealthy snacks. Texas schools serve more than 400 million lunches and 200 million breakfasts each year.
Combs received praise for the program at the Governor's Conference on Obesity held at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, but doctors and other experts in the field said Texas and the nation as a whole need to do more.
"If we don't do something to this disease to get on top of it soon, this generation of children is definitely not going to live as long as their parents," said Dr. William Klish, professor of pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Klish and other doctors said prevention is most important in stemming the growth of obesity in children because treatments have not been as effective as they should be. He said children must be taught "how to be fit, and renormalize their lives."
Klish, who treats obese children, said obesity is more than a "cosmetic" problem because it leads to serious, long-term illnesses, such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, asthma and even some forms of cancer.
Medically speaking, obesity is defined as having a very high amount of body fat in relation to lean body mass, or a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. The Body Mass Index is a measure of an adult's weight in relation to his or her height.
Dr. Dana Hardin, associate professor of pediatrics at Southwestern, said 75 percent of children obese by age 11 become obese adults. She said obesity is more prevalent in certain ethnicities, but there are no economic boundaries.
"Most families have no idea of the amount of calories their children consume in a meal," she said.
Klish said today's society, with the prevalence of fast food and sedentary lifestyles, is largely responsible for the obesity epidemic. He said the disease would not have existed at this level 20 or 30 years ago.
Dr. Scott Gundy, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Southwestern, agreed that changes in the environment are largely responsible for the growth in obesity.
"People have not changed, the environment has changed," he said. "They are challenged by peculiar eating habits."
Obesity is the fastest-growing cause of illness and death in the United States and is responsible for one death every 90 seconds in the country. The challenges facing Texas may have implications for the nation because of the state's changing demographics.
Texas, with its booming Hispanic population, is a mirror of what the nation will look like by 2040, said State Demographer Steve Murdock, who also teaches at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
"If you live in Texas and you're wondering what the United States of America will look like for you, and your children, and your grandchildren -- just look around," he said. "We are very much what the country will look like."
The projection for 2040 is that the nation will be 53-percent Anglo and 47-percent non-Anglo. In 2000 Texas was 53-percent Anglo and 47-percent non-Anglo.
Between 2025 and 2035 Texas is projected to be more than half Hispanic, Murdock said.
"This is important because the incidence rates for various factors, the prevalence of such things as obesity, vary by race, ethnicity and age," he said.
To turn around the obesity epidemic, Klish said more effective methods of treatment must be found. He said four out of five children drop out of behavior and diet-modification programs that he manages in Houston.
Hardin agreed that current treatments for children are largely ineffective. Lifestyle and diet modification are the most commonly used ones, but they are difficult, and most drug treatments for obesity are not approved for children.
Hardin said early education about diet and exercise is the best hope.
"We need to change the way children see food and make nutritional eating habits 'cool,'" she said. "We need to educate entire families and help stretch the food dollar to include healthy choices."
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