Energy In

One part of the solution to reversing the obesity epidemic is making healthy, nutritious foods and beverages more affordable and accessible; discouraging the consumption of unhealthy foods and beverages; and achieving an appropriate caloric intake are all important strategies for preventing childhood obesity. Achieving progress in these areas will require changes in communities, homes, schools, food availability and distribution, marketing and advertising practices and the information environment.

Food Sources

• In the Home: In many neighborhoods—especially in low-income communities and communities of color—there is a lack of access to supermarkets, farmers’ markets or other sources of affordable, nutritious foods. Yet, research indicates that when people have access to healthy food options, they consume more fruits and vegetables.¹¹
   
• Outside of the Home: Children today consume a significant amount of their daily calories away from home—either in school, at neighborhood stores or at fast-food restaurants. Restaurant meals can add twice as many calories and three times more fat than home-prepared meals.¹² Many schools offer “competitive foods” (those sold outside of the federally reimbursed school breakfast, lunch and after-school snack programs), which are often low in nutritional value and high in calories, fat and sodium. The most popular competitive food choices include cookies, candy, sweetened juice drinks and carbonated soft drinks.¹³

Food Types

• Eating fast food and drinking sweetened beverages can lead to an overall greater intake of calories and fat, which can have a major impact on a child’s weight and health. Added calories from consuming fast foods can result in a child gaining an extra six pounds per year.¹⁴ Consistent consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages can have similar consequences.¹⁵ In addition, a study of a school district in southeast Texas found that when children gain access to high-calorie, high-fat food there is a decrease in the consumption of fruits, vegetables and milk. ¹⁶
   

Marketing/Advertising

• In 2006, the Federal Trade Commission estimated that food and beverage companies spent more than $1.6 billion to market their products to children.¹⁷ More than 89 percent of food advertisements viewed by adolescents on TV are for unhealthy foods.¹⁸ This overabundance of unhealthy food advertising influences food and beverage preferences, as well as short-term caloric intake among children as young as two years old.¹⁹

Energy Out

Lack of physical activity is a contributing factor in many illnesses and diseases, especially obesity. Today, many children do not have safe places to play in the communities where they live, and few schools provide quality physical education or other forms of physical activity on a daily basis. Reduced physical activity also has been linked to a lack of recreational programming, poor air quality and safety concerns.

• More than half of children and adolescents are not getting the recommended minimum of 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day.^{20, 21} 
   
• Sedentary activities, such as watching TV, surfing the Internet or playing traditional video games are taking time away from physical activity. The more time adolescents spend watching television, the more likely they will become overweight or obese.²²
   
• Children also are losing opportunities to be physically active during school hours. Due to shrinking educational budgets and competing academic pressures, many schools have cut recess and physical education. Fewer than four percent of elementary schools provide daily physical education.²³

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