The report F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2010, recently released by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), found that rates of obesity among children and adults remain high across the nation, with the highest rates in the southern states.  The report found that in eight states and D.C., more than 20 percent of children are obese and in nine states, more than 30 percent of adults are obese.  Seven of the eight states with the highest rates of childhood obesity and all nine of the states with the highest rates of adult obesity are among the 15 priority states of the Leadership for Healthy Communities (LHC) program, which include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

In addition, the report highlights troubling racial and ethnic disparities in adult obesity rates. For example, adult obesity rates for Blacks and Latinos were higher than for Whites in at least 40 states and the District of Columbia.

The report also includes the results of a new poll on childhood obesity conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and American Viewpoint. The poll shows that 80 percent of Americans recognize that childhood obesity is a significant and growing challenge for the country, and a strong majority supports a comprehensive national effort to prevent childhood obesity.

Although high obesity rates persist, this year’s iteration of the annual F As in Fat report documents an increase in state-level policies aimed at reducing childhood obesity through increasing physical activity and healthy eating through policy and environmental changes in communities, schools and child care facilities.  For example, the report finds that 20 states and D.C. have nutritional standards for school lunches, breakfasts and snacks that are stricter than the federal requirements, whereas such standards only existed in four states five years ago.  All states also now have physical education requirements, although the requirements are often inadequate or not enforced.

The Leadership for Healthy Communities Action Strategies Toolkit  and some of its policy options for increasing healthy food access and physical activity opportunities are also featured in the report.  LHC grantees are already working to put some of those policies in place in the states most impacted by the obesity epidemic.  For example, in Georgia, the state with the second highest rate of childhood obesity in the nation, Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson and Savannah-Chatham County Public School System Superintendent Thomas Lockamy, Jr., are working with a number of partners from community and faith-based groups, non-profits, businesses and government agencies to make community health a priority.  Since 2007, when city leaders participated in an LHC grantee-sponsored healthy community institute, they have made policy changes such as removing sodas from schools, commissioning a study on food deserts in low-income communities, creating joint use agreements that allow school recreation facilities to be open to the community and creating farmers’ markets and community gardens.  A video profile on the city of Savannah’s accomplishments is available at www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/content/view/513/207/. 

The complete F as In Fat 2010 report, which includes information about childhood and adult obesity rates and trends, state-level policies, federal policies and programs, recommendations for removing barriers to healthy choices, public opinion survey results and policy recommendations, is available at www.rwjf.org/childhoodobesity/product.jsp?id=65469.  An executive summary of the report and an interactive state-by-state map are also available at the above link.