Obesity is arguably the biggest threat to the health of Americans today. In California, obesity emerged as epidemic threatens life and related chronic diseases which lead to greater increases in health care costs and a prominent public health problem. After the 2005 report got released, the economic costs of adult obesity in California increased the fear about the possibility of being obeys and related chronic diseases that will cost more money to the state. More recent information on children indicated that the problem was not confined to adults in California. The national Centers for Disease Control (CDC) survey indicating that, as of 2004, California children exhibited higher prevalence of being “at risk for overweight” and “overweight” …show more content…
The leader of a local collaborative encouraging better nutrition and physical activity at a community level stated, “We need to move away from the health education model. It doesn’t work if the environment conspires against it. We have to make the healthy choice the easy choice.”( Childhood Obesity Prevention in California, 2008). However, a nutritional expert pointed out, Policy and environmental changes are very essential. But if people are not educated and don’t want to change their eating habits, it won’t do much …show more content…
Horton concluded by suggesting, “An aggressive public awareness program is needed. But in order to change the social norms regarding nutrition and physical activity, we will also need to make environmental changes to support healthy choices, as tobacco showed. Key opportunities exist to make policy changes throughout the community.”( Childhood Obesity Prevention in California, 2008). Horton went on to explain, many proposals to address obesity make common sense. However, further research needs to examine the most effective strategies of intervention, prevention, and treatment of obesity. These strategies should be culture specific, ethnical, and consider the socio-economic aspects of the targeting population. Rigorous evaluation studies of these programs will be