Latest News Local News Children Deserve Legislators Best Efforts
Children Deserve Legislators Best Efforts
Children deserve Oklahoma legislators' best effort
On a Monday morning in June 2007, weighing over 250 pounds and keenly aware of a family history of heart disease, I took a small step of making healthier food choices to try to take control of my health. That small step eventually turned into bigger steps that ultimately transformed my life.
Today, healthy and no longer overweight, I spend my days as director of Oklahoma Fit Kids Coalition (OK Fit Kids), a statewide initiative of the Oklahoma Institute of Child Advocacy, working with other passionate health advocates to elevate the conversation about the perils of the childhood obesity epidemic.
In Oklahoma, one in three children is overweight or obese, we rank last in fruit and vegetable consumption and we're on track to be the most obese state in the nation by 2018. Financially, the numbers are just as staggering. The U.S. spends $147 billion annually on the treatment of obesity-related diseases. Oklahoma spends $853 million. Businesses spend anywhere from 29 percent to 117 percent more on workers who are obese than those who are not.
The mission of OK Fit Kids is to improve the overall health and well-being of Oklahoma youth and families by reducing childhood obesity through advocacy and awareness.
I've spent enough time at NE 23 and Lincoln as a former Senate staffer to hear our elected officials talk about the importance of legislation that protects family values and promotes a culture of life. And as I think about the human cost of childhood obesity — children developing Type 2 diabetes at age 7 and a lifetime of facing piles and piles of medical bills associated with the treatment of the chronic diseases that arise from obesity — I can think of no greater way for legislators to make good on that promise than to pass legislation that values families and the lives of these children who are the real victims of the obesity epidemic.
Unlike me, who as an adult made a choice to take control of my health, children often don't have that choice. They're at the mercy of their parents, the communities in which they live and their schools. I think reasonable minds would agree legislators cannot and should not legislate how parents raise their children, but there are other areas of policy on which legislators can concentrate — policies not traditionally thought of as health-related involving transportation, land use, education and agriculture that can affect obesity rates.
I would encourage legislators to do their homework and think outside the box. Come up with some ideas to tackle an issue that, if left unchecked, will end up costing all of us — families, taxpayers and businesses alike — immensely. During September, dedicated as Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, OK Fit Kids will reach out to elected officials with policy ideas on how to tackle this issue together and ask them to bring some urgency to this epidemic. Surely our children, Oklahoma's greatest resource, deserve our collective best effort.
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