Amy's Blog

Saving the Women of Tomorrow

 The numbers are quite sobering.  One in three women will be affected by heart disease this year, and the childhood obesity epidemic is ensuring that the Women of Tomorrow will still be fighting this fight in the future.

   Today in America, about one in three kids between the ages of 2 and 19 are already overweight or obese.  We (Tennessee) rank third in the country for the prevalence of childhood obesity, and overweight kids have a 70 to 80 percent chance of staying overweight their entire lives.  The experts believe that if childhood obesity continues to increase at this alarming rate, the current generation will be the first in American history to live shorter lives than their parents.  Doesn't that make you sick?  

  So, what can we do?  The American Heart Association definitely has this on their radar screen.  Last week, I moderated a panel discussion at the Go Red For Women Leadership Breakfast. The very chic Hutton Hotel provided the backdrop for this important health discussion. There were more than 150 people there, many of them leaders in local businesses.  The featured speakers on our panel included Shavaun Evans, with Community Food Advocates. Also on the panel, Dr. Rebecca Johns-Wommack with the TEnnessee Dept. of Education's Coordinated School Health, and Dr. Howard "Bo" Walpole, a cardiologist with Saint Thomas Heart, and Representative Beth Harwell. We also heard from 16 year old Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet school student, Tina Sharma, with the Alliance for a Healtheir Generation.  They each brought a unique perspective to the youth obesity challenges our state faces. 

We heard how some Metro schools are teaching kids about food by starting their own gardens, and found out about improving access to healthier foods for families and the efforts to make physical education mandatory in our schools.  It was a very important discussion that needs to be heard across Tennessee so that our leaders, our teachers, our lawmakers and our health care providers can come up with ways to help our children be healthier adults. They are our future and we must get a handle on this epidemic.

   The American Heart Association has been a long time champion of the Coordinated School Health Model that Dr. Wommack described during her time on the panel. I think alot of folks at the breakfast, me included, were surprised to find out how much is happening in the schools around the state to improve kids' overall health and wellness.

    If you know a child in Metro Schools, it might be a good time to interact with them and find out about their food choices at school, their activities and get them interested in a healthy lifestyle.  I love the idea of school and community gardens. For so many of us, the grocery store is where we make food choices instead of learning about where so much of it begins, on farms, in gardens, etc.  

    I hope this is "food for thought," if you will,  for those of you who can make the difference in the life of any child with weight issues.  And if you really want to get involved, give the American Heart Association a call locally at 340-4100.    

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