We can pay now to fight obesity or face costs later
By MARILLA STEPHENSON
CUTTING CORNERS when it comes to spending on public facilities and public education comes with a huge long-term cost.
Strategies to combat escalating rates of obesity in Nova Scotia, especially in children, are becoming increasingly aggressive. The Education Department is introducing restrictions on the types of foods sold in schools.
There is also movement — although not quite enough, I say — on making physical education classes mandatory and providing more options for after-school activities.
Just a few years ago, the idea of restricting the sale of junk food in schools would have been unheard of. So how have we come so far, so fast?
It was only four years ago that two members of the Tory government — the late John Chataway and then-education minister Jane Purves — were ridiculed for proposing that the government investigate the idea of a so-called "fat tax" on high-fat fast-food items.
Purves, in backing up Chataway’s idea, said the concept was "a bit Big Brothery" but that it might help fight the province’s "growing problems with obesity and diabetes and so on."
Even at that time, visits to fast-food outlets had moved well beyond the occasional treat to a staple of weekly meal planning in many families.
Nationally, 26 per cent of children are either obese or overweight, but the statistics are even more disturbing in Nova Scotia, where the percentage is 32 per cent. Only Newfoundland has a higher rate — 35.6 per cent.
At a weekend symposium in Dartmouth on health in schools, Dr. Michelle McTimoney of the IWK Health Centre said illnesses linked to obesity that doctors tend to see in adults are becoming increasingly prevalent in children.
Type 2 diabetes now represents 14.5 per cent of all cases of diabetes diagnosed annually in Nova Scotia children. Doctors are also seeing more blood pressure problems, insulin resistance, cholesterol and asthma in overweight children.
"There was a study that looked at overweight five- to 18-year olds and they found that 65 per cent . . . of these obese kids had at least one associated condition," said Dr. McTimoney.
How do you inspire more kids to become active? This week the Globe and Mail reported that Olympic medallist Silken Laumann is pushing Ottawa to use the Vancouver-Whistler Olympic Games as a catalyst to launch a new health promotion strategy aimed at children.
The anti-sport crowd tends to complain about public funding being used for such events — the Halifax bid for the Commonwealth Games gets the same short-sighted complaints — and suggests the money should be spent on health care, education and so on.
They just don’t get it. When fitness becomes part of more Canadians’ lifestyles, they tend to use fewer health-care resources.
But it’s not just about spending the money on a local walking trail instead of a new rink. It’s about offering role models to children.
"I realize that the Olympics can be so much more than a showcase for elite athletes," said Laumann. "They can inspire children. They can change their lives."
She recounted her experience as a child watching Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci win three gold medals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. "That’s what made me want to be an Olympic athlete," said Laumann. "But more importantly, it made me want to jump and play and be active."
The trailblazers are still getting a lot of push-back from people who say it’s not the government’s responsibility to teach parents how to care for their children properly, and that taxpayers’ money shouldn’t be spent on such programs. The idea of getting rid of cafeteria chocolate bars is scoffed at as a heavy-handed gesture. You know, too "Big Brothery."
Well, listen up, folks. Whose tax dollars do you think will be paying for the medical costs of these unhealthy kids a generation from now, when their health problems become really serious?
The next step in this battle has to be an accelerated implementation of daily phys-ed. If Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams, whose province faces just as many government spending challenges as this one, can mandate daily phys-ed in schools, then so can we.
That progress needs to be coupled with a plan by the province, in concert with municipalities, to get serious about funding recreation facilities, both large and small.
Not every kid is going to love athletics and recreational activities. But there are so many choices out there to be made; if only the facilities and programs were in place to offer them.
Yes, parents have the ultimate responsibility in this battle. But we didn’t leave it to parents to prevent their kids from smoking or from using drugs or from engaging in unsafe sex.
All those activities can kill you well before your time and cost taxpayers a tonne of money in the process. So can obesity.
Childhood Obesity fight in Nova Scotia
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