Obesity scares me. My experiences and education have taught me that it is a\u00a0frightening reality. Thus, I am pleased to now be advocating to change this scenario with\u00a0OMSA Political Advocacy Committee (OPAC).<\/p>\r\n \r\n
By the time I was 8 years old I weighed 130 lbs. By the time I was 12 years old I\u00a0weighed 180 lbs. People said I was chubby, big-boned, or \u2018hardy\u2019. But, really, I was\u00a0obese, and that was scary. I was scared of being ridiculed and left out. I was scared of\u00a0type II diabetes. I was scared of dying young. So, with the support of my family and\u00a0doctor, I worked hard to regain a healthy weight.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
My experience, though, is not an anomaly.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
Currently, over 30% of children aged 6-17 in Canada are overweight or obese.\u00a0That is almost 1\/3! As medical students, we all recognize the immense risk obesity\u00a0poses for developing Type II diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The good news is\u00a0that if a child that is obese regains a normal weight by adulthood, that additional risk\u00a0actually disappears. Unfortunately, unlike my story, 70% of overweight children remain\u00a0overweight in adulthood. Food and exercise habits formed in childhood are difficult to\u00a0break.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
So, now, that I am becoming a doctor, and I look at the people who will one day\u00a0be my patients, I find that obesity still scares me. I am scared that our healthcare system\u00a0will not be able to cope. I am scared of watching people suffer from obesity-related\u00a0illnesses. I am scared that obesity will define Canada\u2019s future.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
Recognizing that the key to reducing obesity rates in adulthood is to prevent\u00a0and combat childhood obesity, in 2012, the Ontario government set an ambitious\u00a0goal to reduce childhood obesity by 20% over five years. A Healthy Kids Panel was\u00a0commissioned to investigate the best strategies to reduce childhood obesity, which was\u00a0released last year. Similarly, Public Health Ontario and the Ontario Medical Association\u00a0have also released reports, providing similar findings and recommendations to combat\u00a0childhood obesity.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
One of the most striking findings is that childhood obesity is not equally\u00a0distributed throughout the population. Children from socioeconomically disadvantaged\u00a0families are much more likely to suffer from obesity. The primary reason for this was lack\u00a0of access to healthy fresh foods. After all, unhealthy processed foods are often more\u00a0affordable than fruits and vegetables. Therefore, many of the recommendations aim to\u00a0increase availability of affordable food options for children and families.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
Thus, OPAC has decided to join the efforts to reduce childhood obesity by urging\u00a0the Ontario government to continue to expand the Ontario Student Nutrition Program\u00a0to reach all publicly funded elementary and secondary schools in Ontario. Currently,\u00a0Ontario has a patchwork of these programs, run on a community basis, which have\u00a0been shown to be beneficial. Expanding this program would mean that children are\u00a0guaranteed at least one nutritious meal a day, as well as education on nutrition.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
Ontario is in a position now to make strong steps to reduce childhood obesity.\u00a0The immediate costs of investing in obesity prevention programs are much lower than\u00a0the long-term costs of obesity on our health care system. The research has been done\u00a0and recommendations have been made. As medical students, we can add our voice and\u00a0ask the Ontario government to take action and improve the health of the next generation.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
And that makes me a little less scared.<\/p>\r\n \r\n
Joanne K., McMaster University, Ontario Political Advocacy Representative<\/strong><\/p>\r\n \r\n Note: If you are interested in finding out more about how you can advocate for this\u00a0recommendation, please contact the OMSA Director of Representation\u00a0at\u00a0representation@omsa.ca<\/a><\/em><\/p>","embed_pdf":"","post_category":"Clerkship","post_tags":[],"embed_video":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post\/5445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/hub_post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post\/5445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5447,"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hub_post\/5445\/revisions\/5447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omsa.ca\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}