Mass. teens watch TV, but not what they eat
No progress found in the last six years
Despite widespread concern about the burgeoning waistline of America's teenagers, Massachusetts adolescents last year ate no better than they did six years earlier, while remaining glued to their televisions and computers.
Only 15 percent said they regularly consume the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, according to a statewide survey of thousands of teenagers released yesterday.
And more than 1 out of 4 high schoolers surveyed said they plopped in front of the television for at least three hours daily. Similarly, 30 percent reported being riveted to their computers, surfing the Internet or playing games for three hours or more a day.
Obesity specialists said the findings are a reflection of a society that eats too much, exercises too little, and increasingly lives in neighborhoods where outdoor exercise is perceived as dangerous or where sidewalks do not exist. Habits decades in the making, they said, will take many years to undo.
"I would wonder aloud why we would expect an improvement; the behaviors we're talking about are very difficult to change," said Aviva Must, an obesity researcher at the Tufts University School of Medicine. "The foods that we're expecting children to eat less of are tasty and cheap, and the environment in which children find themselves has really not changed very much."
The persistence of the problem frustrates health specialists, who see the consequences of obesity in the state's soaring incidence of diabetes, in both children and adults. In the past 10 years, for example, the prevalence of the disease among Massachusetts adults doubled to 6.1 percent, most stricken with the form of diabetes linked to obesity.
The state's public health commissioner, John Auerbach, formed a task force two months ago to figure out how best to battle obesity and to listen to the experiences of states such as Maine and Arkansas that have been recognized for their campaigns to reduce obesity.
"We were aware there were a number of different initiatives that were occurring at the local level, the state level, and among foundations," Auerbach said. "But there wasn't a coordinated effort to bring each of the interested parties together. That's what we're doing now."
The findings on childhood fitness were included in a broader report on youth health. Once every two years, state education and health officials survey students about behavior, with the 2007 report covering more than 6,300 high school students and 2,700 middle school pupils.
The youths who completed the questionnaire said they were smoking fewer cigarettes and drinking less alcohol. But when it comes to obesity, "there isn't any sign it's getting better," said Carol Goodenow, a school health specialist with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Especially concerning to researchers is the fact that even as the percentage of children who weighed too much remained essentially unchanged, their perception of whether they weighed too much shifted. In 2007, fewer children said they viewed themselves as being overweight, compared with six years earlier.
Maybe, Goodenow told the state's Public Health Council yesterday, the youngsters have grown so inured to the sight of overweight students that their perception of weight problems has become skewed.
To be sure, school districts and cities such as Somerville have banded together to address childhood obesity, and Massachusetts has devoted millions of state and federal dollars to the cause. Healthy eating, for instance, is a key focus of the Women, Infants, and Children subsidy program, with about $28.2 million spent providing food and counseling on nutrition and exercise to low-income families. And the state invests an additional $1.1 million on other initiatives to improve children's diets and encourage them to be active.
But nutrition specialists warned that temptation lurks everywhere in this super-sized, drive-through nation. Joan Salge Blake, a nutrition educator at Boston University's Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences, said it is not enough "to just slap together a dry chicken breast that looks terrible" and serve it to children.
Blake also debunks the notion that healthy eating has to be expensive. "In these economic times when food and gas prices are going up," she said, "I don't want people to give up eating healthy and say, 'I'll eat potato chips instead of potatoes.' "
The state survey suggests that many children are not getting the message: 11 percent of high school students are overweight, and 15 percent more are perilously close.
It is those children Brandy K. Cruthird is trying to reach in the heart of Dudley Square, a neighborhood where the fear of violence keeps children indoors. Two years ago, she opened Body by Brandy 4 Kidz, a gym for children.
Backed by Children's Hospital Boston, the United Way, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Cruthird has children using treadmills and doing sit-ups and push-ups. "But it's not just about weight loss," she said. "It's about helping kids be kids again." So they play hopscotch and double dutch.
And parents have to be involved, too, with mandatory nutrition classes. "You can't change the child," Cruthird said, "if you don't change the parents."
Ashley Brito, a 15-year-old from the South End, was at the gym last night. "My friend, she came here, and she told me about it," Brito said. "I thought it would be good to start working out at the gym and be fit."
After two weeks, she has shed two pounds. "Pretty good," Brito said.
Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.
