* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
INTRODUCTORY*
CITY OF BALTIMORE
COUNCIL BILL R
(Resolution)
Introduced by: Councilmember Harris
A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
Title
Informational Hearing - Increase in Adolescent Overweight
FOR the purpose of inviting the authors of Trends in the Association of Poverty with Overweight Among US Adolescents, 1971-2004 to share with the City Council the results of the study to examine the trends in adolescent overweight by family poverty status, as well as eating behaviors and physical activity levels.
Body
Recitals
In Overdosed America, a report released this year by a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, it is alleged that America's concerns about an impending epidemic of bird flu ought to be eclipsed by concerns with the existing pandemic of childhood obesity - kids between the ages of 6 and 11 are almost more than 4 times more likely to be obese now than in the early 1970s. Not a problem that will be outgrown, 4 out of 5 of the overweight adolescents will become obese adults.
The report states that the fundamental problem is not genetic, that medical conditions play a minuscule role in the problem of childhood obesity, and that the cause is almost 100% related to what kids eat and how much physical activity they engage in. The amount of soft drinks children consume has doubled since the 1970s, and studies show that those who indulge routinely consume about 180 calories more per day than kids who don't - translating into gaining an extra pound every 20 days from just the soda calories.
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