Can Peyton Manning Cure Obesity in Indiana?

[Pat Coyle]

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning is lending his name and number to a new effort aimed at tackling childhood obesity.

Manning, Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent’s , and several other partners including Ball State University helped kick off Project 18 at the Christel House Academy Monday morning.

These efforts by the star QB are certainly noble, and they definitely got a lot of press coverage yesterday, but will celebrity endorsement really make a difference in solving this growing problem over the long run? If not, what will?? Share your thoughts here

[Michael R.]

For the first time in 25 years the childhood obesity rate (ages 2-19) stopped increasing and it also had very minor increases in 2006 and 2007.

I don't know where you got those stats from but they couldn't be more off.

[Brendan Crews]

Michael,

They come from JAMA. That stands for the Journal of the American Medical Association. I've highlighted a few bits for you that were also published in TIme Magazine, USA Today, and most major publications last year. "The prevalence of high BMI for age among children and adolescents showed no significant changes between 2003-2004 and 2005-2006 and no significant trends between 1999 and 2006." JAMA. 2008;299(20):2401-2405.
"Researchers led by Cynthia Ogden of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed survey data gathered between 1999 and 2006, and found that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among American schoolchildren has plateaued at about 32%."
"the CDC data comes from an authoritative source — the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which has been ongoing since the 1960s".
They JAMA follow-up discussion also provided the theory of what may have caused the leveling off that I posted.
If you have any statistics more recent please let me know as I try to stay as current as I can.

Thanks.

[Ben McCann]

All I know is that Wii Fit called me OBESE...

[Michael R.]

LOL! Poor Ben. It's probably set up that way to keep kids using it. A psychological thing you might say.