Health News
- Owensboro Plans To Extend Smoking Ban To Outdoors
Owensboro Mayor Ron Payne says he has the votes to pass a smoking ban for "all public spaces, including parks and outdoor dining areas and city-owned properties," Steve Vied reports for the Messenger-Inquirer. Daviess County has an eight-year-old ban...
- Community-based Solutions To Childhood Obesity Show Signs Of Progress Elsewhere; Will Kentucky Pick Up On Them?
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News For decades, researchers reported with alarm the increasing trend of overweight children in America, with one in three kids on the way to developing Type 2 diabetes. Across the country, action has been taken to address...
- Report Looks At Ways Kentucky Communities Are Battling Obesity
Winchester residents walk the Traveling Trail, a walking path meant to encourage residents to exercise.A new report takes a hard look at obesity in Kentucky and highlights what individual communities are doing to combat the problem. "Shaping Kentucky's...
- Lexington Council Turns To Wellness Center To Cut Insurance Costs
Following a national trend to improve employee health so companies can cut health-insurance costs, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council agreed Tuesday to set up a wellness center for city employees. The center will "be voluntary and free for employees,...
- 'most Sedentary' Designation Sparks Lexingtonians To Stand Up; Herald-leader Coverage Is An Example To Follow
Lexington's recent designation as the most sedentary city in the country by Men's Health magazine has got its residents talking, exercising and sharing their stories. First, the city had a tongue-in-cheek Sedentary Parade with stationary floats...
Health News
Cities' efforts to combat obesity get state, national attention
The efforts of two Kentucky cities to slim down made news this week. On Monday, The New York Times ran a story about Louisville's programs to encourage healthy eating and physical activity in an attempt to combat obesity. On Tuesday, the Lexington Herald-Leader ran a short story about the move to healthier snacks at two public pools. (Eric Crawford, sports columnist for The Courier-Journal, notes in a blog post, partly about his own weight issues, that Men?s Health magazine says Lexington ranks No. 25 in fatness nationally, while Louisville is No. 51.)
The Times story describes Louisville's eight-year effort to combat obesity by establishing bike lanes, creating pocket parks, and making sidewalks wider and safer. The effort involves multiple city agencies and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are hard to measure, sort of like a new dieter on a scale, reporter Stephanie Strom writes: "Successes on one front are countered by setbacks on another, and signs that the needle has moved overall are slight and mostly anecdotal."
Former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who started the initiative, told Strom that the impetus to reduce the city's obesity rate was economic. ?For businesses, a healthy work force is more productive and less costly, so it became a competitiveness issue,? he said. ?Every city was offering tax incentives, every city was offering real estate deals but not every city had the weight problem we do.?
The Herald-Leader article focuses on menu changes at two park pools' snack stands. The new menus include options like fresh fruit, grilled chicken, and yogurt. The change is a joint effort of the city Parks Department and the Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition in Lexington to encourage healthier eating. As Coalition Chairman Anita Courtney told the Herald-Leader, "Concession stands are like pantries for kids in the summer. What they are stocked with is what they'll eat."
The Times story describes Louisville's eight-year effort to combat obesity by establishing bike lanes, creating pocket parks, and making sidewalks wider and safer. The effort involves multiple city agencies and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results are hard to measure, sort of like a new dieter on a scale, reporter Stephanie Strom writes: "Successes on one front are countered by setbacks on another, and signs that the needle has moved overall are slight and mostly anecdotal."
Former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, who started the initiative, told Strom that the impetus to reduce the city's obesity rate was economic. ?For businesses, a healthy work force is more productive and less costly, so it became a competitiveness issue,? he said. ?Every city was offering tax incentives, every city was offering real estate deals but not every city had the weight problem we do.?
The Herald-Leader article focuses on menu changes at two park pools' snack stands. The new menus include options like fresh fruit, grilled chicken, and yogurt. The change is a joint effort of the city Parks Department and the Tweens Nutrition and Fitness Coalition in Lexington to encourage healthier eating. As Coalition Chairman Anita Courtney told the Herald-Leader, "Concession stands are like pantries for kids in the summer. What they are stocked with is what they'll eat."
- Owensboro Plans To Extend Smoking Ban To Outdoors
Owensboro Mayor Ron Payne says he has the votes to pass a smoking ban for "all public spaces, including parks and outdoor dining areas and city-owned properties," Steve Vied reports for the Messenger-Inquirer. Daviess County has an eight-year-old ban...
- Community-based Solutions To Childhood Obesity Show Signs Of Progress Elsewhere; Will Kentucky Pick Up On Them?
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News For decades, researchers reported with alarm the increasing trend of overweight children in America, with one in three kids on the way to developing Type 2 diabetes. Across the country, action has been taken to address...
- Report Looks At Ways Kentucky Communities Are Battling Obesity
Winchester residents walk the Traveling Trail, a walking path meant to encourage residents to exercise.A new report takes a hard look at obesity in Kentucky and highlights what individual communities are doing to combat the problem. "Shaping Kentucky's...
- Lexington Council Turns To Wellness Center To Cut Insurance Costs
Following a national trend to improve employee health so companies can cut health-insurance costs, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council agreed Tuesday to set up a wellness center for city employees. The center will "be voluntary and free for employees,...
- 'most Sedentary' Designation Sparks Lexingtonians To Stand Up; Herald-leader Coverage Is An Example To Follow
Lexington's recent designation as the most sedentary city in the country by Men's Health magazine has got its residents talking, exercising and sharing their stories. First, the city had a tongue-in-cheek Sedentary Parade with stationary floats...