Native American & Childhood Obesity Gwendelyn Riggs Public Health Service Announcement HLT 555 July 9, 2014

American Indians of all ages have a high prevalence of obesity.

Based on the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus, American Indians show the adverse effects that obesity has on communities.

The Tuba City Health Promotion program has estimated 42.6% of the student population to be overweight or obese with a Body Mass Index of 85% or greater

Meaning that only half of our Native American children in the Tuba City area are considered to have a normal body mass index.

According to the American Journal of Clinical Education, Obesity has become a major health problem in American Indians in the past 1 to 2 generations due to decreased physical activity and improper diet.

As our elderly would say in our Navajo language “Get up early and run learn no to be lazy”

We as Native Americans are distancing ourselves from that teaching.

Allowing our children to sleep in, stay indoors, watch television and offer them foods high in fat and sugar.

Causing our children to gain weight, putting our children at risk for future health diseases such as diabetes.

So we as parents, are the providers for our kids, only we can change the direction to prevent obesity for our kids in the future.

So we as a family can encourage one another to at least eat 5 or more fruits and vegetables a day.

Limit screen time to 2 hours or less.

Incorporate 1 hour of physical activity.

Drink 0 sweetened drinks.

All to help reduce the prevalence of childhood obesity for our kids.