IU professor leads the fight against fat

The threat of becoming overweight is an ongoing issue and Indiana is not pulling its weight in the war on obesity, said Lloyd J. Kolbe, a professor and researcher in the Department of Applied Health Science, who wants to see a change in schools’ attitudes toward health.\nRoughly 30 percent of Indiana’s youth between the ages of 6 and 19 are obese or overweight, according to an IU news release. The percentage of obese or overweight adults in Indiana is up 16 percentage points from 1990, resting at 62 percent in 2004. The number of obese high school students in Indiana grew by 30 percent between 2003 and 2005.\nKolbe serves on the International Obesity Task Force and has worked with Chinese health officials to address adolescent weight issues in China. In 2005, he presented the Indiana State Plan to Reduce Obesity at Gov. Mitch Daniels’ INShape Indiana Obesity Prevention Summit.\nKolbe said he believes the main reason for this is an increase in caloric intake and a decrease in caloric output. People are eating more foods containing higher calories, and Kolbe believes this is due to the fact that more food is being produced, and people have more options when it comes to variety, taste and easy access to food. He also said an increased efficiency in the marketing of food affects caloric intake.\n“Each one of these is a small contributor,” Kolbe said. “But combined, they have a huge impact on the increase of caloric intake.”\nHeidi Boruff, a registered dietician employed by IU, said one solution to this problem is to eat more lower-calorie vegetables, which, she stressed, does not include potatoes.\n“Everywhere you look you have potatoes,” she said. “They have almost double the calories of normal vegetables, which have between 25 and 30 calories per serving. Potatoes have 60.”\nEspecially at a college campus, where the school does not have enough funding to pay for exotic fruits and vegetables, students are not taking advantage of the resources already provided for them, Boruff said.\n“Everything can be part of a healthy diet in moderation,” Boruff said. “But health is a personal choice.”\nKolbe has a different view on the issue of “personal choice” from Boruff.\n“People think that obesity is the individual’s fault,” Kolbe said. “This is, in fact, not the case.”\nKolbe has identified 23 policies for schools to reduce obesity among young people. These policies break down into eight different categories, which, Kolbe believes, are the eight components of wellness that schools need to consider.\nSome of these include food services, physical education and activity requirements, health services, counseling and psychological services and the school’s attitude toward health.\n“Multiple interventions should be required,” Kolbe said. “There is no single magic bullet.”\nObesity can cause many health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, arthritis, high blood pressure and birth defects, according to the American Obesity Association’s Web site.\nAlthough the health effects of obesity can be detrimental, the economic effects are leaving a mark on America as well, Kolbe said.\n“The health conditions associated with obesity have a long incubation period,” Kolbe said. “As the population ages, these effects will begin to show themselves. Health costs will increase and taxes will go up. Everybody pays for the effects of obesity.”\nOn a smaller scale, Kolbe believes that “universities are not stepping up to the plate.”\nBut in order for universities to respond to the obesity epidemic, students must voice what they want done, both Kolbe and Boruff said.\n“Getting the menus changed in the food courts is an ongoing process,” Boruff said. “To see changes in the future, we need some student feedback.”\nSimilarly, Kolbe hopes that students will take a larger role in the fight against obesity.\n“The University needs to do more for the students,” Kolbe said. “But what the University does needs to be determined by the students themselves.”\nKolbe believes a group of students can achieve this by forming a coalition to talk about health concerns with the administration. It would be more than happy to meet with students about their concerns, Kolbe said.\n“There is little will to do the things that need to be done on the scale that they need to be done to address this epidemic,” Kolbe said. “Our children are without question going to live sicker and die younger than their parents would – and we just should not tolerate that.”