Public Health in Oregon - Join The Conversation

Obesity is rapidly becoming the greatest public health menace of the early 21st century. The problem is not limited to the United States: industrializing nations with growing economics like China and India, with their burgeoning middle classes intent on emulating American consumption patterns, are beginning to adopt American dietary habits, and this state of affairs only appears to be speeding up, not slowing down. Here in the United States, we are watching our populace grow sicker and less productive. We eat out more than ever (or “cook” pre-made meals), and what we eat tends to be loaded down with added fats, oils, salts, sugars – all things we consume in excess, all things that are contributing to this epidemic.

It is an issue that is particularly devastating for the poor, whom the obesity epidemic has hit the hardest. The economically disadvantaged often find themselves locked in self-perpetuating cycles of disenfranchisement, disempowerment. With few resources to marshal, the poor are forced to buy what’s cheapest. And what’s cheapest? In the United States, we spend millions of dollars of tax-payer funds to subsidize the production of corn. Corn is cheap, abundant, and malleable to the will of technologically advanced human beings. We shape it to suit our desires (or, rather, the desires of those who profit from the consumption of corn-based products – the multinational corporate entities, the executives), and our desires seemingly have no limits. We have fashioned corn into a cornucopia of foodlike products, products that are anti-nutritious in practice. The production of these foods, these fattening, unhealthy foods, is encouraged by our government. A budget is a moral document, and the farm bills that Congress has seen fit to pass have spelled out its intent: eat more corn.
So we do, and it’s mostly the poor who do, and we all suffer for it.

Toward the amelioration of this crisis, we must decide, as a country, to abandon the subsidies for Big Corn. We must turn our collective will to the funding of public health campaigns. Bigger, better public health campaigns, with budgets on par with corporate lobbying firms. For every advertisement of a foodlike product, there should be two extolling the virtues of a plant-based, whole foods diet and exercise. Education is the key.

If we can reprogram the cultural machinery that has led us down this path, we will win the fight against the rising tide of obesity and the ill health that follows in its wake.

I felt the most concern for our community is our children, obesity and the type 2 diabetes dilemmas among them. 
Type 2 diabetes is a huge problem in America that has affected adults, but also children. It’s an even bigger problem when we start seeing kids that are so over weight. I think the key to fixing the problem is knowledge. In theory, teaching our children how to eat and exercise will fade out the type 2 diabetes. We have to attack it from the source through educating our children. According to Harvard Health Commentaries, “it now is estimated that one child out of every five in the United States is at least somewhat overweight”. There’s so much junk food that kids have access to that is full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup. And too much of it is affecting they’re health and bodies.
It’s important and crucial we find the time and money to create programs in schools and encourage them to produce more healthy nutritious foods. For example, I watched a video through the unnatural causes website about Gila Crossing Elementary Schools gardening program. It’s teaches Native American kids to be confident and proud of who they are through gardening. It gives them a sense of community and what it means to work as a team. They learn how do grow vegetables and what is good and not good to put inside they’re bodies. They even get to take home some of what they grow and with them the knowledge that hopefully encourages them to make healthy choices for themselves and perhaps even influence the adults too. Although kids look up to their parents and are influenced by them, we adults in turn can learn from them. I think confidence also plays an important role for these kids, and guiding them in the right direction is key to phasing out type 2 diabetes. We can have a better outcome for ourselves and for our kids, but it’s up to us to make this change.
Teenagers are going to eat what they want, especially if they’re told they can’t have it. There’s only so much we can do, and by teaching them at an early age what it means to live a healthy lifestyle, we can only hope that when they get older they’ll make healthy choices. I’m not saying to ignore the adults who do have type 2 diabetes, but it’s up to them to want to make the necessary changes and ask for help. Children are most influential at a young age and they look up to us. So lets guide them in the right direction.

If I could choose one issue in community health to receive more funding, I would choose adolescent and teen health awareness programs. Our society has many health problems, including obesity, drugs/alcohol, and mental health problems. I believe that all of these health problems come from ignorance, someone not knowing what they are getting into. If we bring awareness to teens and adolescents, they can learn life lessons that will stick with them for live, and they can learn how to make the healthy choices.
  Walking down the aisles at the supermarket, it is much harder to find an appealing healthy food item than a junk food item. Cereals, for example, are marketed to kids through icons such as Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, or Captain Crunch. The healthy cereals have little to no marketing for children, yet these are the ones that children should be eating to build great lifetime health. We need awareness brought to the youth to teach them how to make decisions on their own, and how to fight the forces that are trying to convince them to live unhealthy lifestyles.
  In a documentary by Peter Jennings titled, “How to get fat without really trying,” Jennings elaborates on the idea of how many unhealthy foods are targeted towards children, and the real source of this problem. The government is providing funding for several more unhealthy food products, while lacking funding for more healthier foods. Most youth don’t know this, and they just go with the flow of advertising and every other force, telling them to eat unhealthy. The youth needs to be educated on what they are eating, whey they are eating it, and the long-term effects of their current day actions.

This documentary can be viewed here:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/peter_jennings_reporting_how_to_get_fat_without_really_trying/

Throughout my education and experience, I have always learned that the best way to prevent any illness and bring awareness to an important issue is through education. This idea could not fit the issue of community health any better. While it is very difficult to choose just one effort to receive additional funding, I would have to give a final vote for education. The best way to improve the health of a population or community is through education combined with prevention. I think that once people are aware of the results of their actions through education about the choices they should make, they then are able to know how to avoid dangerous repercussions and prevent unhealthy choices.
    In 2010, statistics show that no state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20% (http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html). Our country is sick and many states have tried to put a band-aid on the issue by enacting legislations such as ones that remove high calorie ‘junk foods’ from vending machines in middle schools and high schools. While this sounds like a step in the right direction, simply taking away the object of the problem is not going to make the issue of obesity and unhealthy eating just disappear. As with individuals with a diagnosed addiction to a certain drug, or alcohol, taking away the focal point and not addressing the underlying reasons does not lead to recovery.

    The key to relieving the nation from this illness is in the power of nutrition education at a young age so that children establish healthy eating habits early on. Once students are aware of what is essential for the body to physically, as well as mentally, function at its best, they then are equipped to make the necessary decisions and actions in order to keep a healthy lifestyle.

I went through the topic about community health which is a major concerns for our society. I better feel prevention is better than cure. We the community should work on this irrespective the treatment we should find the root cause of the different health problem. The far most concerned is our obesity which is better can be judged by the food and nutrition which we are regularly taking in our day to day. The best judge is our community and the nutrition which are not getting is not the good one for our community.

Next It comes up with my mind is our kids and how we will educate from the beginning so that they will not face this issue when they will be young.

The last but the not the least that everybody should do daily exercise at least for 30-40 minutes so that we will keep our self healthy. About the food I will say taking one apple keeps doctor away.

Of course it is difficult to choose a priority health concern, especially when choosing between nutrition education and obesity prevention, which go hand in hand.  So many of our community health problems including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and even some mental and emotional disorders can be improved with proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle education. 

As stated in an earlier post, it is rather pointless to have free disease screenings without examining the root causes of the disease and offering disease prevention advice.  And since virtually all disease prevention advice includes the same mantra - “eat well and exercise”-why not develop programs that focus on teaching how to go about this? How does one go about choosing a healthy lifestyle on a day-to-day basis when there are so many choices available? 

It’s not just the rate of chronic diseases that could be improved by nutrition education.  Studies have shown that kids who are nutritionally deficient or are obese suffer from chronic fatigue, an inability to concentrate, and higher rates of anxiety and depression.  One of the main reasons kids aren’t doing well in school is because they are essentially sick, even if they aren’t suffering from any diagnostic illness.  The mind and the body are inextricably linked therefore it makes sense to assume that an improvement in the physical body would mean an improvement in brain functioning.  This logic extends to adults as well.  Obesity prevention combated through nutrition education in schools and the community is essential for a healthy, functioning society.  If we want our children and our communities to thrive again we must educate people on how to keep themselves healthy and support policies that make it easier for them to do so.

While it is incredibly difficult to choose just one thing to focus on as a health priority, I think that I would choose to focus on type 2 diabetes to give funding to and focus on conquering because there are so many factors that are controllable when dealing with type 2 diabetes, and it is such a dangerous disease.  These days almost 1 in 4 people are at risk of getting type 2 diabetes within their lifetime.  Diabetes is directly related to a person having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and or being over weight.  All of those aliments are directly correlated to diet and exercise, and how active a person is. This is all something that is completely controllable for the most part and we as a community need to step up the make sure society is healthier as a whole.  We need to educate our kids about healthy diets and the foods that we are putting in our bodies to give them a chance at a healthier future.  We need to keep the funding for physical education so that our youth can stay active and healthy.  We also need to have preventative health for everyone so that doctors can educate people about diseases like type 2 diabetes and let them know if they are at risk, and how to maintain a healthier life style if they are.  There clearly isn’t enough being done right now for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and there is just so much more we can do as a community to combat this disease, and we owe it to our community to do so.

Naming a top priority for funding can be likened to squeezing a balloon—where unfunded priorities begin to buldge out. If I had to choose one issue for additional funding, it would be the need to bridge the gap between the health of a community and a community’s economic health. Funding, then, would (1) help local public/private stakeholders and city/county leadership, planners, and community developers to include “health goals” in their local strategic plans, and (2) provide technical assistance to help identify and puruse funding to implement the goals and priorities they’ve identified. e.g., increased access to healthy foods, opportunities for physical activity, and tobacco-free environments.

See, for example, “Making Up for Lost Time” http://www.frbsf.org/publications/community/investments/1012/CI_Fleming.pdf.

We really have to look at whether it really is worth it to prevent so many deaths from diabetes instead of preventing the obesity that causes most of it at the source- baby and child food intakes vs. energy output. It’s wonderful to have insulin glargine and and arterial bypasses etc, but there needs to be some RATIONING of a set amount of funding for life-saving therapy vs. preventing obesity in youngsters who could potentially contribute good to the community for 80 years each. There has always been rationing in the health budget, but it needs to be directed by public health prevention experts rather than surgeons, pharmaceutical researchers and their lobbyists. Look at THE BIG PICTURE please, health legislators of the world!

Addressing obesity in the youth of America has finally overcome societal taboos that avoid criticizing weight problems, especially in youth. Obesity is officially a startlingly rampant health problem in virtually every corner of America. There are so many contributing factors it’s hard to even begin thinking of an approach to the situation, but one must, indeed, begin examining the problem purely as the health issue it is. Some of the contributing factors most easily seen are sedentary lifestyles promoted by gaming entertainment and other in home venues, the abundance and accessibility of cheap convenience foods, the decline in physical education in our schools, and lack of good nutrition programs that institute follow-up as well as instruction.
  Obesity does not just happen overnight, similarly it cannot be undone overnight. It would be very difficult and could seem impossible to a 12 year old boy who weighs 200lbs and is around 5’ tall to lose the unhealthy weight he has gained over the early years of his life. Not only is he being asked to lose weight, but to break habits that made it comfortable to be overweight. No, we cannot target kids in High school or Jr. High and successfully fix the now overwhelming health problems of obesity; we must establish programs that will be implemented into their education at a young age like kindergarten. These programs must be a requirement throughout the child’s entire educational career in order to teach, train and internalize healthy habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle, free of obesity.
  Obesity is the leading cause of diabetes, hypertension and other heart-diseases. Research done at Stanford USOM (University School of Medicine) shows that in 2007 $12.5 billion was spent on diabetes care. If obesity rates dropped, diabetes rates would respond directly, in turn money and programs spent on aiding and fighting diabetes could be reallocated to the programs that would be set in place to actually prevent the issues caused by our inaction in fighting obesity.

I chose to vote for safer parks and street to promote physical activity. This community health priority kills two birds in one stone. Creating an outdoor environment decreases effects of indoor pollutants, while also helping the obesity issue.

Depression and mental health programs would be my community health priority because it has been historically neglected and because there is many people with mental health issues who don’t have access to treatment programs.

I go back and fourth between two issues.  The first, obesity being a definite problem in the community.  The second being the amount of teen birth rates that we have.  I did an internship that provided help to teen mothers and was shocked at how many teen mothers that are in the community.  Education on birth controls, how to get them, screenings, and needing to be readily available.

I feel that obesity is a big issue in our community and in the United States in general.  The health problems it can cause are numerous and very dangerous.  I think that it is important to start out with educating people about healthy nutrition and getting plenty of exercise.

I feel that obesity is something that deserves additional funding.  This is a very big problem facing children today in the U.S.  Obesity is a major health concern and we are faced with challenges everyday of choosing the right foods to eat.  Our youth is struggling with obesity today because of schools cutting their physical education programs.

I think more funding should go towords free screenings for diseases. Early detection of a disease will help prevent it from greatly affecting someone’s life (or taking their life) as opposed to not finding the disease is there until the later stages. I think this is more cost effective than trying to treat diseases when they are already full blown and are much harder to treat.

Obesity in my opinion is my community’s health priority. At my school district back at home, they have started to drop Physical Exercise courses, lessened the time used for recess in addition to combining recess with lunch. This change occurred after I had graduated, but I noticed it within the school system because my grandma runs a daycare and I used to help her out. Through this, I would hear the kids she watched complain about being too lazy or what they were being fed; she was feeding them vegetable soup and healthy snacks. This raised an issue to me.  How can PE and activities such as recess be cut? I know funding has a major part of it, but maybe the classes should be shorter so that the kids can have time to play or have PE. Plus, by combining recess with lunch, the kids are just wolfing down their foods, or picking the most “tasty” parts of the meal and leaving the healthy stuff behind on the tray just so that they can get outside. If this keeps up, our country is going to look somewhat of the Disney movie, Wall-E – people getting around in moving chairs, bones depleting, and being fat and heavy. What a future! :>

Obesity prevention is my top priority because it is a disease we know how to prevent and fight, and still many people are choosing not to.  The upsetting thing about chronic disease in the US today is that it is largely a result of behavior and lifestyle choices that we have control over.  If we can prevent obesity we can potentially prevent the onset of other chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease.  I think its time to turn health care dollars and energy to the prevention programs so that we don’t need to invest so much in curative care, which only “bandaids” our problems.

Public funding should go towards free screenings of preventative diseases. It is much more cost effective to prevent these diseases and treat them in widely stages then it is to treat them when chronic disease conditions start. Prevention is the main value of public health model and by reducing the number of chronic health conditions, health care costs would go down as well and our overall population would be healthier.

I think prevention of obesity should rank number one in community health priorities because the costs of treating associated chronic diseases are high.  Diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are extremely expensive to treat and preventing obesity is is relatively inexpensive.  The popuation of uninsured individuals continues to increase, and until there is a public option, communities need to invest in upstream public health initiatives to avoid the costs of treating uninsured and underinsured individuals.

my opinion is that in the field of Public Health, we believe in the power of preventative care. Prevention is always a key to decrease financial burden on this economy’s health care system, increase healthy life span, and overall create a community where people can focus on being healthy.

With that being said, I voted for the “Adolescent and teen health awareness programs”. For awareness equals empowerment. When youths are fully informed of their options and consequences, I believe they will be proactive in adopting or preserving a healthy lifestyle.

I think preventative screening for diseases is the most important. This is something that usually costs a lot of money and so many people don’t get regular check-ups or tests done. If we had more funding for this more people would be able to detect a disease earlier and take care of it before it gets worse. Some people don’t even know they’re sick until its too late and often this is because they can’t afford to see someone about it.

Mental health is probably the biggest priority. Not very many people are willing to talk about their mental health, or accept that it is just as important as phsycial health. So many people in Oregon, and throughout the country, have little to no insurance coverage for mental health prevention and treatment and many people would probably say they could deal with their mental health on their own. However, about 50% of the population needs mental health services, and about only 11% will recieve or seek it. So where is the gap? There is a heavy stigma attached to mental health issues and being treated for them. This is the biggest health priority in Oregon, and the US. Mental health issues can be prevented, but there needs to be more funding and research devoted to this area.

The biggest problem that I see with my community is nutrition.  Many of the people I have talked to don’t seem to even know what is a good food choice and what isn’t.  Everyone knows soda is “bad” and fruits and veggies are “good”.  The most food advice that is heard by the public is infomercials about fad diets.  Our population would be a lot healthier if they had good solid information on nutrition and how your body uses certain foods.

I believe prevention of obesity is extremely important as well as depression and mental health programs. Many of these topics can be related together like teaching kids about public health and promoting health eating. All of the topics are, but some have greater urgency then others.

From the selections given, ranging from quality childcare, to the prevention of obesity, using fewer pesticides, to nutritional education, from dental and oral health care, etc.  All these issues are hot button topics for Public Health and while I believe each are equally important; the topic that made it to the high priority list for myself is nutritional education.  I believe if we fully support nutritional education, it can definitely correlate with the prevention of obesity and even with the use of fewer pesticides.  I believe everyone can benefit from nutritional education, not only can it be used for preventive measures for obesity, but also being nutritionally sound can correlate with the prevention of other diseases and cancers such as, cardiovascular disease, colon cancer, heart disease, and so on and so forth. Being nutritionally aware of what you place in your body can have tremendous impacts, whether it be in the present or future.

At the top of my list, even though it is hard to choose from this list, is free preventative screenings for diseases. Many low income people don’t go to the doctor’s if they feel sick because they don’t have insurance and don’t have the money to pay for an appointment, thus they put them off. In the end, they rush to the emergency rooms, which costs the health care systems millions of dollars because they don’t end up paying their bills.

I think that more funding should go to adolescent and teen health awareness programs.  With more funding here you could cover some of the other options posted above, for example, nutrition, obesity awareness, as well as mental health awareness.  The more children and teens can learn the better chance we have at preventing more diseases.  Not to mention these age groups love to share information they learn, so there is a good chance they will share it with friends and family spreading the message even further.

The one issue that needs more attention would be The scary rates of obesity. People need to be better informed of ways to eat healthier and become more physically active. So additional funding could be used to promote healthy eating and maybe to create a public exercise facility or something.

I think that extra funding should go towards Adolescent and teen health awareness programs. Teens are the future and in order to improve the health of the future we need to educate the people that will be aprt of the future if we want to make a difference.

When asked to chose what to prioritize, I had a difficult time deciding as all of the issues are very important. I ended up voting for nutrition education, as it is something that everybody can work on. We are given the choice of many different foods, yet many opt for the unhealthy options which have serious lasting effects. Once people start to realize how important a healthy diet is, the overall health status of our nation will significantly improve.

I was surprised to see that nutrition education turned into obesity prevention. I do of course correlate the two very closely but nutrition education is so much more then just preventing obesity. It’s preventing MANY different kinds of caners and CVD (from other factors like high cholesterol) the two main causes of death. Having healthy eating behaviors can transmit to every other health aspect not just obesity.

These seem to all be important Public Health issues.  I think the education and promotion of nutrition and physical activity are the most important. If nobody was obese and everyone was physically fit i’m sure the health system would see a major reduction in chronic disease and other Obesity related diseases. freeing up billions of dollars.

I think the community is in need of obesity prevention, especially since it is a leading cause of some deadly diseases.physical27

As I think about what my community needs are right now, I belive that free prevention screening for disease would be a usefull way to decrease chronic diseases, and have people with low income use resources that will help lower helath care costs. When people are able to use resources that will help them for future health issuses they will take full advantage of them because emergency rooms are a cost shift and are almost impossible to pay without insurance.

I think every community’s health priority if I had to choose one would be better education for adolescents to lower the number of chronic diseases. Many chronic diseases can be prevented with proper education on living a healthy lifestyle. The younger generation is our future and shouldn’t suffer from the same disease with all the advancement in the health field and technology, or shouldn’t suffer more from certain problems like obesity more than previous generations.

I believe adolescent and teen health awareness programs should be the issue that receives additional funding. I chose this because I feel it is extremely important to educate the young and practice prevention techniques. By having an influence on their lives starting at an early age, they will be well informed which will hopefully lead them to practice healthy living. This is more likely to continue through out their adolescence/teen years and in to adulthood. It is more effective to reach the younger generation than to change the negative living habits of adults. With additional funding and making adolescent/teen health awareness a priority, things like unhealthy eating, smoking, substance abuse, etc. could be prevented and a healthy lifestyle encouraged.

From the choices above I believe that one of the most important health issues to address in the community right now is childhood obesity.  With the rates of obesity skyrocketing w/in the last decade or so, more and more children are acquiring diabetes, which is a serious disease that will be w/ them for the rest of their lives.  The obesity rates in the US far out way any other country.  The unfortunate thing about this is that diabetes & childhood obesity (for most cases anyways) in America is preventable.  I think the best way to address a change is by making schools offer better health food choices in the school (no vending machines, soda pop machines, etc.) and instead of cutting p.e. and other physical activities - make them required everyday (for at least 30 minutes).  Its no secrete that every individual should get at least 20-30 minutes of physical activity each day, but yet most children only receive that recommended amount of exercise either every other day, or in some cases once a week if they are not getting it outside of school hours.  This problem only contributes to the obesity rates in our children today.  This is a community health issue that I would like to see be fixed w/in the hear future.

I chose quality childcare. I believe this is extremely important because quality child care or the lack of can make a huge difference in a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Children need to be encouraged and instructed in a positive environment that will help them become responsible and respectful people in society. We wonder why so many children turn out to have physical, mental, emotional, social issues when they get older…I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they are not receiving quality care by caregivers. Children are the future. If we do not invest in them, they will turn out to be the people that Public Health is trying to reach to begin with. Children need to learn from positive interactions, observe positive behavior, and be given positive instructions. This is important because once they reach an adult,it is more challenging to change their behavior.

I think that education about the prevention of chronic disease such as obesity, heart disease, cancer etc. could greatly benefit the community at large. Prevention of these and other chronic diseases require healthy lifestyles that would simultaneously help to eliminate other disease emphasis on ‘lifestyle’ would also help to create positive social norms and expectations.

I believe adolescent and teen health awareness programs need to be emphasized in my community. Especially focusing on sexual health. Some counties have numbers as high as 1/3 of sexually active teens having an STI. Birth control is important to educate on but different contraceptives need to be pushed harder.

I believe that adolescent and teen health awareness programs are the priority for funding because if we educate at a young age then we will not have to worry as much about the future. This could prevent things like obesity and smoking because children are educated enough to know that it is bad for you.

I chose ‘depression and mental health’ because of my belief that if someone is depressed, or overly anxious, or has another type of mental disruption, he or she will have a significantly harder time finding happiness in life and motivation to stay healthy. If someone is optimistic and energetic, he or she will be much more likely to go for a run, make healthy food choices, and be an asset to the community. If citizens are happy and mentally sound, many of the other problems on the list are likely to work themselves out.

I chose Adolescent and teen health awareness programs because i believe that every part of health education starts with young generations. They have alot of influences on their lives and to educate them at a young age and get them eating healthy and excercising early on would give them such a great head start into their future. It’s something that gives them a chance to feel good about themselves because there are so many pressures at their age, they need something to make them feel good.

I would choose nutrition education and free preventative screenings for diseases. I feel that implementing these two choices would greatly increase the health of our Americans. Educating children at a young age about nutrition and how to properly eat should cut down the numbers of obese children in the United States. Statistics show the obesity is being an epidemic and it starts somewhere. Children are raised to think that its okay to eat dinner at fast food restaurants because we are living in such a fast paced world meaning not a lot of people have time to cook a meal and sit down and eat it. When actually, this would be the best alternative to prevent obesity, especially in children and adolescents. Another issue that should be implemented is free preventative screenings for diseases. There are many forms of cancer that are on the rise, that could have actually been prevented ahead of time with the proper screenings. These tests are fairly expensive and I feel that if they are free, then more people would get tested. This measure would actually save more lives and there should be no cost to do that.

I chose Adolescent and teen health awareness programs because if we start to educate our children early they hopefully won’t have such problems was we do. this seemed to be the most up stream approach and one of the least expensive.

I would pick nutrition education to get more funding. Right now we face a huge problem in America with people becoming over weight and obese.I believe if we start to educate people when they are young and till they graduate that they will know what is health and what is not. with all the fast food advertisements around us it is very easy to just stop and get something fast. but with the proper education we would know how harmful eating fast food can be to our bodies.

I would choose nutritional and physical education to receive more funding. I believe these aspects are a huge player in the current state of Americans. We are a fast food nation and loves video games. We should focus our efforts toward schools and teach children how to keep healthy and a healthy weight. I feel like children today are going up thinking that whats easy is good for you, like fast food. We need to being teaching for practical physical activity where children don’t always need other people to be active. Teach running, walking or even tennis to show children how they can be active outside of a PE class. Physical education needs to be backed up by nutrition education so our country doesn’t continue the obesity epidemic.

I choose to vote for obesity because physical activity in schools has been cut and food as well in schools have been less healthy.  There have been some actions done in some schools such as taking vending machines out of schools and making sure that students have at least a certain amount of physical activity each week.  Obesity has been a growing problem and America has some of the largest portions of food served at restaurants and in homes.  We need to eat healthy and stay physical in order to cut down on getting diseases like diabetes or having clogged arteries.

I believe a lot of these issues are important but something that affects me personally and believe effects many others is Dental and Oral Care. This is a very costly issue and can lead to huge problems if not taken care of in a proper time or manner. Numerous of people don’t have insurance for dental/oral care and I know like myself it’d be one of the things I wish I had.