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Mayor Announces Obesity Task Force to Take On Improving Houston’s Health and Image

Posted byHoumanitarian
Men’s Health magazine has consistently ranked Houston among the fattest cities in the USA, including four times at #1.

(Joe Holley, Houston Chronicle)
Presiding over a city that often looms large among the ranks of America’s “large” cities, Mayor Annise Parker announced on Wednesday an initiative to reduce obesity and increase healthy eating and exercise.

Dubbed Healthy Houston, the effort will promote programs and policies aimed at getting Houstonians moving on bikes and walkways and in parks and playgrounds; improve access to healthy, affordable and locally produced food; and encourage backyard and community gardening.

“We know obesity is a significant health threat in our city,” the mayor said. “We want to tackle the issue with innovative ideas and thinking to help Houstonians make smart decisions to lead healthy lifestyles, prevent problems before they occur, lower health-care costs and increase productivity and quality of life.”

Parker is not the first mayor to launch an initiative to slough off the pounds and promote healthier lifestyles. In 2002, responding to the city’s dubious No. 1 “America’s Fattest City” ranking from Men’s Fitness Magazine, then-Mayor Lee Brown started a Get Lean program and hired the city’s first fitness czar. The czar’s efforts seemed to get results – the city shed its No. 1 fat ranking – but the pounds had piled back on by the time Bill White was elected mayor.

What’s different this time, said Dr. Shreela Sharma, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of epidemiology at The University of Texas School of Public Health, is that “a lot of initiatives are going on in Houston. There’s a lot of synergy, unlike ever before, which is really important.” Sharma, on Parker’s Healthy Houston task force, said it will evaluate health and fitness initiatives to see which are effective and can be used to develop policy.

Other cities have gotten good results with similar efforts, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Association. “Philadelphia got amazing results,” he said, “and Boston went a long way toward reducing consumption.”
(Read more of this story at Houston Chronicle)

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