Childhood-obesity-prevention efforts received a major breath of life on Thursday, as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a $500 million commitment over the next decade toward ensuring all children can grow up at a healthy weight.
The foundation, which made a similar $500 million commitment in 2007, plans on paying specific attention to underserved, higher-risk populations, along with a focus on early-childhood prevention strategies. Based on past research, it highlighted five specific priorities over the next decade:
- Ensuring all children enter kindergarten at a healthy weight.
- Eliminating sugar-sweetened-beverage consumption among children between the ages of 0 and 5.
- Making a healthy school environment “the norm and not the exception” across the nation.
- Infusing physical activity into the daily routines of children.
- Making healthy foods and beverages “the affordable, available, and desired choice in all neighborhoods and communities.”
In terms of sugar-sweetened beverages, a 2011 study in the