A state legislative task force seeking to reduce childhood obesity in North Carolina sought advice from a number of experts, including Alice Ammerman, director of the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, before developing 14 new recommendations to improve children’s health.
The recommendations focus on improving children’s daily activities to create healthy habits, including what they eat in school. The recommendations could increase costs initially, but will reduce health costs in the long run.
Ammerman, who is also a professor of nutrition at the UNC Gillings Global School of Public Health, worked closely with the task force to identify speakers and data to inform their recommendations. She said the task force thoughtfully considered the cost implications of the recommendations.
“The recommendations are carefully crafted to recognize budget constraints and build on evidence about what works,” Ammerman said.
Ammerman is a member of the NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council and has worked to link the activities and recommendations of the Task Force and the Council to each other and to other initiatives focused on obesity prevention in the state.
The UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention is a CDC Prevention Research Center, that works closely with communities to design, test and disseminate best practices for improved public health.
Read more about the recommendations in an April 20 article in the News & Observer.