Connecticut announces the start of a new anti-obesity program

• Obesity is a public health crisis that can lead to crippling health problems.
• To meet the challenge head on Connecticut is launching its first state-wide obesity prevention and control plan.
• The state Department of Public Health is joining the Commission on Children and the Department of Education to form an obesity advisory council to try to get a handle on the problem.
• According to the state Department of Public Health more than half the adult population in Connecticut is overweight.
• Nearly 80 percent of that comes right from the taxpayers because it is for residents on Medicaid and Medicare.
• A two year test here at Southington High School and several other districts around the state shows great promise in getting kids to eat better.
• "We removed all the soda from the student accessible soda machines.
• We replaced them with 100-percent juice and water.
• All the snacks that we sold, we looked at the portion size, the fat content, and the sugar," says Nya Worth, food services director for the Southington Public Schools and who supervised the test here.
• And big surprise -- the kids liked the stuff and the food service program suffered no losses in revenue.
• It was so successful that Southington has now implemented it in all eleven of its schools, and the state is going to give the info on the experiment to all school systems.
• "We're coming out with a guide, very shortly, that will show the results of what the schools did and how other schools can use those same strategies to promote healthy eating," says Susan Fiore from the state Department of Education.
• There is a web-based toolkit supporting community efforts to improve healthy eating and active living.