A new University of Minnesota School of Nursing partnership with the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage school district is looking into what school nurses can do to help curb obesity in schoolchildren.

Slated to begin in fall 2014, research led by School of Nursing associate professor Martha Kubik, Ph.D., R.N.,  received a $3 million National Institute of Health (NIH) grant to investigate how school nurses and other community health advocates can help address the childhood obesity epidemic.

The research “has the potential to inform public policy,” said Kubik in a Pioneer Press article on the announcement made at an early-May school board meeting. “If all goes as we hope it goes, it will expand access to obesity prevention programs for children and families.”

Second and fourth-grade students who are currently overweight and who volunteer alongside their families for the research will participate in a nine-month-long program. School nurses will lead the program charge by encouraging healthy food and activity habits through small group work with children and parents, one-on-one coaching sessions and collaboration with other groups that offer active play and healthy eating opportunities.

To read the full Pioneer Press article on the NIH grant award and its potential effects, click here. You can also check out the Burnsville-Eagan Sun Thisweek story here.

Earlier this week, a large study out of Europe made headlines for finding just one can of soda or a sugary beverage a day increased the risk of developing diabetes by more than one fifth.

According to Reuters, the study found every extra 12 fluid ounce serving of sugar-sweetened drink raised the risk of diabetes by 22 percent compared with drinking just one can a month or less.

“The study shows that there is an association between the intake of sugar beverages and a risk of developing diabetes,” Simone French, Ph.D., an obesity prevention researcher in the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and director of the University’s Obesity Prevention Center.

According to French, there have been many studies and reviews that show a link between sugar-sweetened beverages and obesity and diabetes, including data from U.S. population-based cohort studies. Now you can add this study from Europe. She wonders whether the link this study found between sugar-sweetened beverages and diabetes risk is through the higher body weight.

“Do sugar beverages cause people to gain more weight and become overweight, and thereby this increases risk of developing diabetes?”

Studies such as the recent examination by European researchers help us inch closer to the answer. Read more about the study from Reuters here.

Even though we all know consuming mass quantities of calorie-laden foods and beverages are bad for us, Americans still can’t seem to stay away from those big sugary drinks.

Last May, in an effort to combat sugar-sweeted beverages (SSBs), New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced one of the most ambitious and controversial initiatives to be seen in the war on obesity: a ban on big sugary drinks, otherwise referred to as the “soda ban.”

On the surface, banning SSBs may seem a logical direction to take in fighting obesity. If people aren’t choosing to drop the bubbly habit themselves, policy changes could simply force people to adopt healthy habits, right?  After all, it’s already been attempted with tobacco products.

When it comes to SSBs it might not be so simple.

First, we’re told it’s unhealthy to have high body mass index (BMI). Now, researchers at the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics find that being overweight may actually be associated with a lower all-cause mortality.

I’m stumped. Which is it?

BMI is a formula that calculates a person’s weight to their height, and categorizes him or her as underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

But is the measure a good indicator for measuring a person’s health? Can it really be true that having a higher BMI means longevity or better health?

Fried foods, large portions, sedentary lifestyles, extra-large portions, commuter traffic, extra-extra-large portions…the causes behind obesity are everywhere.

Unfortunately, unless drastic changes are made, national rates of obesity may continue to tip the scale.

Across the country, obesity rates are on the rise and though Minnesota isn’t leading the charge, the state’s numbers are still staggering.

A new analysis of government health data predicts that for Minnesota, the current 25.7 percent obesity rate could more than double by 2030, reaching 54.7 percent.

The analysis, released this week by Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, projected the obesity rates for all 50 states by 2030.

Simone French, Ph.D., an obesity prevention researcher in the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and director of the University’s Obesity Prevention Center, hopes the report will show lawmakers the importance of working to reduce obesity. For example, she told MPR Congress should restrict sugar-sweetened beverage purchases for people on federal food-assistance programs.

“The obesity epidemic is alive and well in low-income and ethnic minority populations,” said French. “And it’s being supported financially in part by our federal food programs, that allow benefits to be used for sugar-sweetened beverages.”

French said state officials can address the problem by working with health plans to combat obesity and diabetes. But just how do they do that?

Henry Buchwald, M.D., Ph. D., is a surgeon and obesity management expert, but he’s no celebrity. And that’s what he thinks it will take to finally sell Americans on healthy habits.

Buchwald, a professor in the Department of Surgery, is tapping into one of the biggest celebrity markets in America to help tout the benefits of a healthy lifestyle: the NFL.

“The greatest health epidemic right now is obesity, but so far, too few people are listening to their doctors and nutritionists, even the First Lady, about the importance of this topic,” said Buchwald.