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<br />Source: http://online.wsi.comlarticle/SBl17876338912198027.html <br /> <br />SNACK ATTACK <br /> <br />As Child Obesity Surges, One Town Finds Way to Slim <br />Somerville, Mass., Goes Beyond Schools to Push Exercise, Good Eating <br /> <br />By TARA PARKER-POPE <br />May 10,2007; Page Al <br /> <br />SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- Most people think the battle against obesity <br />takes willpower. But the town of Somerville knows it takes the will <br />of an entire community. <br /> <br />Sparked by a desire to curb childhood obesity, this town of78,000 <br />has undergone a subtle yet dramatic transformation in the past five <br />years. Restaurants have switched to low-fat milk and smaller portion <br />sizes. The school district has nearly doubled the amount of fresh <br />fruit at lunch. The town, just outside Boston, has repainted <br />crosswalks to get more people walking to work or school. <br /> <br />The numbers suggest it works. During the 2003-04 school year, <br />Somerville schoolchildren gained less weight than children in two <br />nearby communities used as a control group, according to a report <br />published today in the medical journal Obesity. The difference was <br />statistically significant and translates into preventing about a <br />pound of excess weight gain among children who lean toward the heavy <br />side, the report says. <br /> <br />The Somerville study is believed to be the first controlled <br />experiment demonstrating the value of a communitywide effort. It's <br />only a small dent, but slowing the pace of weight gain among kids is <br />the key to conquering childhood obesity, says lead author Christina <br />Economos, an assistant professor at Tufts University. "It could be <br />the difference between graduating overweight and graduating at a <br />normal weight," she says. "We need to think about how it plays out <br />long term." <br /> <br />The Somerville program, designed primarily by Dr. Economos and fellow <br />researchers at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition, offers a <br />surprising blueprint. It didn't force schoolchildren to go on diets. <br />Instead, the goal was to change their environment with small and <br />inexpensive steps. Dr. Economos, a specialist in pediatric nutrition <br />and the mother of two school-age children, has long believed that the <br />battle against obesity can't be fought at the dinner table alone but <br />requires social and political changes. <br />[CE] <br /> <br />For inspiration, she turned to other successful social movements of <br />the past 40 years, analyzing tobacco control, seat-belt use and <br />