Dr. Gary Smethers lives in Phoenix and is senior vice president of health services and chief medical officer for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona.

Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists

Being fat is becoming normal. That may be a blunt statement and it certainly isn't meant to offend anyone. It is meant to shine a spotlight on a predominant, preventable health issue that affects all of us.

Results from Arizona HealthPulse, a statewide survey conducted in 2007 by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, reveal that nearly two-thirds of the respondents reported that they were either overweight (32 percent) or clinically obese (30 percent). And it's not just adults. Obesity among children has tripled during the past 25 years, with 1 in 3 children in the United States now reported to be overweight or at risk for becoming so, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children learn their eating, lifestyle and nutritional behavior from parents and other adult role models. Adult waistlines have increased steadily year after year and so have their children's.

As a physician and a parent, I'm concerned about the health and future of our children in Arizona. We all should be concerned — parents and business leaders alike.

How will health issues and the mental stigma associated with obesity impact our children as adults? What will become of our next generation of leaders?

Some of these answers we have already. Research on the mental and physical health of overweight or obese children is abundant. Researchers at Pennsylvania and Temple universities found that obese elementary schoolchildren miss more school days on average than their normal-weight classmates. Fat is a better predictor for absenteeism than any other factor, according to the studies.

A study published in Psychological Bulletin revealed that overweight children are stigmatized by their peers and even face bias from their parents and teachers as early as age 3. Researchers also noted that this stigma and accompanying stress match the severity of stigma and stress that people with cancer experience.

Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions. But it's time to stop reporting the problem and start developing solutions. So what can we do to get children to live healthier lives?

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona asked itself that very question three years ago when it implemented the Walk On! Challenge for elementary schoolchildren. The program encourages fifth-grade students to incorporate walking and exercise into their daily routines and challenges them to walk 10,000 steps a day for an entire month.

More than 100 school districts and nearly 40,000 students signed up for the 2008 challenge. It's a good start, but we can do more. Working together, health care providers, schools, parents, and community and business leaders can help solve this increasing battle of the bulge for our children.

How? By supporting the continuation of physical fitness programs and nutritional education in the classroom. By talking to our children about healthy eating and encouraging exercise as an alternative to sedentary video games and TV-watching. And by adopting and demonstrating healthy lifestyles ourselves that our children will emulate. And that's just at home.

Community and business leaders can play an integral role by volunteering time to coach a Little League or soccer team, chaperoning a scout hike and getting involved in other physical activities for children.

The more education, healthy resources and active tools we provide, the more likely we are to "lighten" the load on the issue of childhood obesity.

We owe it to our children. We owe it to Arizona's future.