Hourly Update

State offers recommendations to slim down Arizonans

PHOENIX - The state has released a plan it hopes will help slim down Arizonans. The Arizona Nutrition and Physical Activity State Plan, released Thursday, offers ideas like changing building codes to promote healthy community design, constructing lactation rooms in businesses to encourage breast feeding and teaching parents to feed their children right and get them exercising. The plan debuted during a conference on obesity organized by the state Department of Health Services. "I don't think anyone in this room thinks we've come up with all the answers or that we can solve this in the short term," said Renae Cunnien, manager of the state health department's obesity prevention program. "But they know that it better start with us, and it better start now." Nearly six in 10 Arizona adults are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for a host of diseases. In August, 23 states, including Arizona, received "Fs" in the nation's first report card on obesity, issued by the University of Baltimore, for failing to require physical education, improve school nutrition or eliminate junk food on school campuses. Linda Adamski, a PE teacher in Chandler, was shocked when she moved to Arizona from Nebraska several years ago and found that PE was optional for many students. The class is required of all seventh graders at her school, Bogle Junior High, now, but it will become optional and less frequent next year to make time for more math instruction. "I understand why they are going in that direction, the emphasis the state places on math scores," she said. "But I'm very concerned about the lack of physical activity for kids." The plan Arizona officials released Thursday includes no mandates or funding. Some of it relies on cooperation from the private sector, like the building code recommendation. And some have already agreed to cooperate, like DMB Associates Inc., which is building a 956-acre subdivision that is designed to be "walkable" with a sidewalk beneath a major road for safety. The sidewalk will provide pedestrian access between homes and nearby retail. "It's important to allow people to be easily healthy," said Paula Randolph, Marley Park's director of community operations.