-- Prospective Student

I find myself disagreeing with the options provided by the poll. In my opinion, neither government intervention nor changes in parental attitudes will directly change the issue of childhood obesity in America. The issues with the former proposed solution being that how one chooses to eat is a matter of a personal choice...

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Capitalism needs little consumers to grow up to be big consumers. A consumer based culture breeds obesity, over-indulgence and waste...

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-- Staff Member

Whatever happened to accountability? Parents...BE PARENTS!...

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-- Prospective Student

This situation is complex in which due to lifestyle change, price of food, values, economy, preference, and lack of close knit families all have effect obesity in children...

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-- Undergraduate Student

The removal of government intervention would go a long way. We currently subsidize the production of corn so that the cost of buying it is cheaper than the cost of actually producing it...

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-- Alumnus

What ever the solution is has to address long term issues of changing life styles...

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-- Graduate Student

Government intervention - we need to properly educate people about what we are eating, how to eat, why eat, and most importantly exercise...

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-- Alumna

The issue is representative of a world wide system that does not offer education to all equally...

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-- Undergraduate Student

This whole poll is upsetting to me because most studies will show that it is not the obesity itself but the stress associated with obesity that cause health problems...

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-- Undergraduate Student

First of all, I find it disingenuous to focus specifically on child obesity rather than obesity in general. Not that this should be unexpected since relating any issue to children is an effective way to inspire knee-jerk reactions...

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-- Faculty Member

Parents are the only solutions for regulating the foods that the children eat...

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-- Alumnus

Washington, Jefferson and Adams would be rolling over in their graves watching the citizens of this Republic endorsing the idea of the government telling them what to eat...

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--Alumnus

Please, take a look at the big picture. Taxing junk food is not the answer...

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-- Staff

The government can help with regulating school lunches...

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-- Staff

The ONE place the government can help is to make sure MORE gym classes or exercise classes are incorporated into the classroom...

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-- Graduate Student

Of course intervention could help, but the scope of government intervention is limited to two actions...

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-- Undergraduate Student

While government intervention may be somewhat effective, what is the cost? I don't want to see my tax dollars go up because parents decide not to feed their children healthy food...

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-- Alumna

I believe in minimal government, however our government can help this situation by reducing or eliminating subsidies for food and farming of cheap corn; widely used in cheap, processed foods...

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-- Staff member

Government intervention can help in regard to school lunches and in getting the topic into the curriculum...

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-- Alumna, Professional Geologist

The federal government can help by making school lunches more nutritious, making sure physical activity is a part of every day school schedule (recess or gym class), and educating children and adults in care of children...

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-- Alumnus

Government can help by subsidizing productive small, sustainable agriculture...

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-- Alumnus

Government should stay out of this except where they are already involved in the federal school lunch program where they should only provide nutritious meals to those eligible...

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-- Undergraduate Student

Nothing the government does, aside from literally pulling people off couches and to the gym, will cure this problem...

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-- Graduate Student

Two things that I think are unlikely to be effective: increased parental involvement and school coursework...

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-- Director, Special Projects

We should be more prevention focused and child centered...

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-- Undergraduate Student

While raising taxes on "bad foods" or pushing healthy cafeteria meals might help, I think the biggest solution has to come in form of food education...

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-- Associate Bursar

Quit looking to government for solutions. This is a parental responsibility that is not addressed at home...

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-- Associate Academic Advisor CBE Undergraduate Programs

I believe some vital interventions for combating childhood obesity are providing education programs to families through schools and local community about nutrition, health concerns related to obesity, and how to make better choices in everyday life...

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The most effective strategy: compulsory health education courses throughout primary and secondary school.

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Both - a lot of low income kids eat all their meals at school, so making the school lunches healthier would help. I am appalled that PA schools only have gym class once a week. We recently moved from VA and they had gym every day through 5th grade. That would help too - government funding to help kids get exercise.

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-- College of Education graduate student

Why not remove the government interventions that subsidized the production of high-calorie foods? For years, our tax money has been used to support the production of high-fructose corn syrup and soybean oil...

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-- Director of Undergraduate Academic Advising, College of Business and Economics

This issue needs to be addressed by the individual, parents and the government (schools, local, city and federal governments)...

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-- Julie Scheller, Printing and Mailing Services

Most parents on the lower end of the socio-economic scale tend to feed their family with high starch and nutrition deficient food simply because it is less expensive. One dozen pierogies or a box of mac and cheese is far less costly, but not healthy. Having a healthy school lunch would at least insure one meal a day is of a somewhat healthy nature.

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I agree with ShinYi Chou, and I also feel that depending on the school districts to fix everything has to stop. I think responsibility has to start in the home. This society has to be responsible for themselves, not expect others to look out for their children.

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--Rita Jones, director of the Women’s Center

Throughout my career—teaching composition courses, teaching and directing Women’s Studies, and directing a Women’s Center—students, primarily female, have shared multiple concerns about their bodies, from being too fat, to being too thin, to recovering from eating disorders, to desires to achieve holistic health...

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-- MJ Bishop, associate professor of teaching, learning and technology

Jamie Oliver’s "Food Revolution" has been a real eye-opener for me on the depth and breadth of the nutrition problem in our school cafeterias...

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Government intervention is vital to changing the food environment our children face...

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--Chad Meyerhoefer, Assistant Professor of Economics

It is important to recognize that the decisions made by children and adolescents concerning their health are not always in their own best interest or those of society as a whole...

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--Hank Cardello '73, CEO of 27ºNorth

We would be better served if focus were placed on the two most critical issues: (1) lowering the number of calories that our children eat, and (2) educating them how to eat well. And that means engaging the food marketers and suppliers...

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--Ian Birky, PhD, Director, University Counseling and Psychological Services

The physical costs of obesity across a lifetime are staggering, and the psychological costs on a day to day basis can be overwhelming as manifested in symptoms of anxiety and depression...

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--Cheyenne L. Hughes and Caroline Mullen, school psychology students, College of Education

Schools offer an ideal setting for obesity prevention due to the large number of students that can be targeted simultaneously and the opportunities for developing a health-promoting environment...

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--Julie Oltman, Assistant Athletics Director for Technology

I think that a lot can be done within our public school system to combat childhood obesity...

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--ShinYi Chou, Frank L. Magee Distinguished Professor in Economics

Childhood obesity is due to many factors, with genetic, cultural, environmental and lifestyle factors contributing to the problem...

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