I’m already finding a massive amount of information regarding the topic of obesity. I have begun a list of sources that I want to investigate and I’ve discovered various approaches that have been taken to raise awareness about obesity.

What I have learned is that our Government has initiatives aimed at solving this problem. According to the HealthyPeople.Gov, more than 125 Million Americans live with Chronic Conditions & millions of new cases are diagnosed each year. Of these 125 million americans, 1.7 Million die yearly. And lastly these chronic diseases account for the 75% of the 1.4 TRILLION dollars we spend on health care.

What I don’t know is how much overweight and obesity makes up the 75%. Obesity, Diabetes, Asthma, Cancer, Heart Disease and Stroke are mentioned as the diseases that healthypeople.gov and their 2010 Initiative are seeking to reduce.

But on the website for heallthypeople2010, the Become A Healthy Person link only seems to take you to the healthfinder.gov, which is a source that provides you reliable health information. The sites found there are ranked by the US Department of Health and Human Services so they claim to have “no mystery websites”.

From my searching on the healthypeople.gov website, I found myself learning about different forms of implementation, and one of the ones was a link to Steps to a Healthier US. And on their home-page, I immediately clicked off of that website onto another website, SmallSteps.Gov.

You may be familiar with smallsteps.gov. Especially their commercials aimed at kids. This website (www.smallstep.gov) is a little bit closer to helping the average person get information on being health as well as being a source of inspiration.

However, I find myself thinking several things:

1- I’ve seen those small-step commercials many times and never knew what they were commercials for. The end never stuck in my head, so I’ve never gone searching for the smellstep.gov website.

2- Even if one did catch the end of the commercial, would they think to go to the website? And if so, what type of person would go to the website, what kind of people actually have access to the website? Are they the people that I have been reading about (will blog about as I learn more) in Adult Obesity in Appalachia? Wouldn’t internet access be crucial to these geographic regions with high numbers in obesity? Do these places have internet access? Would they even have cable TV in order to see these aired commercials?

So I read about the healthy people 2010 initiative, and their approach. They are working with the following to get the word out:

1- Community Initiatives
2- Collaboration with the private sector, health care groups, and insurance systems
3- Cooperations among policy makers to invest in disease prevention and health promotion
4- Health Promotion Programs to motivate and support responsible health choices
5- State and Federal policies that invest in the promise of prevention for all Americans.

Okay and ??? I have yet to find out what this means. What services they are providing.