Obesity has been declared a national epidemic in America. What was once considered an issue among adults has sadly transcended to our youth. African-Americans have the highest obesity rates (plump determined by a high Body Mass Index) in the nation and the same is true for our children.

According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, one out of every six children is obese in America and blacks and Hispanics are at the greatest risk. Among Hispanics, boys are more likely to be obese than girls, while black girls are more likely to be obese than black boys. The U.S. Department of Health contends that an obese child has a 70% chance in becoming an obese adult. Recently the National Institute of Health and the National Council of Negro Women teamed up in Maryland for a day-long training for children ages 11-13 along with their parents called We Can! The program's mission was to educate children and their parents about fast food media messages and improve their daily nutrition.

Black Voices spoke with the President of the National Council of Negro Women, Dr. Dorothy Height, about the importance of nutritional awareness in the black community.

It's a problem because parents are not looking at the diets that they have for their children. Children eat a great many of these fast foods as well as a lot of fried foods. What we hope to do is to help them get a picture of the reality of what it adds up to. The media often has good advertising and makes people follow the advertising. We're trying to help, through our program, people to become media smart so that they will look to see what's included in whatever is being projected.

What are some things you feel contribute to obesity among African-Americans?Well we have soul food and many people eat that with a lot of grease and we're trying to help them understand that you can get good tasting food without those things that contribute to obesity. As children are growing up we have to learn that we set their taste when we give them things that have too much sugar and added ingredients and we have to learn how to deal with things that have low plumps and low salt and so on. That's what I think this program will do.

Well I think it's something that we need to take on. This is a problem that affects our families and what we hope to do through this major campaign on child obesity is raise awareness because we feel that many parents unwillingly allow their children to eat things that are over and above what they should have and consume more than they need.

It's really nationwide and I think part of it is related to the levels of poverty as well. I think many people eat what they think they can buy. We want them to understand that they can use those same dollars or pennies to get something that is healthy.

The national institute of health is training a group of leaders that come from 30 communities across the country. We will have clusters of groups who come to those sessions and they get trained for a day and go back to their community and work with parents and children. Even in our schools we have these vendor machines that often have things not good for children. So we're going to do an intensive campaign that not only helps us be aware but also awaken to how it is we can help children learn what to do and eat to have over all good health. We also want to encourage good exercise. (From AOL BlackVoices)