Finally some help in Congress with pediatric obesity! And for physicians who treat adolescent and pediatric obesity: here is a state-of-the-art, up to date primer, for CME credit, good for a full year.

The Senate will discuss a real bill to change the environment in which kids eat…and federal help for schools and restaurants who want to offer better choices.

According to the Houston Post, “Senator Tom Harkin‚Äôs proposal would:
• Nutrition facts: Require chain restaurants to display the calories, sodium, fat, carbohydrates and trans-fat content of menu items.
• Monetary incentives: Provide federal grants and tax breaks for companies that give employees work-site health promotion programs such as health club memberships.
• USDA regulation: Empower the U.S. Department of Agriculture to regulate foods sold from vending machines or snack lines in schools that participate in the school lunch program.
• Ad regulation: Restore the Federal Trade Commission’s authority to regulate advertising to children, which Congress took away in 1980.
• Community incentives: Provide incentives for communities to include bike lanes and sidewalks when building new roads.
‚Ä¢ Fruits and vegatables: Expand a two-year pilot project in schools in four states ‚Äî Iowa, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan and on the Zuni Indian reservation in New Mexico ‚Äî that provides free fruit and vegetables as snacks for children.”

If you’re an adult and you want excellent, one-on-one advice–for you or your adolescent–you may not want to wait for this bill to pass. You would enjoy Dr. La Puma’s personal approach. Read about his nationally recognized success with nutrition and highly successful weight loss program, and how to lower cholesterol using food as medicine.