Hardly a week goes by in which the Enquirer does not carry stories on children's fitness, weight or nutrition. Most of the news is, to put it mildly, highly unsettling.
It is also oddly unfamiliar. Most adults didn't grow up in a world drowning in fast food or dominated by entertainment technology. We didn't know what glucose counts were, nor certainly gastric bypass. Now many children know those terms all too well.
Back when we were 10, we would have thought it especially strange to think of an adult having to beg us to go out and play, or organize that play, or drive us to and from it in a minivan. We were often our own transportation, and our own entertainment as well, and nothing entertained us more than being physical.
But the news stories we run on children's health paint a very different picture of American childhood.
It is increasingly an indoor life, a life of small muscles, like those used to work GameBoys, and mental exertion rather than the big muscles and heart-thumping motion that propelled us across open lots, which incidentally are fast disappearing. The fast food that was for us a weekend treat has become our children's standard fare, and even "home-cooked meals" today are ready in the moments it takes to move between the freezer and the microwave.
Like you at home, we at the Enquirer have watched this social change with grave concern. All of us see the toll this busy but sedentary, overprocessed life is taking. Today's children are facing diseases that for centuries were known only to adults. As local cardiologist Dr. Stephen Daniels says in our main story, physical exertion is no longer viewed as fun by kids, and some will take pains to avoid it.
It's not that they have lost their taste for what is fresh and natural to eat, or their desire for running, leaping, moving. It is, tragically, that they have never developed those tastes in the first place.
At some point, as we read and wrote and reported this news, our editorial staff decided it wasn't enough to simply recount it. We had to do something about it. And the more we read and discussed and considered, the more we realized that something can be done.
The plague of overweight and unfitness largely came upon us in two decades. It is a big health threat that is formed by deceptively small decisions - the 100 extra calories daily that lead to 10 extra pounds each year, or the three hours of nightly TV that keeps kids sitting 90 hours each month.
But, conversely, small acts can be part of a big solution.
Our core message in "Healthy Children, Healthy Future," our five-part series that begins today, is that everyone can do something to address childhood obesity, poor nutrition and lack of fitness. Indeed, critical mass is part of the solution.
And so we are calling on parents and kids to pick a few simple actions and to pledge to do them steadily. Fit in 20 minutes of physical activity most nights. Make a fresh, homemade salad every time you get takeout pizza. Every other week, substitute bowling or bike riding or rollerblading for the Friday night video rental. Reverse the trends that make kids unhealthy.
But we know that families alone cannot counter this threat. Our "Join Up" pledge is also meant for city councils, state departments of education, restaurants, local recreation departments, school cafeterias and local businesses. All can, and must, join this effort.
We'd like to see visionary restaurants offer kids fresh fruit and whole-grain breads instead of chicken fingers and white-flour pasta. We'll applaud communities that hold bicycle safety courses or set aside money for sidewalks. We hope both Ohio and Kentucky will require more physical education in schools.
As you can sense, this is a very personal campaign for me. As a mom, I'm convinced that our children are far more likely to be harmed by these poor health habits than by the terrorist acts and global threats that now consume us. So my family and I are committing to three actions: making Tuesday a TV-free physical activity night; eating lighter dinners with more vegetables and less fat; and lobbying our community, Montgomery, to identify three pleasant walking routes and designate one evening as our community's "walking night."
I believe you, our readers, care about this issue as much as we here at the Enquirer do. We look forward to joining you in this effort to take care of our kids.
Krista Ramsey is an editorial writer at the Enquirer. Call her at (513) 768-8527. Write to her at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. E-mail kramsey@enquirer.
