New Foundation Tackles Childhood Obesity
23 October 2006 at 1:10 pm
A National body supported by Children’s Hospitals throughout Australia has been launched to battle the childhood obesity crisis.
The Playing Healthy Foundation, a bipartisan Not for Profit organisation, aims to provide practical solutions to address obesity in young Australians.
The Foundation aims to educate children as well as parents and to raise funds to support ongoing research and programs fighting obesity throughout Australia.
Dr Michael Brydon, Director of Playing Healthy Foundation and the Director of Clinical Operations Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick says the Foundation will work with leading organisations and individuals who have a stake in the health and well-being of young Australians to fight for change.
He says the organisations wants to work with business and with existing groups to find practical solutions to the obesity epidemic.
The Foundation will also announce a range of projects to help educate and inform Australians, both children and adults and to advocate for societal change and facilitate the best research on this topic.
Some of the projects outlined are
– A food mark to help educate Australians around energy intake and energy output
– A school-based control trial, leading to a national schools program to increase activity and education on nutrition for Australian school children. and
– National fundraising initiatives to help raise funds for ongoing research into the obesity issue.
A website is under construction however an initial site is operating at www.playinghealthyfoundation.com.
