Philadelphia Freedom

That’s what makes the report from Philadelphia so exciting. It’s the latest in a small but growing series of studies that point to the first signs of declining rates of obesity among children in places like New York City and California (2,3). In New York City, declines were seen citywide, but the largest changes were among white and Asian students, who already had the lowest rates (2). In California, the state had a significant overall decline, but progress was uneven. Although counties like Los Angeles, which had been at the forefront of making healthy changes, succeeded in reducing childhood obesity rates, more than half of the state’s counties showed continued increases (3).