“If a child eats a fast-food cheeseburger and french fries with a 20 ounce soda for lunch, he would need to run for 3.5 hours to burn off the calories from that meal,” said Dr. Denise Wilfley, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University. “The rate of obesity in children has more than tripled in the past 30 years.”

We live in the most obese country in the world. Our own state, Missouri, has the 12th highest rate of adult obesity in the country, and the 23rd highest rate of childhood obesity. Here in St. Louis, the rates are lower, but we are not separate from our overweight culture.

“The most effective strategy [to fight obesity] is to create environments where the easy choice is the healthy choice,” said Dr. Wilfley. “By setting up healthy resources across all areas of our lives, we can have an impact on obesity.”

And there are organizations all over St. Louis doing just that.

Operation Food Search, a local nonprofit food bank, is stepping beyond just supplying food to the hungry. They are working to teach people how to eat more healthily through hands-on experience.

“I think that the beauty of our programs versus other nutrition education programs is that really all of our programs are very hands-on, active learning,” said Leslie Bertsch, the nutrition education director for Operation Food Search.

The food bank offers programs such as Cooking Matters, which is a 6-week cooking class in which low-income families can learn how to prepare more nutritional meals on a limited budget. They also have a Shopping Matters class, which involves a grocery store tour teaching adults what and what not to buy. In addition, there are one-time cooking classes.

However, nutrition is not the only factor in staying healthy.

10 years ago, Clayton parent Jill Indovino brought Girls on the Run to St. Louis.  What started out as a program for 20 girls now involves 3,600 girls across 19 St. Louis counties, and it’s growing quickly.  The program is designed for girls in 3rd-8th grade, and is a 10 week course that not only involves training for a 5K run, but helps to teach healthy body image.

“There were just tremendous increases in self- esteem, in body self image, in commitment to physical activity,” said Executive Director Courtney Berg, about a survey given to girls who had completed the program.

Girls on the Run may not be a program designed to fight obesity, but it does teach girls who are at risk about keeping their bodies healthy through exercise, and the lessons in the program teach healthy decision-making.

“St. Louis knows this is a challenge we’re facing and that we need to do something about it,” said Berg.

In today’s culture, where plenty of unhealthy food is constantly available for a low cost, it’s not hard to consume more calories than you can burn. However, this extra consumption can lead to obesity, and even diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It can be prevented, though, and Operation Food Search and Girls on the Run are just two of the many programs working to make a dent in the problem.

“I don’t think we’re really even close to scratching the surface as to what the main cause of obesity is,” said Bertsch. “[Staying healthy] does take work and lots of small changes at a time, and Operation Food Search is trying to do its part in helping.”

It doesn’t take a large- scale program across the city for you to make a difference, though.

“There is a lot we can do as a community in St. Louis to help promote healthy weight,” said Dr. Wilfley. “You can encourage family members and friends, not only with your words, but also with your actions… get involved with community activities that establish regular patterns of healthy eating and activity.”