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Fight Against Childhood Obesity Making Strides

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A plan to fight childhood obesity may be making some inroads, thanks to a companies that package food and consumers who buy it.

No one is declaring victory over childhood obesity but a promise made to First Lady Michelle Obama back in 2010 by a coalition of food companies has resulted in the average person consuming 78 fewer calories per day. That's a lot better than expected at this point but still short of the eventual goal.

Registered dietician David Grotto, speaking for the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation says,"They either took existing favorites and reduced the portion size or they took the recipe for those traditional favorites, tweaked them a little bit to be less in sugar, less in fat to reduce calories or they've introduced brand-new products in the marketplace."

Clearly, there are other challenges, especially when more is more, "What we've had problems with in this country is portion distortion. We've got to be able to have a reasonable amount of food. You know, I'm 6'4", 220 pounds. I'm a tall guy and I want to make sure I leave that table fully satisfied. Well, there are strategies where you can fill up the plate with a lot of fruits and vegetables which are voluminous but they don't have a heck of a lot of calories."

Grotto says consumers have provided the other half of their equation by buying in to the push to eat what they want, just less of it. He says, add exercise to that, and it's a formula for fitness.

For more information, visit: http://www.togethercounts.com/

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