Percent drop in the rate of obesity in New York City’s kindergarten through eighth graders, from 21.9% in 2006-07 to 20.7% in 2010-11. Nationwide, rates of child obesity are either plateauing or rising slightly. New York’s health commissioner Dr. Thomas A. Farley attributed the city’s improvements in part to ad campaigns against sugary sodas, efforts to increase exercise and reduce screen time in day care centers and schools, healthy changes to school cafeteria food and nutritional restrictions on school vending machine items. [via CDC]
