US town goes on diet to fight childhood obesity

FIGHTING OBESITY: Restaurants in Massachusetts offered healthier foods and smaller portions.

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New Delhi: Imagine an entire community deciding to eat better and live healthier. That's what one town in Massachusetts decided to do, in order to fight childhood obesity. Doctor Sanjay Gupta has a look at the city that went on a diet.

Somerville, Massachusetts’s population, 77-thousand people. It's a modern day town with modern day problems including surging rates of obesity.

Massachusetts Mayor, Somerville Joe Curtatone says, “A third of our population is foreign born so we have our challenges and we don't have a lot of land area. So we have to be very strategic on how we encourage active living."

Four years ago, tufts university nutritionists along with city officials put the community on a diet, to help its citizens, especially children, keep their weight down.

Restaurants offered healthier foods and smaller portions. Bike paths were upgraded and school menus added more fruits and vegetables. People were encouraged to walk or bike to work. Kids, like Jonathan Lentini, (len-tee-nee) were told to get out and play and watch what they ate.

A student of Somerville Jonathan Lentini says, “Like what do I think is really good and if it's healthy or not."

And it worked. After studying almost 17-hundred Somerville elementary school kids over a year, researchers discovered children in this Boston Burb gained weight at a healthy rate while youngsters their age in two nearby town gained more.

Since the study ended, the city has kept up its healthy attitude. Researchers feel if other communities follow the same steps as Somerville, they too, could help their future generations avoid the obesity epidemic.