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Health Leaders Meet to Finalize an Obesity Agenda
OAK LAWN, Ill. (AP) -- More than 150 Illinois policy-makers and health leaders are meeting all day Friday to finalize an agenda for battling obesity.

The Illinois Alliance to Prevent Obesity summit is at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. It follows a series of regional brainstorming forums held earlier this year across the state.

Alliance statistics show the challenge Illinois faces: 62 percent of Illinois adults are obese or overweight, and one in five children are obese. That's the fourth worse rate in the nation.

The summit aims to prioritize ways for stakeholders to combat the problem. These include promoting healthy eating in schools, senior centers and child-care settings, promoting safe and active transportation, and increasing access to retailers who sell healthy and affordable food.

Elissa Bassler of the Illinois Public Health Institute says the goal is to reverse rising obesity rates within the next seven years.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
12 03 10 by Newsroom
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