AMA supports requiring obesity education for kids

CHICAGO - The American Medical Association last week put its weight behind requiring yearly instruction aimed at preventing obesity for public schoolchildren and teens.

The nation's largest physicians group agreed to support legislation that would require classes in causes, consequences and prevention of obesity for first- through 12th-graders. Doctors will be encouraged to volunteer their time to help with that under the new policy adopted on the final day of the AMA's annual policymaking meeting.

Another new policy adopted states the AMA supports the idea of using revenue from taxes on sugar-sweetened sodas as one way to help pay for obesity-fighting programs. But the group stopped short of fully endorsing such taxes.

Some doctors think soda taxes would disproportionately hurt the poor. Others said taxes shouldn't be used to force people to make healthful decisions they should be making on their own.

"I can't tell you the number of 40-pound 1-year-olds I see every day," Dr. Melissa Garretson, a Stephensville, Texas, pediatrician, told the delegates . She said requiring obesity education "is a great idea."

Obesity affects more than one-third of U.S. adults and almost one in five children, or more than 12 million kids.