Amsterdamâs Healthy Weight Programme aims for all children to have a healthy upbringing
âIt is often easier to have an unhealthy snack or food moment than it is to have a healthy food moment,â says Karen den Hertog, program manager of the Amsterdam Healthy Weight Programme (AHWP).
In 2012, 21% of young people aged zero to 19, in Amsterdam were overweight or obese. The problem was especially visible in children from low earning and immigrant households. âWe [have seen] that number lower to 18 percent. So, thatâs a reduction from 21 to 18 percent and the difference in the numbers is even bigger among the families with the low and the extreme low socioeconomic status,â den Hertog says.
Den Hertog has run the program on three key messages: active behavior, food, and sleep. Success has not come without ruffling some feathers, however. Den Hertog says, âWe stopped the food industry [from] sponsoring sports events or handing out funding materials... we said âWe want to work together, but we want you to change something to the core of your entire enterprise... We canât have you subsidize sporting events anymore because no amount of sporting can help children trade off the calories they have just eaten or drunk'.â
She adds, âSo, food reformulation or from the package labeling to smaller portion sizes charged with marketing, if youâre willing to do stuff like that weâre willing to work with you⌠I mean itâs not very strange [to] actually say âI want you to work in the core of your business.ââ The program scored a significant win when one of the industryâs large retail chains in the country came on board.
Den Hertog reveals she has also faced pushback from her colleagues at various other city departments. She says, âItâs not that they donât want to help. But it is asking something different from them to include health in all their policies.â Citing the millions of tourists that visit Amsterdam annually, she says, âInventing policies to balance out the crowded city center is difficult as it is, let alone if you need to include health in there as well.â
So, how to do you gain the buy-in from colleagues? âYou need to adapt more to the language of the other policy departments,â one of her colleagues, Thomas de Jager (who is also attending the program) told her - a point she agrees with. Den Hertog says, âIt really takes time and shared language to actually understand each other really and to help each other.â
Asked about what a straightforward initiative if adopted in other cities can help reduce childhood obesity, Den Hertog refers to an often ignored message of her program: sleep.
âThe evidence of how important sleep is is incredible. If a child - and the same applies to us as adults, but we donât want to listen - doesnât sleep enough, so many hormones get upset... It is unhealthy [and] you become overweight and obese far more quickly than if you would sleep enough.
âItâs a very simple thing, and itâs of course very difficult because so many parents are struggling [with] multiple jobs, or they have poor living conditions with multiple children in one room, or they might live next to big roads or train tracks or [have] lots of light in the living room.
âWe should really take sleep as an essential thing as healthy food and [daily] physical activity.â
AHWP's Outputs and Results
The program Healthy Children, Healthy Weight is part of Salzburg Global's multi-year series Health and Health Care Innovation. This yearâs program is being held in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.