Overweight pregnant women are more likely to have obese kids, research shows. And focusing on the 1 or 2 pounds a typical American gains every year is more effective than tackling aggressive weight loss.
But getting those messages — the kind coming straight out of labs at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus — to the community is another matter.
“Typically, researchers will do a study, write a paper, and then they’re done,” said Dr. James Hill, who will direct a new center for health and wellness at CU’s medical campus. “Let’s put it into practice.”
The university is about to begin construction of the health and wellness center. which will have a gym — oddly, the first fitness center at the sprawling campus in Aurora — a kitchen for nutrition training and even a model grocery store where the public can learn how to shop for healthier food.
The center’s community connection will range from signing people up for free research studies and education courses, to providing — for a price — personal trainers and chefs. University leaders expect it could become something like a Canyon Ranch wellness retreat — a sort of academic, science-based boot camp for health.
“This is a building where the doors are going to be open to the community,” said Hill, a medical-school pediatrics professor who has dreamed of opening such a place for at least the last decade. “Let us teach you a lifestyle that you can actually keep forever.”
Colorado is the leanest state in the nation, yet 19 percent of adults and 14 percent of children in this state are obese. Obesity has increased every year in every state since the nation began keeping records in the 1980s.
In Mississippi, the fattest state, change “almost might be hopeless,” Hill said. But Colorado still has a chance.
“If we are going to turn it around, it should be easier to do in Colorado than anywhere else,” Hill said. “If all adults in Colorado weighed the same in a year as they do now, it would be one of the greatest success stories.”
The center is already operating, but the 25 or so researchers who are part of it are scattered across campus. Several of their ongoing studies involve guiding participants to eat healthier and exercise more.
Among those who responded to a university ad for help with weight loss was Rachel Henrichs, a Parker woman worried about her 9-year-old daughter’s weight. The Henrichs family now wears pedometers, which they plunk down on the kitchen counter every night at 8 for the day’s official recording.
At first, Morgan, a fourth- grader, was logging less than a mile a day. Now, on her best days, she records 9,000 steps — more than 4 miles.
Mom feels “judged”
Henrichs, who would like to drop a dress size herself, said she feels responsible for her daughter’s chunkiness. “I’m the one that goes to the grocery store,” Henrichs said. “I’m the one that allows her to eat in front of the TV. I’m the one that allows her to have fast food. It’s embarrassing for me to own up to those things. I feel like I’m being judged — and maybe rightfully I should be.”
The university study gave her the nudge she needed to make a few lifestyle changes, like no more sodas for her family and instituting after-dinner walks along the trails near their home.
In addition to research studies, the center has partnered with Aurora and Cherry Creek school districts to improve food choices and add more physical activity to the school day. The center will help the schools find the intersection between a healthy meal and what kids will eat, Hill said. Researchers also are suggesting kids do jumping jacks while saying their multiplication tables, for example.
CU is spending $40 million to build the 93,000-square- foot center, including a $15 million grant from Philip Anschutz, for whom the entire medical campus is named. Leaders envision Denver becoming “the Silicon Valley of health and wellness” with startup nutrition and exercise companies surrounding the new center.
The building is expected to open in 2012. Soon after, Hill hopes Colorado will have captured the “brand” of the healthiest state in America.
And he’s looking forward to picking fresh tomatoes from the building’s rooftop garden for his sandwiches.
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com
