Making Healthy Choices to Reduce Childhood Obesity: Community Capitals and Food and Fitness

Attention has shifted to environmental causes of health status, particularly obesity, now defined as a worldwide epidemic. Moving from medical and educational models of intervention, this approach focuses on how changes in the social and physical environment enhance families and individuals to make health choices. Using illustrations from current intervention programs, we demonstrate how a community capitals approach can help identify what is in place to enable healthy food and exercise choices, and how those assets can be used to empower families and individuals to take conscious actions to improve their health and quality of life.