Tulare County childhood obesity rates rise

A 30-year trend in increasing childhood obesity rates in California may be leveling off, but rates are still three times higher among 12- to 19-year-olds and four times higher among 6- to 11-year-olds than they were in the 1970s, according to a report released Nov. 9 by the California Center of Public Health Advocacy and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. At the same time, improvements are not being seen evenly throughout the state, with 31 of California’s 58 counties experiencing an increase in childhood overweight over the five-year period from 2005 to 2010.

Tulare County was one of the 31 to see obesity and overweight rates climb in the last five years, according to an article in the Visalia Times-Delta. The rate of childhood obesity in Tulare County is close to 44 percent. Cathi Lamp, a nutritionist with UC Cooperative Extension, outlined UCCE's efforts to turn the tide. She said UC works with local school districts on curriculum for teachers that encourages healthful eating and obesity prevention.

"We reach thousands of families each year," Lamp said.

Riverside officials spray for Asian citrus psyllid
Janet Zimmerman, Riverside Press-Enterprise

Recent discoveries in Riverside of Asian citrus psyllids - which can carry bacteria that have devastated crops in Florida, Mexico and other countries - prompted a round of residential spraying that could be expanded, officials with the California Department of Food and Agriculture said.

The spraying started in October and is expected to continue through Nov. 17. State crews applied insecticide to residential citrus trees in an area bounded by Chicago Avenue on the west, Chapala Drive on the east, La Conte Drive near UC Riverside on the north and Central Avenue to the south.