We've combed through a lot of data these past couple of months to take a closer look at obesity in the Tri-States.

Wednesday we focused on Southeast Iowa.

This is what we found -- 23.2% of Lee County residents are obese, compared to the Iowa state average of 22.5%.

37.8% of Lee County residents are overweight, which is just half a percentage point up from the state average.

Keep in mind, these numbers are based on 2001 data.

But the obesity and overweight percentages have continued to climb throughout the country the past 10 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It appears that Lee County residents want to lower those statistics.

The Lee County Health Department conducted a community assessment last year to find out what residents wanted to focus on to improve their health.

"The assessment just asked people for their opinions on what issues they wanted to see improvement on or what they thought Lee County needed to focus on and one of those were obesity rates and making healthier lifestyles," says Emily Carrick with the Health Dept.

The Health Department has implemented a new progrom to make that happen.

Central Lee first graders carry out what they call their "morning wakeup routine." It's a jumpstart to their day to get their bodies pumping and their brains ready for the classroom.

Rajah: How do you feel?

"Great!" says one student

Rajah: What are you doing to do now?

"Learning!"

This is just one component of the CATCH program the Lee County Health Department has implemented in two school districts this year. CATCH stands for Coordinated Approach to Child Health. It incorporates healthy behaviors in the classroom, in physical education, in the cafeteria and at home.

"What we really liked about that program is that it had qualities in it that the teachers could incorporate into their everyday classroom activities. It also had allowed schools to look at the cafeteria, what they're serving for lunch, what they're doing for snacks for after school, what students are bringing in for snacks for birthdays."

Kids learn what they call the "go, slow and "whoa" foods. Go foods, for example, are raw vegetables; slow foods are perhaps cooked carrots that have butter on them and whoa foods have no valuable nutritional content.

"Last year from our results, we saw kids bringing in different snacks for their birthday treats. Instead of bringing the cupcakes, they were bringing in star fruit -- new things for the kids to try.///19:47:56 Last year when we incorporated the start of the program with 3rd graders, we saw an increase in the number of students being more involved with their parents and going to the grocery store more and helping them decide what they get to eat for dinner and snack."

CATCH also has a PE component, which is a physically active approach to make sure kids are moving. For example, in the old version of tag, kids sat out if they got tagged. In *this* version, the tagged student goes outside of the play zone, does jumping jacks, then comes back into the play zone to continue the game.

The Lee County Health Department also is starting the CATCH program in the Keokuk School District and hopes to see healthier choices spread throughout the county one body at a time.

The Lee County Health Department got money from the Iowa Department of Public Health to carry out CATCH.

For more information on the CATCH program, log on to http://www.catchinfo.org/