SAN DIEGO, Sept. 30, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Council on Exercise (ACE) issued the following statement in response to The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America 2015 report, released last week by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The annual report is one of the most widely read and referenced documents on the current state of the obesity epidemic in the United States.
"We wholeheartedly agree with and support the report's call to place a higher priority on, and increased investment in, both policies and programs that give children the tools to grow up at a healthy weight and that offer support to adults to live their healthiest lives," said ACE President and CEO Scott Goudeseune. "The report aligns directly with ACE's vision, which calls for an environment where people have been educated, empowered and granted the access they need to be physically active and committed to making healthy lifestyle choices."
Goudeseune added, "We were thrilled to see the report outline several critical needs around physical activity including a call for increased utilization of available preventive health services and community resources, and to find better ways to integrate healthcare with community-based programs and services to allow the healthy choice to be the easy and smart choice. Additionally, we were pleased to see emphasis placed on targeting intensive efforts in areas of marked inequities."
ACE is leading the charge to enable fitness professionals and health coaches to become a more integral part of the healthcare team and serve as the link between the clinic and the community. ACE is an advocate before state and federal governments and to the healthcare system to extend physical activity-based prevention programming beyond the clinic to the places where people live, work and play.
ACE offers leading-edge education and certification programs to professionals seeking to provide behavior intervention services that support active, healthy lifestyles directly in the community. ACE's Health Coaches, Behavior Change and Medical Exercise Specialists are uniquely positioned to be a part of the solution by keeping people out of doctor's office and helping them make healthy choices and physical activity a habit.
For a full copy of The State of the Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America 2015 report click here.
For more information about ACE's Behavior Change Specialist, Health Coach and Medical Exercise Specialist certifications click here.
About ACE
The nonprofit organization American Council on Exercise (ACE) educates, certifies and represents more than 58,000 currently certified fitness professionals, health coaches and other allied health professionals. ACE advocates for a new intersection of fitness and healthcare, bringing the highly qualified professionals ACE represents into the healthcare continuum so they can contribute to the national solution to physical inactivity and obesity. ACE is the largest certifier in its space and all four of its primary certification programs are accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), the gold standard in the United States for accreditation of certifications that assess professional competence. ACE also plays an important public-service role, conducting and providing science-based research and resources on safe and effective physical activity and sustainable behavior change. For more information, call 800-825-3636 or visit ACEfitness.org. AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EXERCISE, ACE and ACE logos are Registered Trademarks of the American Council on Exercise.