By comparison, it makes leaping tall buildings in a single bound seem easy. Superman is embarking on his greatest challenge yet—convincing toddlers to eat more vegetables. It’s the latest in a series of in-store marketing events created by the Produce for Better Health Foundation and Wal-Mart to encourage healthy eating and prevent childhood obesity.

Superhero-driven “retail-tainment” is a promising idea, and it’s just one of dozens identified by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in their report, Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?

The answer is that while we are moving in the right direction, too many of our kids are still over-sized, while our efforts to improve their health are still under-sized. 

Nationally, rates of childhood obesity have quadrupled in recent decades, and related health care costs for kids are estimated at $14 billion annually. Faced with this staggering health and economic burden, states across the nation are coming up with ways to fight back.

But will they succeed?  We won’t know unless we can measure the results.  “Superman says eat your veggies” may be good marketing, but the Wal-Mart program lacks the critical evaluation piece – a design error repeated by many similarly innovative programs.  

Without data that tells us what works, policymakers searching for national solutions have no way to separate hype from home runs.  As a result, quietly promising practices may be eclipsed by high-profile programs that are loaded with whistles and bells, but yield few results.

The latest IOM obesity report was commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to make sure the IOM’s 2004 action plan on preventing childhood obesity didn’t end up gathering dust on a bookshelf like so many other congressionally mandated reports.

The IOM follow-up spotlights programs that demonstrate real value.  For example, as part of a statewide childhood obesity prevention program launched three years ago, Arkansas blocked student access to vending machines in elementary schools, pushed to make vigorous physical activity a daily part of school life, and in its most controversial move, required the annual measurement of public school students’ body mass indices (BMIs) and the confidential reporting of results to their parents.

The results have been swift and impressive. According to researchers, Arkansas has halted the progression of the childhood obesity epidemic—an enormous accomplishment considering that most states continue to lose ground. Future analyses will provide even more helpful details, such as identifying which approaches being tried in different schools are most effective in improving kids’ eating habits and physical activity levels. 

Evaluators credit Arkansas’ success, in part, to strong leadership at the state and local level. The legislature crafted a comprehensive law, and schools did much of the hardest work, including delivering BMI information to parents. Families shoulder the responsibility of discussing these reports with their health care providers and understanding how obesity risk affects their children’s lives.  The takeaway message is that, when everyone pitches in, children win.  

Superheroes may be able to save the day in the movies.  But to turn the tide of childhood obesity, we now know it will take the collective efforts of all those people who sway the attitudes and behavior of America’s youth: moms and dads; classmates and playmates; family doctors; schools and teachers; community, faith and government leaders; sports figures and entertainment celebrities; news media; business; and philanthropy.