A group of about 40 San Joaquin County professionals meet regularly to share ideas and strategies for combating obesity and overweight, afflictions that effect the majority of the county's residents, according to an article in the Stockton Record.

UC Cooperative Extension advisor Anna Martin is the interim facilitator of the Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention Task Force, which first convened in August 2009. Other members of the task force represent health and human services agencies, hospitals, school districts, the County Office of Education, University of the Pacific, health insurers, collaboratives such as Healthy San Joaquin and Select San Joaquin, the regional air district, nonprofit agencies such as Community Partnership for Families of San Joaquin and Women, Infants and Children programs.

A recent meeting featured guest speaker Genoveva Islas-Hooker with the Fresno-based Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program.

She said that in many of the targeted neighborhoods where the obesity-prevention program is active, primarily in unincorporated rural areas, people cannot drink the water and have to turn to processed beverages.

"A 20-ounce bottle of water is $1.99 versus a 44-ounce sugar drink that costs 79 cents. We need to stop pushing soda consumption," she said.