Santa Clara County Kicks Off Obesity Prevention Program

SANTA CLARA COUNTY (KCBS) – With summer right around the corner, Santa Clara County children are being asked to change their drinking habits from soda to water, all part of a county-wide anti-obesity effort.

And what better way to teach kids about steering away from sodas than with a story.

"Once upon a time, there was a little otter. His name was Potter and he loved to drink water," said Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib.

KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:

Fenstersheib was reading to a group of kids at Ryan Thomas Elementary School in San Jose on Thursday. There were also visual aids showing the huge amount of sugar in popular snack drinks.

Fenstersheib said sodas and other sugary drinks are a huge reason that obesity is such a problem among children.

"It's much easier and much healthier to drink water and you don't get all that sugar," he said. "Then you don't have that risk of gaining all that weight and all the problems that ensue later on in life."

The anti-obesity campaign is sponsored by First 5 California and Kaiser Permanente.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)