Shaquille O’Neal, the colorful center for the Miami Heat, has taken on the child obesity crisis with his own reality TV show “Shaq’s Big Family Challenge.” Reminiscent of “the Biggest Loser” for kids, Shaq guides 9 Florida kids on a 9 month program to lose weight through exercise and diet.

To help the kids accomplish their weight loss goals, Shaq has assembled his own “dream team”including: his own physician and trainer, Dr. Carlon “Doc” Colker, M.D.; personal trainer Tarik Tyler; nutritionist Joy Bauer; childhood obesity expert Dr. William Muinos, M.D. from Miami Children’s Hospital; Food Network celebrity chef Tyler Florence; and his college coach from Louisiana State University, Dale Brown. Shaq aptly points out that fewer schools are requiring mandatory PE. Combined with the poor dietary choices available at school and it’s little wonder that one third of children and teens in the US are classified as overweight or obese.

I remember standing in lunch line back in high school, waiting to be served grey colored peas and burger patties floating in water with globules of fat. Hey it was food and I was hungry so I ate it. Attending NYC public schools, you quickly became aware that lunch was about convenience and not nutrition. It doesn’t look like things have changed much. Check out the daily lunch fare at Cohoes high school in New York below, for example. I am sure this is fairly typical of most schools.

PIZZA
HAMBURGER/BUN w/TRIMMINGS
CHEF SALAD/ROLL
CHICKEN
CHOICE OF SANDWICH
NACHO SUPREME

But I digress.  Weighing in at a reported 325 lbs and standing 7 foot 1 inches, it’s somewhat ironic that Shaq has got his own weight loss show considering that he himself is classified as “obese.” It looks like Shaq could also use the help of his own Dream Team…