Truth be told, we are not exactly sure what a "fryolator" is, but it's probably a good thing that the Somerville, Mass high school no longer has one.

With bike lanes and pedestrian crosswalks on its streets, healthful food in its school cafeterias, and cheap salsa classes offered by its recreation department, Somerville has become a model "Fit City." Healthy policy, the town has found, creates healthier people, and other communities are paying attention, the Boston Globe reported this week.

Five years after the Boston suburb embarked on an ambitious collaboration with Tufts University called Shape Up Somerville to see whether systemic changes that encourage healthy eating and physical activity would help children stave off obesity, 10 communities across the country have begun testing whether they can replicate Somerville's success. In a separate initiative, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation plans today to name Somerville one of nine "leading sites" for a $44 million "Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities" program that will spread to 70 communities. The state expects to launch a wellness program informed by innovations in Somerville and elsewhere.

Businesses promote wellness, city workers join gyms, farmers can sell at a local market, schools not only serve healthier food, some of them even have their own gardens. Eight year olds gained one pound less during a school year than counterparts in a control group—and if that doesn't sound like a lot, nutritionists think the impact is significant in a community where 44 percent of children are overweight or at risk of being overweight. Think of it as a 16 ounces of prevention. It's reflected in adult behavior as well. At City Hall, the newspaper reported, climbing stairs instead of taking the elevator is a fad. And it's free.

Healthy living doesn't mean we don't need a sound and solid health care system, but ideally they do go hand in hand. So we're all for a population with more bike-riding, vegetable-eating, salsa-dancing insured people, without the fryolators.