President Bush and childhood obesity

The President and Mrs. Bush met with corporate leaders about the “childhood obesity epidemic” on February 1, 2007.

David Kessler, a former FDA commissioner, applauded the meeting but said: “That still leaves the question of what to do. Talking about it is a first step. It is a very large public health challenge, the consequences of which we have only begun to understand.”

Exactly.

I would guess that every person in the U.S. is aware of the increasing incidence of overweight and obesity among our nation’s youth. How could they not be with all the media attention on this issue?

So, awareness isn’t the issue — the issue is figuring out what to do about it. In fact, the President said, “We believe it is necessary to come up with a coherent strategy to help folks all throughout our country cope with the issue.”

This meeting — like all other public policy meeting I’ve read about — stressed the importance of two things:
* Healthful eating
* Physical fitness

The problem is that there’s no evidence “unhealthy eating” and decreased physical activity has caused the problem — or is there any evidence that healthy eating and increased physical activity will solve it.

In fact, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent trying to promote healthful eating and increased physical activity and the problem just keeps getting worse.

In a press release distributed in conjunction with the meeting, all the programs the federal government is implementing to fight obesity were listed — at a total cost of $600 million dollars!

Wait a minute! We’re spending $600 million dollars at the federal level and probably an equivelent amount at the state, community and school level to fight obesity, with NO POSITIVE RESULTS! Don’t you think that would prompt someone to question the value of what the money is being spent on?

But, for some reason it doesn’t.

When are we going to get serious and settle on the real cause of the “obesity epidemic” so we can work on real solutions?

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of The Straight Scoop About Childhood Obesity