Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Obesity Warning Gets Legs
School nutrition/wellness policies must be in place in June

April 25, 2006
Contact:G.F. Proud Publicity
631-323-3523

It's been more than five years since the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher issued his warming about American obesity. Slowly but surely the message is getting through. Several news publications, print and electronic, have picked up the story and run with it recently, even treated it in a series articles and with front-page headlines. The facts are, according to national health authorities, that 63% of Americans are overweight and/or obese. The measure is taken in the Body Mass Index formula: a calculation of one's weight in pounds, divided by the square of one's height in inches, multiplied by 706. If the result is a number between 25 and 30, you are overweight; if 30+, you are, by this standard, obese. (Use the calculator at http://nhlbisupport.com/bmi/)

There have been questions raised about the BMI. One critic pointed out that by this formula Michael Jordan would have been considered obese at the height of his career. But you can make practical use of the BMI for your personal health maintenance; and discipline yourself by smart dieting and regular exercise to keep that number below 25. If your situation is extreme (A BMI over 40 is morbid obesity.), seek professional counsel, starting with your family physician.

Despite the proliferation of diet plans, diet books, diet pills everywhere you look, the only cure for overweight and obesity is proper diet and exercise. Obesity among the young is the most scandalous aspect of the problem and portends the direst future consequences. Since the Surgeon General's report was published nationwide obesity among children and teenagers has risen from 14% to 17%. The report urges parents to not only to follow dietary principles and prepare nutritional menus for their children, but also to be models in healthy eating and exercise habits. It calls specifically for the prohibition of vending machines in school food areas and for fostering in the schools an atmosphere of awareness of good health that comes through proper diet and regular physical exercise.

Belatedly following up the Surgeon General's obesity report, the Congress enacted legislation in 2004 requiring that beginning the 2006 fall school term, schools must have in place a wellness policy that (1) sets goals for nutrition education and physical activity, (2) establishes nutritional guidelines for all food available in the school, (3) sets up a means of measuring the effectiveness of the wellness policy, including a staff person or persons responsible for seeing that the policy is carried out; and (4) involvement of parents, board, administration and public in development of the policy.

In my practice as a cardiovascular specialist, I have focused on the root causes of heart attacks and strokes and obesity, including continuing efforts at educating the public on the disciplines of prevention. We've known for more than 50 years that the risk factors for heart disease begin to develop as early as the teens - a fact established in the 1993 "landmark" study of Korean War soldiers. Prevention must begin at an early age. I've heard of school districts measures the BMI of students. Not a bad idea.