White House takes aim at obesity

Friday, March 12, 2004 Posted: 5:21 PM EST (2221 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/diet...aign/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration Friday announced a campaign to combat the epidemic of obesity in the United States through improved product labels, health education, and a partnership with restaurants to help steer people toward healthier menu choices.

"It reflects our commitment to reversing this tragic obesity trend, in which far too many Americans are literally eating themselves to death," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said at a news conference unveiling the campaign.

Thompson's comments were timed with a report from the Obesity Working Group of the Food and Drug Administration, stressing a theme of "calories count."

The FDA, in accepting the group's recommendations, plans to take a variety of actions in response.

They include:

Reviewing the dietary information panel on packaged food products to underscore the estimated calories in a serving;

Defining what it means when a product is described as being "low," "reduced" or "free" in carbohydrates;

Encouraging restaurants to include and emphasize nutritional information;

Boosting research into obesity and the development of healthier foods.

In a written statement, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, commended the effort, but said it falls short.

"More aggressive steps to curb obesity and give consumers the tools to make healthy decisions are necessary to address this growing crisis," he said.

Harkin called on Thompson to support his efforts to require that restaurant chains publish the nutritional information of their food and to give the Federal Trade Commission authority over marketing of "junk food" to children.

Federal figures released this week showed that poor diet -- including obesity and physical inactivity -- is fast approaching tobacco as the top underlying preventable cause of death.

Researchers looking at data from 2000 found that obesity caused 400,000 U.S. deaths -- more than 16 percent of all deaths. Obesity and inactivity contribute to the risks for some of the top killers: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 64 percent of adults are obese or overweight. Even more alarming, officials say the number of overweight and obese youth has nearly doubled in the past two decades, and data suggests the levels are still on the rise.

That's all dandy and well, but the White House didn't approve the WHO recommendation that sugar should be kept at less than 10% of the diet.

Thsi sounds like a PR stunt to me.

This does not sound normal to me since the FDA officially believes that the more the carbs the better the food is.

I think this nation should agree upon what causes obesity and what does not before taking any action.

...to give the Federal Trade Commission authority over marketing of "junk food" to children.

I hope they don't spend my federal dollars for this. Children don't buy groceries, adults do. They would be better off spending this money to revise the food pyramid to reflect fewer carbs and more fat. Once the food pyramid is updated, all those manufacturers would eventually start following it.

Perhaps not for the household, but children (and teens) spend a great deal of their allowance money on junk foods via vending machines and the corner store as well as pestering their parents to distraction to buy them the latest and greatest "treat" they just saw on a commercial watching TV.
Without getting into an off-topic discussion about who should be making the dietary decisions for the family, I know a lot of parents who pretty much let their kids pick whatever they want in their lunch box. Guess what their kids are choosing?

Why is it parents find it so difficult to say no to their kids about twinkies, yet expect kids to just say "no" to drugs?
If parents are letting kids dictate how the household is ran, weight issues are the least of our worries. No federal program is going to substitute for a parents willingness to actually parent.

We don't need a revised food pyramid to get manufacturers to change. Companies will make what people buy, we have already seen a huge market developing for low carb products (some unfortunately of questionable merit). I don't think we can count on the government to dictate a healthy diet. We know what works for us, and we can determine what products are available by using the influence of our wallets.